(Photo credit: Noma)

Saturday Night The Chicago Int’l Film Festival’s Black Perspective Program honored Actor Anthony Mackie with an Artistic Achievement Award. I was there to cover the event along with new S&A team members, Siobhan Leonard and Natalia Salazar (featured below). During our red carpet Q&A with Anthony, Natalia asked if he reads Shadow and Act…I can’t say that I wasn’t more than enthusiastic when he answered…you can hear me whooping in the background. I know, I’m all class! Check out some candids from the event and watch the full Q&A below…

CIFF – Black Perspectives Tribute with Anthony Mackie Interview from Siobhan Leonard on Vimeo.

Later at the after party, I spoke with Anthony [Mackie] about Shadow and Act. I thanked him for reading our blog and that I hope he will continue to do so; I also said that we look forward to covering his career in a positive way…he chuckled at that comment and I smiled. Overall, my impression of Anthony is that he is a very personable, polite, extremely funny and talented man. He was very approachable and took the time to pose for photos and speak with everyone that came over to him at the party. I had been impressed with his work before meeting him but now I can say I am impressed with him as a man. Stay tuned for my piece on the tribute itself, which was very entertaining and opened my eyes to things that I never knew about him before. In the meantime check out some photos I took from the Red Carpet…

Anthony answers questions from reporters about “the state of black film”

Caption this…

S&A correspondents Siobhan Leonard & Natalia Salazar