Karen Ponzio Photos
Salwa Abdussabur.
Film, music, theater, art, activism: on Friday night all five were intertwined and illuminated during New Haven’s inaugural Black Haven Film Festival. Presented by CTCORE — Organize Now, the festival was originally planned for that night in person at Science Park. Due to Covid restrictions, it became a virtual event continuing onward with its original intent to celebrate Black art and representation with five short films, interviews with the filmmakers, and a musical performance, each shining its own ray of light on to the proceedings and creating a collective glow.
The event — organized by Salwa Abdussabur, Brianna Chance, Danessa Pedroso, Camelle Scott, Ashley Blount, and Raven Blake — was hosted by Abdussabur, lead curator and principal organizer of the event. Five local artists — Kalani Jimenez-Mackson, Tang Russ, Diona Dwyer, Ike Abakah, and Ammon Downer — were chosen to share their short films. Each artist was also interviewed and a portion of that interview was shown before each film. Special guest performer Chad Browne-Springer shared their music via their own short film sequence. Each piece, though unique in nature and presentation, represented a community yearning to be heard both as individuals and as one.
The night began with Abdussabur, bursting with radiant energy and infectious enthusiasm, welcoming everyone and offering thanks for “bearing with me as we shift into our new quarantine festival life.”
“Black art matters” they said. “Now more than ever we must uplift Black art.”
They explained how they put a call out to local artists in CT. “They showed up,” said Abdussabur. They also explained how they put a call out to arts institutions in CT “to mobilize around Black art.” Organizations including Collective Consciousness Theater, Elm City Lit Festival, the Arts Council, the city’s Arts, Culture, and Tourism Division, Long Wharf Theater, and ConnCAT “reached out and mobilized behind us.”
Abdussabur then introduced Chad Browne-Springer “a special, amazing, phenomenal performer and someone who is so dear to me,” they said.
Browne-Springer’s set was a short film unto itself, with graphics similar to a video game introducing each section. The piece itself, titled “Sonic Sage,” introduced the performer as “Player One: CBS” and the songs as Round One, Two, and Three.
Chad Browne-Springer.
Each song had its own vibe, but all were wholly and uniquely Browne-Springer. The first incorporated multiple frames at once as lyrics like “tell me what you think about” became a restorative reflection over the visuals of both performance and stills. The second piece found Brown-Springer being viewed from behind a plant, as if being spied upon, and then from below, through a quicksilver-like filter, as they sang “what is love / what is pain / why is life so amazing?” The third piece introduced “Player Two: EJ,” who added his own rap to Browne-Springer’s vocals and music. Watercolors of white, purple, and blue washed over and created a mysterious yet meditative mood as Browne-Springer asked “am I a ghost tonight?” The entire set gave a prayerlike presence to the proceedings and set the tone for the evening.
The next five sections were introduced by Abdussabur, each containing a short introduction to the artists and their films as well as pieces of interviews with each artist, asking them “what inspires you as a Black creator?” before showing their film.
Still from “Far From Home: Voyage To Salvation.”
The first featured artist was Ike Abakah, a CT-based filmmaker and photographer who spoke of “being able to be one of the people who …contributes to Black people being,” and “being able to capture people and showing them in a way they don’t normally see themselves.” In a still shown before the film, they stated that “‘Far From Home: Voyage to Salvation’ explores the idea of home in relation to Black bodies and what happens when the vessels which house our souls were uprooted from their original spaces.” The film offers a visual study of one man alone and stunningly being along the shore, set to a jazz soundtrack that flourishes around him. Abdussabur thanked Abakah for “trusting us with your art.”
Still from “Mayfair Barbershop.”
The second artist, Tang Russ of West Haven, said he was inspired by being “able to do something freely that I love to do every day,” adding “if I can do this, I can do better. This is pushing me to do better.” His film, “Mayfair Barbershop,” focuses on a shave and haircut from a very specific vantage point, and lovingly captures both the intimacy and the communal feeling of the experience. “Black people existing? Yes, it’s a yes for me,” said Abdussabur in response.
Still from “She Who Feels It, Knows It.”
Dione Dwyer was the third featured artist, offering the film “She Who Feels it, Knows It,” along with PT Partners. Abdussabur in response to this film stated, “For me it represents telling Black stories, arts and activism and the inseparable connection between the two.” Dwyer stated that her inspiration “was always my children,” adding “whether we like it or not, they are our legacy. We have to care that they have to deal with what we leave behind.”
The description of the film stated that it came from “her directive as a Black woman living in low-income public housing who is denied the ability to simply live.” In the film we are given insight into Dwyer’s experience personally and via her work with PT Partners, both her words and the visuals she presents strike a number of chords in the quest to live her truth and gain results through community activism. “How can we get there, with all the fight back, with all the push back?” she asks in the film, and in turn asks us to ask ourselves what we can do to make the world better for all.
Still from “A Conversation With Inhibitions.”
“I have a creative mind in general,” said Ammon Downer, an acting major at UCONN and the fourth featured artist of the night. In the film “A Conversation with Inhibitions,” Downer says, “I am talking to the physical representation of my own internal inhibitions.” The actor-filmmaker plays two parts in this film, portraying the struggle of caring for oneself and one’s needs and the attempt to let go of what is no longer serving us, making the internal external and conveying both characters with their own poignancies and truths. Abdussabur spoke of the struggle of mental illness in the Black community afterward and thanked Downer for “uplifting this in your work.”
The final featured artist, Kalani Jiminez-Mackson (a.k.a. Afrolombian) presented “Letters to 45,” a music video with a message described by the artist-filmmaker as depicting a “the genocidal makeup of America that has been rediscovered during a global pandemic.” When asked about his inspirations as a Black creator, he answered, “right now it really just stems from everything that’s going on and trying to find the truth in it, for myself really and sharing the truth that I’m discovering with everybody else.”
Still from “Letters To 45.”
The video combines an original narrative via individuals and community, youth and elders, set to the song “Letters to 45” by Al-Tariq Best, along with collected footage of protests past and present, as well as a wealth of striking visuals that speak for themselves in the quest to express a plea for equality and peace. The lyrics offer their own pleas, such as “so many tears are falling from my eyes / I don’t want to see no more of my babies die.” The film — which comes with a warning of depictions of police brutality and violence — is a timely and necessary addition to the ongoing conversations that need to remain present. Abdussabur exhaled deeply after the video was over and thanked the filmmaker for “immortalizing this time in our life which is so essential for us not repeating it again.”
As they began to conclude the night’s festivities, Abdussabur said they were talking slow because “I don’t want this moment to end.” The festival, however, felt like a beginning — like so many seedlings had been planted and would be spilling over with new shoots and blooms so very soon. Black Haven has created a fertile space and place for Black voices, films, and art to come alive and thrive.
According to Abdussabur a video of the festival will be available at a later date with ASL interpretation. For more information please visit the CTCORE website.