- Welcome to N'Digo Studio.

I'm Hermene Hartman.

And today we're going to talk about filmmaking in Chicago.

Chicago's carving out a niche as the city grooming filmmakers.

Black Harvest Film Festival celebrates its 28th year this year, featuring stories of black filmmakers and telling the story of those who maybe didn't get a chance to tell their stories in the movie theater.

The festival this year is dedicated to Sergio Mims.

He created the festival.

He was the critic for movies for N'Digo and we are just so proud to have you all here.

He passed recently and we're going to talk about how Black Harvest started and it celebrates its anniversary every November.

Our guest, Jean De St Aubin, she's the Executive Director of the School of the Art Institute's, Gene Siskel Film Center and the Director of the Black Harvest Film Festival.

Margaret Caples celebrates 50 years.

She is the Executive Director of the Community Film Workshop.

Her career started as a social worker but along with her husband Jim Taylor, she started the Community Film Festival and over 100 fellows have completed documentary films and short documentaries.

Mr. Amir George is an award-winning filmmaker and was recently named the Artistic Director of Kartemquin Films He's an innovator and an illuminating work with like Hoop Dreams and he tells his story with passion and creativity and has a film in this year's Black Harvest Film Festival, "Silence of Clarity."

COZY Conversations drop the knowledge that's for real.. Funding for this program was provided by State State of Illinois Representative LaShawn Ford, Community Trust, the Field Foundation.

Commonwealth Edison, Broadway, Chicago and Governors State University.

Jeanne, let me start with you.

Let's talk about the start of Black Harvest Film Festival with Sergio.

Talk about how it started.

- Sure, years ago, more than 28 years ago there was a another film festival in Chicago called Blacklight.

And it was kind of run by one person and he was moving on, didn't really wanna do it anymore.

And Sergio came to our director of programming at the time Barbara Scharres, and said, "Chicago has to have a black festival."

And Barbara said, "Let's do it."

And so her and Sergio, and then a small group of people met and talked about what it would look like, what they would call it, and they called it Black Harvest because of the bounty of films, because they felt it was a range of films and a bounty of films and then it was born.

- Do you know how many films were shown in the first one?

- I actually do because it started out it was only 11 days and it was 20 films.

- And today where are we?

- Over 50 films in a full month - A full 30 days?

- Yeah.

- Pretty much.

- Fantastic, fantastic.

So how do you go about selecting the films to be included?

- There's a call for entries.

So filmmakers submit their films and then... And this festival even though Sergio passed, Sergio passed, he pretty much curated this, this festival.

So people start submitting films in the spring, they're reviewed all summer, and in September the filmmakers get the call if they were accepted or not.

- Whether they made it or not.

And so Margaret, you celebrate 50 years, 50 years with the Community Film Workshop.

Tell us how it started.

- Well, it was founded by the Community Film Workshop Council of New York, with the American Film Institute and with the money from the Ford Foundation.

And it was money also from the government.

And so they established seven workshops around the country.

The Community Film Workshop of Chicago was the last workshop that they founded in 1971.

And a year later we were defunded by President Reagan (chuckles).

However- - He defunded a lot of things, didn't he?

- Yes, he did, oh Lord.

But anyway, the thing is that Jim had already set up a nonprofit and decided to stay.

So we received funding from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mac Arthur Foundation, which really got us started.

But it was really founded to help people of color get into the film industry.

And we taught 16 millimeter film and were able to get people onto feature films into television stations and other markets around the country, because at that time they were still shooting news on 16 millimeter film.

- And now we see a Facebook entry on TV.

It kills me every time.

'Cause I worked in television.

I was like, I would've been fired for even submitting that.

- I know.

- You Know?

- So you want to teach people documentary style.

- Well, basically most of the people are doing documentaries simply because they have stories to tell about their family and their community.

So one of the things is that we do stress storytelling.

Because you can have a very pretty picture but if you don't have a story, you've got to have a story to grasp people's hearts.

And one of the important things is with our program, the Production Institute at the Logan Center at the University of Chicago is basically stories about Chicago stories.

It has to be Chicago stories.

And all of the filmmakers are from the south side of Chicago.

Now, I work also with Kartemquin Films in the Diverse Voices in Docs.

And these are filmmakers of color from the Midwest.

And we've had over a hundred filmmakers and they won all kinds of awards and told such extraordinary stories.

So we are very pleased with those.

- So where are the documentary seen?

Where's the showcase for them?

- Most of the showcases are in festivals, on television, PBS and film centers all over the country and internationally.

