Seattle Black Film Festival Will Feature Local and International Filmmakers

Now in its 23rd year, LANGSTON’s annual Seattle Black Film Festival (SBFF) will run April 30 - May 3. This year’s theme, ‘‘The Sound of Us,’’ refers to the more than 50 selected films submitted by creators from across the African diaspora.

“We want to make sure that we're showcasing our local work and getting that uplifted, since there are now so many Black film festivals across the world, which is amazing,” said Taylor Freeman, SBFF manager at LANGSTON. “But not only do we want to make sure that our local filmmakers are getting their work amplified out into that ecosystem, or that we're helping to support that amplification, we're also bringing in films from around the world.” 

In this year’s lineup, close to 30% of the films were made by local creators. The rest come from filmmakers from other parts of the U.S. and 10 other countries, including Kenya, Brazil, Italy, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.   

The festival will kick off with a free opening night reception where guests can walk LANGSTON’s Purple Carpet, according to the site, with an ”outfit you’ve been waiting for an excuse to wear.” The evening will feature a screening of TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing.

All screenings and events on May 3 will be free, as will other select events and screenings throughout the festival, an opportunity made possible through support from 4Culture, the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, and the Office of Arts and Culture.

LANGSTON is a nonprofit organization founded in 2016 with a mission to “strengthen and advance our community through Black arts and culture,” according to its website. Their programming centers Black art and artists, and honors the “enduring legacy of Seattle’s Black Central Area.”

Ebony Arunga, the executive director of LANGSTON for the past 2.5 years, grew up attending the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.

“This building and the Douglass-Truth library raised me,” said Arunga. “I started coming to LANGSTON when I was 9 years old — I grew up in the Central District — and I basically never left. At 11, I was in the first teen summer musical, which is a program that still goes on today.”

Arunga left Seattle and went to school at Virginia Commonwealth University. After graduating with a BFA in Theatre, with an emphasis on Stage Management, Arunga returned.

“I came back and started stage managing the summer musical as a technical director. Eventually, I joined the Langston board, and when my predecessor decided that he wanted to step down, I was asked to enter,” said Arunga. 

Arunga, who was the board chair, stepped down from that role to become the interim executive director. “Eventually, the board just offered me the job, and I took it,” said Arunga. 

During her tenure as executive director, Arunga has made it a priority to expand LANGSTON’s youth programming with the same commitment to the arts, theater, and performance that she experienced.

“I have a strong passion for LANGSTON. I know what it’s done for me, from my childhood. We have a lot of passion for expanding our youth programming and making this a place where young people can be.” 

Along with free screenings and events on May 3, the film festival’s programming will highlight young people with youth workshops, and a majority of that day's showcased films will either be made by young people or for them.

In addition to showing the festival lineup, SBFF will feature archived footage from past film festivals.

“In the last three years, we started to archive the 23 years of the film festival, so we’re going to be showing some of that footage at this film festival as well. This will be the first time that we’re really giving a sneak peek into all the archival work that we’ve been doing,” said Arunga. 

The SBFF can be experienced in person or online with a virtual festival option. The virtual screening portion of the festival runs May 4-10, after the in-person festival is complete. Once a virtual attendee begins a movie, they will have three days to watch the film through May 10.