More intriguing black film festival news to report today, on the heels of the ABFF announcement this morning…

Highlights from the press release…

The Hollywood Black Film Festival has teamed up with the NASA Goddard to collaborate on an initiative that will provide screenwriters and emerging filmmakers from diverse communities with new resources to tell sci-fi stories that capture science facts resulting from NASA science missions.

The collaboration will also enlighten audiences on how NASA science programs, as well as the technology that enables the science, fulfill NASA and non-NASA needs, which are consistent with NASA’s central objectives.

“This agreement is a novel and fantastic opportunity for NASA Goddard to provide scientific expertise for future film and television projects,” said Dennis Small, Technology Transfer manager and NASA’s HBFF project manager at NASA Goddard, Greenbelt, Md.

“This program is an exciting extension of HBFF’s mission, which is to play an integral role in discovering and developing talented writers and filmmakers and bring them to the attention of the entertainment industry, media and public,” said Tanya Kersey, founder and executive director of HBFF. “This collaboration will afford us the opportunity to encourage emerging visionary screenwriting talent from diverse communities to create compelling science fiction projects within the frame of their own communities’ needs and issues.“

The partnership will allow filmmakers and screenwriters to interact with NASA Goddard subject matter experts on a non-interference basis.

For more information on NASA Goddard’s Innovative Partnerships Office, visit: http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/

For more information on the Hollywood Black Film Festival, visit: www.hbff.org, email: info@hbff.org

So, essentially, filmmakers pursuing science fiction film projects will be able to gain direct access to science fiction fact via NASA Goddard’s scientists and other experts, under this new initiative with HBFF, which would, hopefully, further encourage more black filmmakers to produce sci-fi projects.

Certainly something we’ll be paying attention to from here on, especially as conversations abound about black filmmakers broadening the genres in which they work/play in.