We're not just talking about local film festivals, we're talking about national and international screenings of the projects.

- So the Chicago stories get worldwide attention?

- Yes.

- That's great.

And so, Amir, what is it that you wanna do?

What's your new direction for Kartemquin?

- Well, it's a very new role for me.

At this time I'm thinking about ways to pretty much expand in the community.

I think Kartemquin has built like a reputation of making quality documentary films.

So I want to keep that going and also help new storytellers also tell their story as well.

So and let me ask you all this.

So you all are really real storytellers in the world of journalism.

Now, we don't say I am a journalist.

I am a storyteller.

- What's the difference between the storytelling that you all do and what "journalism" what they do?

What's the difference?

Or is there a difference?

A documentary is very much like the news.

It's just delving into one subject for a lot longer and in much more depth than a 32nd new story.

- That's great, it is depth.

- What happens with our storytelling is it's from the filmmaker's perspective.

- That's good.

- That he's from that community, - That he's from that community, that she's from that community and they're telling their own story.

It's not someone else telling your story.

And that's what we focus on.

On people of color telling their own stories.

- And that's important.

- Yes, it's very important.

- So important.

- I'll also add creative ways in telling their stories as well is what the filmmakers also instrumental in is.

So you use a term, the language is creative nonfiction.

What is creative nonfiction?

- Creative nonfiction is just another term ultimately for documentary filmmaking.

I think documentary filmmaking styles have evolved over time to include verite and also just the typical on the camera interview but more like other any creative way.

So I think of creative non-fiction pretty much more like pushes those boundaries a little bit more.

- Okay, okay.

Jacqueline Stewart, is the President and Director of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

She joins us now to give us perspective of Chicago film and also her friend Sergio Mims.

- I founded the South Side Home Movie Project back in 2005 and I remember having some conversation with you about it.

The purpose of the project is to recover all of this footage that so many families shot on those old cameras.

I'm talking about- - 35 millimeter.

- Yeah, the tiny eight millimeter, super eight millimeter, sometimes 16 millimeter.

And as you know, these are the films that people shot to show off all the things they were proud of.

Their kids growing up, and birthday parties, and graduations, and Christmas mornings opening presents.

And what we found is that very oftentimes, this footage also captured community moments.

This is footage from an era that reflects a lot of change that has happened on the south side, so buildings that no longer exists.

We have footage of old Bud Billiken parades.

It has tremendous historical value as well as emotional value.

And in addition to collecting the films we digitize them so that even when people have these movies, they don't typically still have projectors or would even know how to show them.

So we digitize the films and that's a way for the families to be able to watch and to share them.

We have a beautiful website and you can search just about any topic.

You can look up like Michigan, you can look up downtown.

We wanted to figure out ways that would allow people to find different aspects of Chicago history in the footage.

And we do oral histories with the family so that we can really capture what the significance is.

So I would really encourage people to check out the South Side Home Movie Project website.

And we are actively accepting collections and we have a lot of events around the south side to screen the films and to show people that the stereotypes about what life is like on the south side simply are not true.

And that's what this footage reflects.

- What is your relationship to the Black Harvest Film Festival?

Oh, you know, I.

- I have been a presenter at the Black Harvest Film Festival and it's always been something that I've attended every year especially the opening night because there's always a celebration of short films and you see a lot of work by emerging black film makers.

Whenever I could offer any advice or encouragement to the organizers of Black Harvest, I have always been there.

- So we have in the last what, maybe five years, we've got something new called streaming services.

Netflix, Hulu, Apple, God only knows by the time this shows might be 10,000 more.

But do the streaming services allow greater outlets for the kind of films and documentaries and so forth that you do, has that become a real outlet for you?

- I think the streaming services offer more accessibility to audiences that haven't been exposed to certain films before.

- But are we still trying to take the films to network television or to PBS, or do the streaming services really satisfy another outlet?

- I don't see network television accepting a lot of our work.

Most of it is on public television.

However, I see filmmakers are now using their own platforms.

They're going on social media themselves.

They're developing their own festivals and production companies and they're just finding creative ways of doing this.

So that's the difference now.

So has Facebook and Instagram and YouTube affected you?

You know, I think but but back to streaming.

Not everybody lives in a city or a place where there are arthouse theaters or where there's film festivals.

So when you start streaming films, people everywhere are can be exposed to them.

And it also gives the storyteller a bigger audience.

- So let's say someone is watching this program now and I would like to tell the story of my family, or I would like to tell the story of my neighborhood and how this or that happened, what's the steps?

What would you encourage them to do?

Go to Margaret.

