by Viviane Faver
The PRLog – SR Socially Relevant Film Festival 2020 (SRFF 2020) hosts an online event focusing on the black experience with documentaries from the previous seven editions of the festival. LIVE, started yesterday, and continues daily until Thursday and will introduce filmmakers in a conversation with guest moderators, award-winning Chef Jeff Henderson, and New York film critic Louis Proyect. All cinema programs and lectures are free and open to the public.
The festival’s idea came as a reaction to the proliferation of violence on screen and off. Specifically, commercial films and Hollywood films dwell on violence not only in the story and the filmmaking style but also on the marketing and promotional material.
“The main point of the edition this year is to highlight these films again and, through them, keep the flame of the protest alive. We are grateful to the filmmakers who have agreed to make their movies available in this retrospective so we can all celebrate the growing strength of the Black Lives Matter movement”, says the Founding Artistic Director, Nora Armani, in an exclusive interview for the New York Beacon.
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“I was sick of seeing film posters with guns, weapons, horror, and other forms of violence depicted on them. And we have no choice, as they are there staring at us from bus stops, busses, billboards and everywhere. I wanted to offer an alternative form of entertainment that told human interest stories rather than depend on sensationalism and special effects. The other reason was to commemorate the violent murder of my cousin and uncle, who fell victim to a hate crime. As the 10th anniversary of their death approached, I wanted to do something meaningful and commemorate them. So I created SR Socially Relevant™ Film Festival NY that focuses on a broad range of social issues. We have an award in my cousin’s name, the Vanya Exerjian award for Empowering Women and Girls. It goes to all films in categories that raise awareness of women’s issues. Likewise, the SR for Black Voices event we are producing now is anti-violence, for social justice, and for raising awareness of racial issues.”
Nora Armani draws attention to the fact that we are indeed in a delicate moment, which is happening on many levels. On the racial prejudice and discrimination level, and the pandemic level. One is a social disease, the other a physical one. Both threaten society and the human race. “COVID-19 has taught us that unless we all come together and be inclusive (not physically, of course right now), we will never be able to win the fight against this disease. We are all in it together, and as humans, we have to learn to be more than tolerant, we need to be mutually inclusive and supportive of each other. Is the only way out both on the racial and on the pandemic level.”
This is the seventh edition of the festival that was scheduled to open in March, however, five days before the debut at the Lincoln Center in New York, the pandemic began, and everything was canceled. They were then forced to hold the virtual festival, now in the month of August. Nora Armani said that it is not the same, but with the virtual edition, they will be able to expand their audience by reaching people all over the world.
“In addition, almost all filmmakers were able to participate in the live online broadcasts” Meet the Filmmakers “that we did, and now we think that the 2021 edition should be hybrid. It is not easy, but we are all adapting and finding new ways to present our work,” says Nora.
The event features documentaries made in Italy written by Valentina Acava Mmaka, London, Kenya, Portugal, Australia, Los Angeles, Chicago, Louisville, Princeton and, of course, New York.
How to watch?
There is a ticketing button (free) on the festival website www.ratedsrfilms.org. First, you have to make a registration and after that they will send the links and passwords to the films.
You can start watching the films 2 hours before the scheduled time or start viewing at the scheduled time to be present at the Q&A following the screening. All this is on the website with links to the free “Meet the Filmmakers” sessions that will be broadcast LIVE from the project channel on YouTube channel.
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