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In a dark room within Syracuse’s Buried Acorn Restaurant & Brewery, a screen’s bright light shone on a couple dozen attendees of Syracuse International Film Festival’s “Honoring Outstanding Black Filmmakers” event Saturday. Over five hours, the festival showcased four films diving into the intersection of race with topics like education and gender identities.

The event’s slate included two documentaries — “Guardians of the Flame” and “If a Flower Bloomed” — as well as short film “The Poison Garden” and narrative film “Kikum Spirit (The Untold African Story).”

Judges selected the four films based on typical criteria such as sound, lighting and acting but also the films’ creativity and success at drawing attention to real-world issues. Along with the various films shown, the event provided space for local fashion brand Goe Global.

“It was important to show different awareness and controversy and things that some other film festivals might not show,” said Michelle DiBernardo, SIFF’s president and executive director. “I don’t think that there’s as many outstanding Black filmmakers that are being honored in the way they should,”

“If A Flower Bloomed” depicts the educational conditions for young boys and girls in Kenya, focusing on the challenges Kenyan students face and a nonprofit organization building schools in the country. “Guardians of the Flame,” created by director Jonathan Demme and writer Daniel Wolff, follows the Harrison family and their experience and culture living in New Orleans.

Along with the films themselves, the event honored Eric Jackson, the owner of Syracuse-based Black Cub Productions and a Syracuse University alumnus, for his work in expanding representation in the film industry.

Courtesy of Linda Osborne

Eric Jackson, CEO of Black Cub Productions, was honored with an award on Saturday. He has led to industry to have more representation.

SIFF hospitality manager and board member Linda Osborne assisted in preparing the event’s materials, location and decorations. In her position, Osborne said she wants to grow Syracuse’s film culture.

“I am hoping to draw a bigger crowd and have more youth get involved,” Osborne said about future SIFF events.

Program intern Ben Bascuk, an SU student in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, said the film festival encourages students to get more involved with the Syracuse community. Staying on campus for four years, Bascuk said, can be isolating.

“As an intern, you are thrown into the pool and forced to learn how to swim,” Bascuk said. “Oftentimes, these hands-on experiences where you figure it out as you go are the most rewarding and informative.”

SIFF hopes that building spaces for creative outlets such as film will encourage students and youth to stay in Syracuse and give back to the community after finishing their academic careers, Osborne said.

On a broader scale, the festival’s goal is to expose residents to the stories unbeknownst to them, DiBernardo said. SIFF is working to continue to showcase the work of underrepresented groups in events similar to Saturday’s in the future.

“People have to accept what is going on in the world, they don’t have to like it, but we have to at least get it out there,” Osborne said.

Published on February 25, 2024 at 10:20 pm