Go over there and see Margaret.

Right.

Exactly.

And then when you get it done, you can bring it back maybe by.

Yes.

One of the things is - You have to learn storytelling.

Everybody thinks that they can write a story or they can shoot a story because now the equipment is so accessible with a phone, with the smartphone and with the smaller digital video equipment.

video equipment, digital video equipment.

However, it's an art form.

It's an art form.

And so you need to learn the skills of the trade.

How do you tell a story?

How do you engage in audience?

And I would say you need to contact me at the Community Film Workshop so that you can take a class and learn and then become part of a community.

Film is a collaborative project, it's not a one person band.

You have to have people to support you to do sound and lighting and sound checks and have more than one camera operating.

So you need a crew.

So that's how you develop a community and you work on each other's projects so that you develop your expertise.

So you need a program.

- Joining us now is Director Carl Seaton from LA.

He's going to share his experience with Black Harvest Festival and tell us about his experience with Sergio who crafted his career.

- My first film wasn't in Black Harvest, we have to go back literally six years before that from my first experience at Black Harvest.

I was a senior in Columbia College, and I attended Black Harvest Panel discussion with a bunch of different directors on the panel.

I remember to this day, Sergio was moderating it.

Barbara Allen's on the panel and some other directors.

And it just fueled me and inspired me and motivated me to just get on my grind, study my craft.

And hearing Sergio, not just interview everybody but ask the right questions and showcase his profound knowledge of writing and story and movies, I said, "I gotta meet this brother."

So after the panel discussion I went over to introduce myself to Sergio and I started a lifelong relationship where he started to mentor me and gimme insight about writing.

'Cause I was still a writer as well because I knew as a filmmaker come outta film school no one's gonna hire me to direct myself, so I have to hire myself.

And to hire yourself, you have to create jobs and writing creates jobs and opportunities for yourself.

So I started exploring the craft of writing and Sergio was very instrumental in that.

And you can call him he talked forever at any time and he was always accessible so much.

So that when I did my first film one week, I said, "Sergio, you gotta make a cameo in the movie.

You gotta be in the movie, dude.

We got a scene for you, it's a bachelor party.

You gotta show up."

And he showed up and you see the film, you see his face he comes speaking around the corner looking in, there's Sergio.

And my buddy Kenny and I when we co-wrote the film and produced the film and Kenny starred in it, we knew that we had to get Sergio in there because the the type of love he showed us, was like, "Sergio you gotta be a part of this dude."

And he's been literally a soldier for us as independent filmmakers and has fueled our careers from day one.

And this is me going...

I'm 51 now, I met Sergio, I was 22.

- So what's the significance of Black Harvest?

That's a beautiful story.

As you may remember, Sergio wrote for N'Digo, he was our film critic.

And when he started Black Harvest, he came to me and he says, "Hey, I got a project for us to do."

And us to do was Black Harvest.

But what has Black Harvest meant?

- So for me personally, it goes back to like I said before to you, I'm from the south side of Chicago, West Pullman.

And growing up in Chicago, movies and TV shows, a thousands of miles away.

That dream is so far away.

Black Harvest, bringing filmmakers in who are telling stories, showcasing shorts and feature films about us, our stories with people that look like us from our vantage point, it basically put a battery in my back like, "Oh, this is doable."

Not only is it doable, I'm seeing people around that are doing it and they're being ruled by their passion, they're being ruled by their craftsmanship.

So Black Harvest was like a a magnet that brought filmmakers from all around Chicago.

I mean, you you're in the forefront and you've been in the forefront.

But we have Center Space now.

We've got some things going up on the south side of Chicago, is Chicago, becoming a film center.

- I would say that we are improving.

- We're improving?

- Yeah, we are improving.

And I'm really glad that all of the... Because in 1971, we were it for a long time.

And I'm very proud of all the organizations that are now working with undeserved communities and underserved populations.

And so that to me is (indistinct) plus.

The other thing is that if you're taking the talent out of Chicago, it's not building the market here.

And if the film companies are bringing in their crews, then they're not employing filmmakers here.

So we have to develop an industry that's going to support our local filmmakers and local crew so that they can have a job and so that they can create.

Are we are we competitive with New York?

No, L.A..

Okay.

How about Atlanta?

Are we competitive with Atlanta?

I don't know.

I don't know.

It's tough.

Yeah.

I mean, we.

Still kind of secondary in the marketplace.

And, you know, the thing that brings people to Chicago, there's there's a few things where we beat other places.

One is our location, our locations, I should say the l you know, the lakefront, different things.

