Three trailblazing directors are set to attend Ebertfest 2018. Ava DuVernay, Amma Asante, and Julie Dash will be screening films at the fest, a press release has announced. Co-founded by and hosted by Chaz Ebert, the Champaign, IL-based fest, also known as the Roger Ebert Film Festival, is celebrating its 25th year.
Ebertfest’s full slate hasn’t been announced yet, but we know that the program includes DuVernay’s “13th,” an Oscar-nominated doc exploring the relationship between slavery and mass-incarceration, Asante’s “Belle,” an interracial romance set in the 18th century, and Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust,” a drama that follows three generations of Gullah women. The latter marks the first film directed by a black woman to get a wide theatrical release.
“What an honor to have these Three Queens of Cinema grace our festival,” said Ebert. “Ava DuVernay first met Roger outside of the practice arena for the Academy Awards when she was eight years old. She was accompanied by her aunt whose death later inspired Ava’s poignant independent film ‘I Will Follow’ that Roger gave Thumbs Up. Now she is directing a 100 million dollar movie. But why I am especially thrilled to have her at our 20th anniversary is because of all of the good work she is doing in Hollywood to assure that women and people of color are having opportunities that were not available before. She didn’t stop at her own success, she reached out and invited others to come along,” Ebert emphasized.
DuVernay’s latest film, “A Wrinkle in Time,” is in theaters now. The adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s award-winning sci-fi novel centers on a girl who embarks on an epic quest to find her missing father. The Disney pic marks the first-time a woman of color helmed a live-action film with a budget over $100 million.
Ebertfest runs from April 18–22. Check out detailed synopses of DuVernay, Asante, and Dash’s films below, courtesy of the fest.
13TH (2016)
Directed by Ava DuVernay, 100 Mins, DCP
Special Guest Ava DuVernay will be in attendance
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” The progression from that second qualifying clause to the horrors of mass criminalization and the sprawling American prison industry is laid out by DuVernay with bracing lucidity. With a potent mixture of archival footage and testimony from a dazzling array of activists, politicians, historians, and formerly incarcerated women and men, DuVernay creates a work of grand historical synthesis.
In his 4 star review on RogerEbert.com, Odie Henderson wrote that 13TH is “an unflinching, well-informed and thoroughly researched look at the American system of incarceration, specifically how the prison industrial complex affects people of color.”
BELLE (2014)
Directed by Amma Asante, 102 Mins, DCP
Special Guest Amma Asante will be in attendance
BELLE is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay (Matthew Goode). Raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield (Tom Wilkinson) and his wife (Emily Watson), Belle’s lineage affords her certain privileges, yet her status prevents her from the traditions of noble social standing. While her cousin Elizabeth (Sarah Gadon) chases suitors for marriage, Belle is left on the sidelines wondering if she will ever find love. After meeting an idealistic young vicar’s son bent on changing society, he and Belle help shape Lord Mansfield’s role as Lord Chief Justice to end slavery in England.
“Amma Asante did something that no one ever thought possible, bringing a Jane Austen sensibility to historical issues of race in England in her film ‘Belle’,” said Chaz Ebert. “I can’t wait to welcome her to Ebertfest.”
DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (1991)
Directed by Julie Dash, 112 Mins
Special Guest Julie Dash will be in attendance
At the dawn of the 20th century, a family in the Gullah community of coastal South Carolina — former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions — suffers a generational split. Young Haagar (Kaycee Moore) wants to move to the mainland away from tradition-bound matriarch Nana (Cora Lee Day). Former prostitute Yellow Mary (Barbara-O) gets a cold shoulder when she returns to the island with her female lover, especially from her sister Viola (Cheryl Lynn Bruce).
Roger Ebert called the film “a tone poem of old memories, a family album in which all of the pictures are taken on the same day” in his 3 star review. He went on to say that “at certain moments we are not sure exactly what is being said or signified, but by the end we understand everything that happened — not in an intellectual way, but in an emotional way.”
