The Next Level for the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival™
New Theatrical Distribution Collective
Dedicated to Black Independent Cinema
AFFRM To Release Two Films Per Year
Los Angeles, CA – Veteran industry executive Ava DuVernay has announced the formation of the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM), a new theatrical distribution entity powered by the nation’s finest black film festival organizations. The collective will theatrically release quality independent African-American films through simultaneous limited engagements in select cities.
The inaugural presenting black film organizations are Urbanworld Film Festival with Imagenation in New York, Pan-African Film Festival in Los Angeles, ReelBlack in Philadelphia, BronzeLens Film Festival in Atlanta and Langston Hughes African-American Film Festival in Seattle.
“In essence, what we’re doing is empowering ourselves by distributing our own images. There are robust black film organizations all over the country. Our goal was to organize ourselves into a releasing entity, and our mission is to support black cinema in a very specific way – by offering a handful of black indies a theatrical release,” explained DuVernay. “We simply want to offer African-Americans quality black films, while at the same time create a safe haven for filmmakers of color to share their stories, their way.”
What does this mean for Seattle?
- AFFRM places The Langston Hughes African American Film Festival on the national scene of Black film distribution.
- AFFRM places the people of Seattle in a position to join the national spotlight, bringing economic and cultural benefit to Seattle as a host city for AFFRM
- AFFRM has the potential to help change the narrative of misaligned representation of people of color in mainstream media
PRESS CONTACT Los Angeles
Tilane Jones
tilane@dvahq.com
PRESS CONTACT Seattle
Jacqueline Moscou, Artistic Director
Langston Hughes African American Film Festival