Although, you know, they find those in Toronto, sometimes they find them in other places, but also because of the theater community in Chicago, we have a great talent pool of actors.

We have an amazing talent pool of actors.

And we all we see them now.

They're in major movies and TV shows, so they're recruited there.

They come scouting for.

Yeah.

So I think those are things that we have.

But, you know, it all boils down to money.

- So what can we see and what are we looking for for Black Harvest Film Festival?

What are we looking at?

The festival itself - To be in the festival, they're almost all premieres.

So people haven't seen 'em before, so that's exciting.

But then we also love to do legacy screening.

So we're closing with "Boomerang," "Cooley High," Sergio loved "Cooley High," so we're showing "Cooley High."

And then they just restored "Buck and the Preacher," which was Sidney Poitier's first directorial film.

And so it's been restored and it's a beautiful 4K print.

So we're screening that.

So there's... Oh, and we're also doing "Malcolm X."

So there's... With Denzel.

- With Denzel Washington?

- With Denzel, yeah.

So there's really, you could just come any night and watch whatever and- - But you can also stream.

- It's something great.

There's a selection of the films.

Not all of the films will be available, but there'll be a selection of the films and all the shorts will be available to stream.

- So Margaret, what's your favorite film of all time?

- "What's Your Story?"

The 50 year Journey of the Community Film Workshop.

(all laughing) - That's a great film.

- Simply because, and Amir asked me, could he see it?

He wants to see it again.

Because we have so much archival footage of the program and of JT with the students and what our whole purpose for has- - JT, Jim Taylor, your husband?

- My late husband, yes.

- Who started all of this.

- Yes, he did.

- Okay.

- And then we bring it up to date through our programs with the Production Institute, our Youth In Motion, Diverse Voices, Reel Black Filmmakers.

So and people get to really see what the organization is.

But, you know, it's just it's it's just a phenomenal feat for a black organization to last for 50 years.

- That's right, that's right.

But all costs, bravo.

- Kudos to you.

- But what film has made a difference?

- I'm gonna say I liked "Color Purple."

And my nephew came and visited me one summer, he went through the program and he watched it over and over again.

And I said, "Why you watching?"

But it was a coming of age.

- Yes.

- And it retold an uplifting story with all of that tragedy.

And then Cecily Tyson and, oh goodness gracious, "Sounder."

- "Sounder" was good.

"Sounder" was good.

- It made a great impact.

- Amir, what film has really maybe just punched in the gut?

- I would say "The Spook Who Sat by the Door" by Ivan Dixon and by Sam Greenlee.

That was a good one.

You know what film I like The View.

I remember Putney Swope.

Oh, yes.

Oh yeah, I have a joke, but I won't say, you know.

This is a family show.

Ma.

I thought that was Oh, it was that.

- It's important that we tell our stories.

And it's important that these films have breath and life and get exposed.

I'm excited by streaming, because you see such a qualitative difference between network television and streaming services.

And I'm a streaming person.

I haven't I the last I went to see Watts Stacks at at Gene Siskel about a month ago, that was do you remember WattStax?

WattStax was a film that was done in California, Stax Records.

- Oh Yah Yah Yah!

Rev.

Jackson was in it.

And I took his youngest son.

I took Yusef.

I said, Yusef, we're going to the movies.

I want to show you something.

And I didn't think he had seen it, and he hadn't, but he'd heard about it.

But he he was he wasn't born at that time.

And I took we had the best time.

And when his father came up, he says, Hey, there's Dad.

And I said, Yeah, there's I want you to see the film.

But there's certain films that have just they revolutionized.

Yes.

I mean, and they they hit you.

They hit you in the gut.

And these stories is so important.

You all do a fine, fine work.

Don't stop.

Keep doing this.

And I want you all to look at these streaming services because it's a real outlet.

It's a new outlet.

And it's it's such a great outlet for for these for the productions that you do, The quality that you do.

Thank you so much for being us.

- Thank you, thank you.

- We're dedicating Black Harvester, Sergio and God knows we will remember him.

Thank you, we remember Jim.

- Thank you.

- He was such a wonderful guy.

- Yes he was.

- And he was so determined to share his knowledge.

And congratulations to you.

- Thank you.

- You got a lot of work to do.

(all laughing) - Thank you.

- Thanks for being with us.

This is Hermene Hartman with N'Digo Studio.

See you next time.

For more information about this show, follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Funding for this program was provided by State of Illinois Representative Allison Ford.

Community Trust, the Field Foundation, Commonwealth Edison, Broadway, Chicago and Governors State University.

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