SISTERS IN CINEMA

“COLORED WOMAN IS BIG MOVIE PRODUCER.” That newspaper headline would seem sadly unlikely in any era. Yet, amazingly, it ran in a Kansas City journal all the way back in 1922. It's just part of the hidden history unearthed by Yvonne Welbon when she decided to seek out kindred female filmmakers of African-America descent and realized that nobody had undertaken such a study in detail before. From lady evangelists making morality parables on celluloid during the Jim Crow era of “race movies,” to Maya Angelou's acclaimed debut “Down in the Delta,” Welbon surveys and celebrates the achievements that black women have made behind the cine camera lens and in Hollywood studio boardrooms (and outside of them; Chicago filmmaker Ruby Oliver largely self-financed her 1993 indie debut “Love Your Mama” with proceeds from her many years in the day-care business). Yet, Welbon emphasizes, there is yet a long way to go, much that remains to be done, and tales still waiting to be told. In the meantime, regular Festival patrons will have the pleasure of reacquainting themselves with some of our past honored guests and titles, such as Bridget M. Davis and “Naked Acts” (21st CIFF 1997), Alison Swan's “Mixing Nia” (23rd CIFF 1999) and Cauleen Smith with her “Drylongso” (23rd CIFF 1999). So whatever did become of Julie Dash after her landmark “Daughters of the Dust” in 1991? Find out here.