by Elena Freck, Emerson College ’22
When you think of ‘film’ and ‘Boston,’ you might think of the numerous Hollywood movies from the last few decades set in our city. Good Will Hunting (1997), The Departed (2006), and Spotlight (2015) all found success at the Oscars during their respective seasons. The north shore has made a splash in Hollywood, too, with 2016’s Manchester by the Sea and the 2022 Best Picture winner CODA.
Notably, most of these films depict white Irish and Catholic communities in Boston, two major but non-representative sects of Boston’s incredibly diverse population. Where can other Boston communities find themselves on film? Beyond that, where can Bostonians watch and discuss outstanding films by international filmmakers of color?
For the past 24 years, the answer to those questions has been the Roxbury International Film Festival. A fixture of Roxbury’s arts scene and the Boston film community at large, the festival has welcomed over 40,000 attendees since its inception, screening more than 750 films. It is the largest festival in New England that celebrates people of color. As a vehicle for independent artists, it rejects the notion that Hollywood studios and big-name celebrities are the only avenues to great film.
“We stay true to our mission about supporting fiercely independent filmmakers. We’re really a filmmakers’ festival, and we’ll continue to be that,” says Artistic Director Lisa Simmons. “We’re focused on storytelling, especially stories that aren’t heard in mainstream media. That’s who we’ve started out as, and who we’re continuing to be.”
When explaining how films are selected for the festival, Simmons emphasizes the difficulty of deciding between the many excellent submissions they receive each year. Ultimately, she says, “it’s about what we believe our audience that we’ve come to know over the last 24 years is interested in seeing. Whether they’re emerging filmmakers or seasoned filmmakers, we want to see that they’re creating content that no one has ever seen before.”
In 2022 as always, RoxFilm’s selection committee chose films featuring a range of subject matter explored through many different genres. “We have a lot of films about relationships, the environment, films that look at social justice, and even climate change and how that affects communities of color,” Simmons says. She and her sister Alison, the Assistant Director of the festival, watch all submitted films, no matter the genre. Regardless of form or topic, the festival looks for films that tell particular stories, and tell them well.
In addition to screenings, RoxFilm began presenting Daily Script Reads in 2020, a lunchtime series of screenplays by local screenwriters read aloud by local actors over Zoom. Another pandemic-borne initiative is [email protected], which will continue to offer festival films to viewers via a streaming platform this year. The festival has also included a competition element for many years, wherein filmmakers are honored with awards like “Best of Festival,” “Audience Favorite,” and the “RoxFilm Vision Award.”
One special award called the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking pays tribute to a great filmmaker with strong ties to the Roxbury community. Hampton founded Blackside, Inc. while living in Roxbury in 1968, which later became one of the largest minority-owned film production companies in the United States. He stayed active in the neighborhood until his death in 1998, chairing the board of the Museum of Afro-American History while concurrently developing his own projects. One of those projects is his magnum opus Eyes on the Prize, a documentary series which chronicles the history of the Civil Rights Movement. In 2021, the Henry Hampton Award was presented to Ailey, Jamila Wignot’s documentary exploration of famed dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey.
Filmmakers from…
Read More: Roxbury: A Film Destination – ArtsBoston