- Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm your host, Stephen Henderson.

The sixth annual Detroit Black Film Festival is gonna take place at various venues all around the city from September 25th through the 28th.

The event celebrates the creativity and talent of black filmmakers and actors from all over the world.

This year's festival will showcase 72 independent films from 30 different countries.

Here's a look at one of the films titled, "Adieu."

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- The theme for this year's Detroit Black Film Festival is cinema, culture, and cocktails.

I love that last one, of course.

It'll include the Taste of Black Spirits Tour, which features handcrafted cocktails made from African-American-owned spirit brands.

Joining me now are the festival's co-founders, Marshalle and Lazar Favors of Trinity Films Entertainment Group.

Welcome back to "American Black Journal."

We do this every year.

- Yes, we do.

- Thank you for having us back.

- This is actually the first year in a long time that we're sitting across the table from each other instead of staring into a computer screen.

So it's great to see you guys.

- Great to see you too.

- In person.

Sixth annual festival.

This has become a fixture in Detroit.

Tell me about this year's festival.

- Well, for me, it's exciting because we weaved in the Taste of Black Spirits.

This year's festival, again, as you heard, 72 films, four locations, new partnerships, new relationships, expansion, expansion, expansion.

That's how I look at it.

It's gonna be great.

I think, you know, Marshalle is, I have to give it to her.

She started me with this, right?

And I remember 2020 laying in the bed and she was like, "Hey, I wanna do the Detroit Black Film Festival."

By the time she woke up, we were set, ready to roll.

This year marks a testament for us, right?

We believe that this year will challenge all the years to come because we're setting the tone and we're setting something new, right?

And I think that because we're Detroit, Detroit all day, Detroit every day, that this year will tell it, right?

We have new things.

Cecilia Detroit is one of our categories where we highlight our Detroit filmmakers.

Jeremy Brockman is an award-winning filmmaker.

So his film, "The Cut" is in our festival and we have so many more films.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- You know, when we talk about Detroit films in particular, I think there are a lot of people who don't know about the sort of cinema community here and I guess how robust it is.

And the festival, I think, is a way to sort of introduce yourself to that idea, to see things that we don't see in other spaces.

- I know that the community is very robust here and it's growing every single day.

The number of films that are being made in the festival just gives us a chance to highlight the creative community that we have.

And we're really, really excited because there is a portion in our festival that highlights specifically Detroit-made films among the other films that we're showcasing this year.

- Yeah, yeah.

The cocktail's part of it.

This is the second year that you're doing this that way?

- This is the second year.

So it gave us an opportunity to merge our audiences.

- Yeah.

- Right?

Instead of creating an event to a reception or a filmmaker's luncheon, we just added "The Taste of Black Spirits" and that gives them an opportunity not only to sample products, but make 'em, I mean, engage, right?

Because films need what?

Films need products at some point, right?

Filmmakers need to have, build their relationships with the spirit brand.

So that event happens on the 27th at the Doubletree Hotel, a great hotel that offers us the whole second floor.

So we have the Crystal Ballroom.

We're bringing in E-40, Ronald Isley, and several other brands.

It's the brothers from, have a bourbon called Sable.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And the filmmakers, the film group- - The Best Man.

- The Best Man.

So their product will be there and several hundred.

I mean, it's just, it's gonna be a great time.

And blending that with film, I mean, cinema again, cinema culture and cocktails, I mean, you can't lose with that.

- And the natural connection with "The Taste of Black Spirits" and the film festival is really like the storytelling also, because there's so many brand owners that have just incredible stories who are trailblazers, who are first in their industry.

And we like to highlight the stories of the brand owners as well.

- Yeah, yeah.

Let's talk about some of the films.

And I guess how you curate something like this.

72 films is a lot, but I would imagine that there were hundreds of possibilities, right?

And so you come down to that 72.

Talk about that process a little.

- So we have 350 films this year's festival.

We have a board of judges who help us run through this process, which is not easy.

- And whittle that down.

- And we whittle it down to about, so we whittle it down this year to about 100.

So we're going over the 100.

And we have the last word, of course, but at the same time, it's like, we have so many great films.

This year was like, okay, well, we're gonna house these films.

So beautiful enough that we're back at the Charles H. Wright for four days.

We're at the Carr Center Gallery.

We're at the Love Building, which is our new relationship.

And we're also at the Marlene Bowl there.

So we're able to break those films down and put those films in those screening places so we can comfortably do what we need to do with the Q&As and et cetera.

But it is a process.

That process takes about two months after we choose the films.

- After you choose the films, right.

Where are you gonna watch them?

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, go ahead.

- And that's my favorite part of the festival, really, is having, connecting the filmmakers with the audiences.

And so we have a number of people who are just traveling from around the world to be here.

Some of them are coming to Detroit for the first time.

And there's always the Q&A.

And we have also just a special section for us to have further conversation with the filmmakers.

It's a black film festival, celebrating, of course, black cinema.

Let's talk about the state of black film.

- Yes.

- It seems to me, and I'm not someone who knows a whole lot about Hollywood or filmmaking, but it seems to me that we're in a different period now than we would have been 10 or 15 years ago with black film.

And I guess what I mean by that is the explosion of independent filmmaking away from big studios has meant opportunity for black filmmakers as well.

So it seems like there's more.

That's my impression as an outsider.

But you guys are insiders.

- It's absolutely more.

- Is it?

- When you think, we do an event every year, annual event called Call Time.

Our very first Call Time, we had 800 folks come out that are in the film industry from Detroit specifically.

Had over 30 production teams and companies, black teams and companies in Detroit.

There has been a surge of films on tons of platforms that we know very well that friends and family and filmmakers here have benefited from.

There has been, I think, three to 400 films in the last five years.

- Wow.

- From out of Detroit.

- Out of Detroit.

- And they were shooting every single day.

And Marshall, I should touch on this.

Marshall is also a part of a collective where we have a studio that we shoot films out of, right?

So we're making movies 24 hours a day over there, right?

So I'll let her speak more to that though.

- Yeah, go ahead.

- And yes, well, the collective studios is a space where 13 independent filmmakers got together to create a studio for filmmakers to be able to shoot at.

And it's been open since February of 2025 and it has been very successful so far.

And I also really wanna speak to just on filmmaking worldwide as it relates to the African-American community.

I think even now, because of the times we're in, I think it's just even more important to make sure that black voices and black stories are uplifted, especially in a time where the erasure of history is happening.

So those voices are even more important to me.

- Yeah, that was gonna be my next question is the story being told better, more authentically, with more voice because of the expansion of this opportunity do you feel like it is?

- I feel like it is.

And I feel like it's even more necessary.

And I feel like across the board, there are stories now that need to be uplifted, especially those that are social justice films, those that are just telling even authentically every day, experiences that people are having.

And so we want everyone to be able to experience those films.

It's a Detroit Black Film Festival, but the stories are about human nature, about the human experience.

- They're more universal.

- And they're universal.

- Yeah, right.

Well, and everybody's welcome.

Everyone's welcome to the festival.

- That's right.

- Come experience just a little taste of our culture.

And of course of our city.

That's what I really love about this, that it is rounded in Detroit.

Well, it's always great to see you guys and congratulations again on the sixth annual festival.

- Thank you, thank you.

- We want everyone to come out.

It's September 25th through the 28th.

And on event bright is where folks can find the tickets.

- Event Noir.

- Yeah, yeah.

All right, well, thanks for being here.

- Thank you for having us.