Photos by Andre Helmstetter -urbanphotographic.com

Additional Photos by Naomi Ishisaka - Paul Toliver

2008 Festival: A Community Success

The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center's Fifth Annual African American Film Festival was an amazing gathering of films, artists and community. We were all transformed in each others' company and moved by the power of cinema to bring us all closer together.

Art defines a person and a people. It effects all who participate. In nine days, Langston's Film Festival ran the gamut from serious to funny, from fiction to reality, from short to long, from local to international, from first efforts to epics from seasoned masters. And the collective effect: we talked, we laughed, we cried, we cheered, we questioned, and we were together as a community.

Thank you to our volunteers, filmmakers, audiences and sponsors

AUDIENCE AWARD
THIS IS THE LIFE, Ava DuVernay

PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL, Gini Reticker

Honorable mention

DEATH OF TWO SONS Directed by Micah Shaffer and produced by Alrick Brown

I’M THROUGH WITH WHITE GIRLS by Jennifer Sharp

JURY AWARD
MORNING DUE by Barbara Allen

Honorable mention:

SOMETHING IS KILLING TATE by Leon Lozano
LALIBELA by Sentayahu Mengesha

LOCAL FILMMAKER AWARD
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS by Eddie Smith

Honorable mention:

WOMEN TOGETHER AS ONE by Gilda Sheppard
YOKES AND CHAINS by Michael Lienau