Women Filmmakers Highlighted at the Oakland International Film Festival

OAKLAND, Calif. - April 1, 2018 - PRLog -- Courtesy of Wright Enterprises~~~

David Roach, Founder & Executive Director of Oakland International Film Festival, highlights women filmmakers for its sixteenth annual film festival as Women's History Month concludes.  The sixteenth annual film festival is themed "Where Do We Go From Here?" and is based on the last book written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  The festival recognizes the 50^th Anniversary of the Assassination of Dr. King in collaboration with the Oakland Unified School District's 39th Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Oratorical Contest.

The opening day, April 3^rd includes a film by Leslie-Ann Coles "Melody Makers."  The feature documentary tells the true story of the rise and fall of the most influential music publication in history. "Melody Makers" magazine began, as a weekly jazz musician's trade paper in the 1920's and by the 1960's became an internationally recognized "must read" for rock n' roll fans and musicians alike. Melody Maker became a pop culture phenomenon and this was, to a great extent, due to its Chief Contributing Photographer, Barrie Wentzell (1965-1975) and his black and white photos that blistered across the front cover.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=bjgmxLdaC8c.

"California's Forgotten Children" directed by Melody Miller is a feature documentary about child sex trafficking in California. The film follows on true stories of youth who were commercially sexually exploited and are now survivors and brave leaders, fighting for the rights of victims worldwide. This is not just a documentary this is a movement.  The survivors' stories prove that any child can be exploited regardless of ethnicity or financial background. Featuring heartwarming stories from abolitionist, leaders, and advocates who work night and day to protect children in our communities and to put an end to this epidemic. The film engages people and communities to a call for action by giving them intellectual, moral, and social instruction.  It screens at 1:15 p.m. at Holy Names on April 5^th and April 7^th during the 5:30-7:30 p.m. block at Jack London Regal.

Bay Area Video Coalition's own Lyntoria Newton will present her film, "Hey, Little Black Girl" at the Jack London Square Regal Theater, Auditorium 5 during the 5:30-7:30 block featuring "Resistance at Tule Lake." Synopsis: Sometimes even imagination is not a strong enough shield to protect us from the contamination of the world but once upon a time there was a little black girl. Through her imagination she propelled herself into a dimension of new surfaces with old echoes of the little black girls who came before her. This story is told through vignettes of little black girls of yesterday and today meeting viewers at the intersection between youthful imagination and adult reality.

Cheryl Fabio's "Evolutionary Blues-West Oakland's Music Legacy " will be screened Thursday, April 5^th and Saturday, April 7^th during the 5:30 -7:30 p.m. block at the Jack London Regal Theater.  The Blues is an earthy, soul-stirring mélange of roots music and personal narratives that became the defining soundtrack of Black America. Wherever Black people settled that soundtrack took on a local flavor. In Northern California, the influences came from the musicianship of Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. Seventh Street in West Oakland supported and bolstered Blacks who answered the call of the war effort in the late 1940's. Entrepreneurship created a fully contained community that provided work, homes and all the necessities of life including a fully developed music scene. Watch as more than 30 local musicians share their inspiration and describe the trajectory of the Oakland Blues: how it evolved and what it has become.

"Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor" produced, directed and written by Jackie Wright and directed and edited by Jack LiVolsi, will screen Thursday, April 5^th during the 5:30-7:30 p.m. block at the Grand Lake Theater. "Love Separated in Life...Love Reunited in Honor" is a 14-minute documentary that speaks of love in the midst of war and affirms the U.S. military in its civil rights role of integration.  Fifty years after the Vietnam death of Sp5 Wyley Wright Jr. as an honor guard for Secretary of Defense McNamara, a White Houston, Texas teenager, who was a fellow "Knight of the Air" with Wright and the wife of fallen pilot 1st Lieutenant Kenneth A. Shannon, joined the Wright siblings at an Arlington National Cemetery ceremony honoring Wright who had been buried in a segregated cemetery in the South for five decades. A year after the ceremony, the Wright sisters, Phyllis Cameron and Jackie Wright, traveled to Vietnam in advance of the California State East Bay International MBA Program in which Phyllis had enrolled and they were able to find the family of the Asian photographer who had created the last anniversary gifts Sp5 Wright had given to his cherished "Ouida" a few weeks before his death.

Tamara Perkins is director of  "Life After Life."  Synopsis: As adolescents trapped in a world of drugs, violence, and daily trauma, Noel, Harrison and Chris quickly lost their way. Before they could become adults, they were locked up in prison—given sentences that could leave them in their cells for the rest of their lives. Years later, they were given another chance: parole. Life After Life follows their stories upon their release—each very different, each with unexpected, often heartbreaking turns and detours. Understated and surprising, "Life After Life" reveals what their paths to a new life—often measured in small, awkward steps—can teach us about the prison system, American life, and our own values.

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