Producer and DV Republic founder Warrington Hudlin and film historian Ed Guerrero have joined the group of noted voices from film and entertainment slated to moderate in-depth filmmaker Q&A's at this year's New Voices in Black Cinema Festival. The Festival takes place at BAM Rose Cinemas and other locations in Brooklyn, NY, February 16 – 20.
Find profiles of the participants below. For tickets to the Festival screenings, visit BAM here.
Curtis Stephen
Journalist
Q&A Moderator, The Tested with filmmaker Russell Costanza and actors Aunjanue Ellis, Armando Riesco and Michael Morris
Screening Friday, Feb. 17 at 6:50pm
Curtis Stephen is a New York-based journalist whose work has appeared in Newsday, Newsweek and City Limits magazine. He has served as a correspondent with Newsweek and a media fellow with the Open Society Institute, where he wrote a series of magazine features on wrongful convictions. Stephen has appeared in Ebony Magazine, the New York Daily News and BBC Radio, and has won awards from the New York Association of Black Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists. He is also an assistant professor of journalism at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus. Stephen has reported from across the United States as well as India, Jamaica and England.
Leslie Fields-Cruz
VP Operations & Director of Programming, National Black Programming Consortium
Q&A Moderator, Sneaker Stories with filmmaker Katharina Weingartner
Screening Saturday, Feb. 18 at 2:00pm
Leslie Fields-Cruz coordinates and directs NBPC's development fund programs and supervises the acquisition, distribution and delivery of programs to the public television system. She has spent over ten years in the non-profit arts field, working primarily in independent media and youth theater. Leslie is a graduate of the New York Arts & Business Council's Arts Leadership Institute and holds an MA in Cinema Studies from New York University.
Ralph Scott
Filmmaker, Independent Film Promoter, Social Cinema
Q&A Moderator, From Fatherless to Fatherhood with filmmaker Kobie Brown
Screening Saturday, Feb. 18 at 4:30pm
After spending the better part of 18 years promoting independent films in various film festivals and a nationally broadcast short film showcase, Ralph Scott is currently working on his debut film, Barbasol – a father and son story that touches on Dementia and will be used to open up discussions about mental health and the father-and-son dynamic. His company, Social Cinema, is focused on exploiting films that speak to particular social issues. Scott is also in motion for the second year of ICMAS, Inner City Media Arts Summit, a one-day convention for inner city media artists.
Jozen Cummings
Writer, UntilIGetMarried.com
Q&A Moderator, Single Hills with filmmaker Wilkie Cornelius Jr.
Screening Saturday, Feb 18 at 6:50pm
Jozen Cummings has served as an editor at VIBE Magazine, XXL, and as a staff writer for The Huffington Post. His work on music, pop culture, race, and relationships has appeared in various publications, from The Wall Street Journal to Paper Magazine. He is the creator of "Until I Get Married," a popular blog which chronicles his up and down journey through bachelorhood. The blog has garnered features in Glamour.com, Essence Magazine, and The Washington Post, as well as three Black Weblog Awards in 2010 for best relationship blog, best personal blog, and best writing in a blog.
Ed Guerrero
Film Historian and Professor, New York University
Q&A Moderator, Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise & Fall of the Spook Who Sat by the Door with filmmakers Christine Acham and Clifford Ward
Screening Saturday, Feb. 18 at 9:30pm
Ed Guerrero is an Associate Professor of Cinema Studies and Africana Studies at New York University. He is the author of Framing Blackness and Do the Right Thing in the ‘Modern Classics’ series, as well as numerous book chapters on black cinema, its stars, culture and politics, essays and reviews for such journals as Sight & Sound, CINEASTE, Film Quarterly, Discourse, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Ethnic & Racial Studies and Callaloo. He has also served on numerous editorial, review and executive boards including Cinema Journal, African American Review, The American Studies Association, The Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress.
Keith Davis
Actor, Filmmaker, Adjunct Professor, New York University
Q&A Moderator, Shorts Program I: A Matter of Time with filmmakers Jerry LaMothe, Monique Walton, Raafi Rivero and Angela Tucker
Screening Sunday, Feb. 19 at 4:30pm
Keith Davis is currently developing his feature film debut, The American People, as a Directors Lab Fellow with the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program. As an actor, he has appeared in film and television, as well as on Broadway in “Julius Caesar” (Denzel Washington) and “Festen” (Julianna Margulies), and as an editor he has worked with acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee on several short projects, including a collaboration with Jay-Z and Rocawear clothing. Most recently he completed Maladies starring James Franco, Catherine Keener and David Strathairn. When he is not doing any of the above, he is working as an adjunct professor at New York University in both the undergraduate film program (film editing) and the graduate film program (directing actors).
Warrington Hudlin
Filmmaker, Community Organizer, Black Filmmaker Foundation, Cast & Crew of Color
Q&A Moderator, Love Jones with director Theodore Witcher
Screening Sunday, Feb. 19 at 6:50pm
Warrington Hudlin is a media community organizer, celebrated filmmaker, film curator, and producer. His creative work challenges the false dichotomy between social concerns and popular entertainment. Hudlin is best known as the producer of popular feature films, House Party, Boomerang, and Bebe's Kids. He is currently involved in both transmedia and disruptive media projects.
Charli Penn
Relationships Editor, Essence.com, Writer, Man, Wife & Dog
Q&A Moderator, Let’s Stay Together with filmmaker Joshua Bee Alafia
Screening Sunday, Feb. 19 at 9:30pm
Charli Penn is relationships Editor at ESSENCE.com by day. And the creator of popular marriage blog Man, Wife, and Dog, by night.
LaToya Drake
Consumer Advisor, On-Air Spokesperson, AOL
Q&A Moderator, In Our Heads About Our Hair with filmmaker Hemamset Angaza
Screening Monday, Feb 20 at 2:00pm
LaToya Drake is a tech-savvy industry insider with AOL who provides television and radio commentary on online, social media and pop culture trends bubbling up across the Web. She is an expert commentator who appears on a wide range of national and local programs including The TODAY Show, CBS Early Show, CNBC, CNN American Morning, CNN Headline News, FOX News (America Live and FOX Report with Shepard Smith), Good Day New York, CBS News and ABC News. LaToya is also an adjunct instructor at NYU where she teaches PR 2.0: Using Social Media Channels to Engage Customers and their Communities.
Marcus Littles
Consultant on Civic Engagement and Philanthropy, Founder, HeyLittleBrother.org
Panel Moderator, Shorts Program II: Growing Pains with filmmakers Kristina Thomas, Lena Waithe, Nicole Franklin, Kobie Brown and Rev. Alfonso Wyatt
Screening Monday, Feb. 20 at 4:30pm
Marcus Littles specializes in organizational development, particularly within the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. His work experience includes TCC Group, the Ford Foundation, where he served as a Program Associate in Community and Resource Development, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Littles is the founder of Frontline Solutions, and provides leadership to projects in organizational development, policy advocacy, and philanthropic engagement. A native of Mobile, AL, he is a graduate of Auburn University and holds a master’s degree in Public Administration, with a concentration in Nonprofit Management, from the University of Delaware.
Jermaine Spradley
Writer/Content Editor, SingleBlackMale.org
Q&A Moderator, The Three Way with filmmaker Julian Renner
Screening on Monday, Feb. 20 at 9:15pm
Jermaine Spradley is a Brooklyn-based writer and author of the forthcoming novel Secrets Discovered in Memoriam. His work can be found in Newsday, the HuffingtonPost.com, AllHipHop.com, Clutch Magazine Online and the award winning singleblackmale.org, where he is also the Content Editor.
