The Maupintown Film Festival is a FREE annual event given at the Jefferson School AfricanAmerican Heritage Center in Charlottesville, Virginia each July, and focuses on celebrating and
sharing films of African-American history and culture with the local community. The 2017
festival will be held July 14th-16th, and will feature 15 films as well as presentations and
discussions from filmmakers, local historians and community leaders. And there are even films
for the kids. This year’s theme is: Black Goes with Everything: The Diverse Experiences of
Descendants of Africa. Learn more about the varied local, national and international
experiences of descendants of Africa, and the historical and contemporary value that comes
along with them.
Visit www.maupintown.com or www.jeffschoolheritagecenter.org for free tickets
Friday, July 14th
9:45 am
Welcome & Opening Presentation of Films
Film Festival Director Lorenzo Dickerson, and Jefferson School African-American Heritage Center Executive
Director Andrea Douglas will welcome the festival audience, make announcements, and briefly introduce
each of the festival’s film showings and discussions for the upcoming weekend.
10:10 am (90 minutes)
We Are Humanity
On a remote island off the Indian coast, the first humans are still living in a forgotten
world. The Jarawa people have left Africa to Asia 70,000 years ago. They live in the
Andaman Islands, in India. Up to now, they had managed to shelter themselves from the
madness of our world. Today, their lives are threatened.
The Jarawas had refused any contact with the outside world for millennia. For the first
time ever, they have granted a film crew an incredible access. 80 years after F.W.
Murnau filmed 'Tabù' with the Pacific islanders, Alexandre Dereims filmed the last
pristine and native world in the Andaman Islands.
11:50 am
This film will be followed by a 20-minute Q&A session with film director Alexandre Dereims, and producer
Clair Beilvert via Skype.
12:20 pm (120 minutes)
The Talk
The Talk is a two-hour documentary about the increasingly necessary conversation
taking place in homes and communities across the country between parents of color
and their children, especially sons, about how to behave if they are ever stopped by
the police.
2:30pm (66 minutes)
By Blood
By Blood chronicles American Indians of African descent as they battle to
regain their tribal citizenship. The film explores the impact of this battle,
which has manifested into a broader conflict about race, identity, and
the sovereign rights of indigenous people. The film demonstrates both
sides of the battle, the shared emotional impact of the issue, and the
rising urgency of the debate: a Native American and African American
history has been overlooked, and a tribal body feels as though their
sovereignty is under siege.
3:45 pm (171 minutes)
Sally Hemings: An American Love Story
Sam Neill, Carmen Ejogo, Diahann Carroll. The historical scandal
between President Thomas Jefferson and the slave girl Sally, jumps onto
the screen with a shocking presence. Jefferson, engaged in a 39-year
affair with Ms. Hemings, allegedly fathered at least one, if not all six, of
Sally's children. This fictionalized made-for-TV movie packs a powerful
punch about love that endured and triumphed in the face of horrific
prejudice
6:45 pm (20 minutes)
This film will be followed by a 20-minute discussion.
Saturday, July 15th
Saturday Morning Cartoons
8:00 am (17:10)
Dancing in the Light: The Janet Collins Story
Children-Focused
Sweet Blackberry's Dancing in the Light tells the inspiring story of the
first African American prima ballerina, Janet Collins. Narrated by actor
and comedian Chris Rock, Dancing in the Light teaches us that we can
be anything we set our minds to, even after being told that we are not
the current model for success.
Dancing in the Light is illustrated by Coretta Scott King award-winner
R. Gregory Christie, animated by Pixel Pirate Studio, and features
original music by Chris Joyner.
8:20 am (20:00)
Garrett’s Gift
Children-Focused
Sweet Blackberry’s Garrett’s Gift tells the inspiring story of African
American inventor Garrett Morgan.
As a young boy, Garrett doesn’t know what he’s good at. He always
seems to be getting into trouble. Upon moving to the big city, Garrett
witnesses a series of collisions. His creative thinking and imagination
lead him to invent the traffic signal.
Illustrated by Coretta Scott King award-winner R. Gregory Christie,
and narrated by Queen Latifah, Garrett’s Gift will encourage young and old alike to expand
their imagination and creative mind.
8:50 am
This film will be followed by a 20-Minute Q&A session with Actress & Filmmaker Karyn
Parsons.
Karyn Parsons decided to go into acting at the age of 13. She had her first TV role in the NBC
drama The Bronx Zoo (1987), but she made her big break as Will Smith's cousin "Hilary Banks"
on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990). During the show's six-year run, she
starred in movies such as Class Act (1992) and Major Payne (1995). She now produces
children’s films in addition to acting, and lives in New York with her film producer husband
Alexandre Rockwell and child.
9:20 am (39:44)
Stay Woke
“Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement” is an original
documentary film that chronicles the evolution of the Black Lives
Matter movement through the first person accounts of local activists,
protesters, scholars, journalists and others. Jesse Williams is the
executive producer. Laurens Grant is the producer/director.
10:10 am (58 minutes)
2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright
2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright” is Academy Award-winning
director Spike Lee’s film on the Concerned Student 1950
movement that led to the resignation of past UM System
President Tim Wolfe over racial issues on campus. An
examination of how the Black Lives Matter movement
sparked activism at the University of Missouri, its football team, and across the rest of the
United States.
11:20 am
This film will be followed by a 20-minute Q&A discussion panel on the #BlackLivesMatter
movement, what it is, why it’s important, and how it has been used to help reshape America for
African-Americans.
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Leslie M. Scott Jones – (Actress & Co-Host of the Home Grown Show WPVC 94.7) moderator
Jeff Fogel (Civil Rights Attorney)
Janette Boyd Martin (President of Charlottesville-Albemarle NAACP)
Jordan Burnley – 2017 Charlottesville High School Graduate (Incoming College
Freshman)
Jasmine Hayes - 2017 Charlottesville High School Graduate (Incoming College Freshman)
11:50 am (90 minutes)
Black Folk Don’t…
“Black Folk Don’t...” is an open conversation that invites
everyone to take a second look at the grey areas between us all,
no matter the race, and most importantly to do it with a sense
of humor. This documentary web series is a special presentation
of BlackPublicMedia.org, directed and produced by Angela
Tucker, with support from the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting. See 13 of these short films, together discussing
stereotypes including “Black Folk Don’t Get Married”, “Black
Folk Don’t Swim”, “Black Folk Don’t Do Winter Sports”, “Black Folk Don’t Live To The End of a
Horror Film”, “Black Folk Don’t Go To The Doctor”, “Black Folk Don’t Have Eating Disorders” and
others.
1:30 pm (105 minutes)
Black Like Me
Based on the true story of a white reporter who, at the height of the
civil-rights movement, temporarily darkened his skin so that he
could experience the realities of a black man's life in the segregated
South.
3:25 pm (23:55)
Our Hair-itage
A collection of stories from women in the African-American
community who inspire others by sharing some of their
experiences with their natural hair journey. Directed by
Crystolyn Macklin.
4:30 pm
This film will be followed by a 20-minute Q&A discussion panel with African-American
women whom have and style natural hair.
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Crystolyn Macklin – Filmmaker (Moderator)
Katheryn “Kitty” Matthew – Owner of Natre’al Hair Design, Charlottesville, VA
Kimalee Dickerson
Chari Brown
5:00 pm (66 minutes)
afro-punk
'Afro-punk', a 66-minute documentary, explores race identity within
the punk scene. More than your everyday, Behind the Music or
typical "black history month" documentary this film tackles the hard
questions, such as issues of loneliness, exile, inter-racial dating and
black power. We follow the lives of four people who have dedicated
themselves to the punk rock lifestyle. They find themselves in
conflicting situations, living the dual life of a person of color in a
mostly white community.
The style of the documentary inter-cuts interviews from scores of
black punk rockers from all over the nation with scenes from our
four protagonists' lives. They come from different regions, generations, genders, and sexual
preferences but their stories are amazingly similar
6:20 pm
Opening Celebration
Join us as well celebrate the 3rd-Annual Maupintown Film Festival at the Jefferson School
African-American Heritage Center.
Sunday, July 16th
2:30 pm (26:48)
Why I Sing Amazing Grace: The African American Worship
Experience
The call to worship can vary by denomination, but many of the same spiritual
traditions have lived in the black church for centuries.
3:07pm (49 minutes)
Black Church, Inc.
Black Church, Inc. is a feature-length investigative documentary
that examines the sensationalism of the black church and its
present day relationship with serving the community.
The documentary compares the black church’s origins to its
modern day cultural relevance. The film focuses on modern
mega-churches and asks hard-hitting questions about service vs.
the extravagant lifestyles of its multi-million dollar ministers and
ministries. As the nation attempts to bounce back from a
recession, mega-churches continue to raise hundreds of millions
of dollars to fund their pastors’ exorbitant lifestyles. Through
interviews with clergy members, politicians, community leaders and journalists, we explore
whether the preachers, parishioners or communities are the benefactors of the millions of
tax free revenue generated by religious organizations.
4:06 pm
20-Minute Q&A Session with local African-American church leadership
 Minister Carolyn Dillard – Zion Hill Baptist Church, Cismont, VA (Moderator)
 Pastor Kelvin R. Hawkins - St. John Baptist Church, Cobham, VA
 Pastor Shawn Wright – Kingdom Harvest Worship Center, Charlottesville, VA
 Pastor Cass Bailey – Trinity Episcopal Church, Charlottesville, VA
 Minister Tracie Quarles Daniels
4:36 pm (123 minutes)
Loving
The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, a couple whose arrest
for interracial marriage in 1960s Virginia began a legal battle
that would end with the Supreme Court’s historic 1967 decision.