- And finally today, the fifth annual Detroit Black Film Festival takes place at various venues around the city on September 25th through the 29th.

The lineup includes 57 independent films from 13 countries and from Africa.

New this year is the Taste of Black Spirits National Conference, which is part of the festival.

Here's a peek at one of the films, followed by my conversation with the festival's co-directors, Marshalle and Lazar Favors.

- What's mine?

- So, what kind of night is it?

- You got somewhere to be?

(laughs) - But you said just the one, so- - We both know it's never just the one.

(upbeat music) I'm not ready for the night to end.

- Even though we both know I shouldn't.

♪ Yeah yeah yeah - Why next?

- Marshalle and Lazar Favors, I love seeing you, but I especially love seeing you guys in advance of the film festival, which is now five years old.

I actually can't believe it is five years old, but it's coming up again.

Tell us about this year's Detroit Black Film Festival.

- Thanks so much for having us.

We're super excited.

Detroit Black Film Festival, plus Taste of Black Spirits, it's a dual event, happens September 25th through the 29th.

We have four screening locations.

We are kicking it off with short films, and feature films, and documentaries, everything across the board.

It's gonna be a really, really great time.

- Yeah, yeah.

So the cocktail end of this is new, Lazar.

(laughs) Why do I suspect this was your idea?

(laughs) - Well, we've introduced the event in 2021, called Taste the Black Spirits.

And we've been traveling, taking that event across the United States, and last year, we decided to why not blend both of our events together, right?

Why not add the cocktail concierge to the cinema and culture?

So we blended it last year and it worked to perfection.

We were able to combine our audiences and give them both an experience that neither one had experienced or would not have experienced if it was not going on at the same time.

So it worked very well and we decided to do it from now on, actually, so Taste of Black Spirits and Detroit Black Film Festival will happen at the same time within each other from now on.

- But let's go back to the beginning and talk about how much this festival has grown.

It has become much more than it started out as, isn't that right?

- That's correct.

- It's interesting because when we first started Detroit Black Film Festival, (laughs) it started during the pandemic.

- I remember that.

- And so, absolutely.

And so our first year it wasn't what we expected, but it actually turned out to be really great because we were able to gain an international audience from around the world because it was virtual.

We had all of our films that were screening online and the connection that we had doing the Zoom calls and being able to connect artists with the audience virtually worked out really, really great.

And then once we were back in full effect, in person, it just made it that much more exciting because people got to be in the same place and the same space as the filmmakers.

People that had made connections during the pandemic were able to come to Detroit and meet each other personally and experience their films in person as well.

So it's grown in a sense that our audience has grown, and even with the number of films.

We have 57 films from around the world this year that we are featuring.

- Yeah.

Let's talk about the films and how you choose them.

You usually have quite a bit from Detroit and you are great at featuring Detroiters, but as you point out, the films come from all over the world as well.

Let's walk through the process of how you figure out what's in the festival and then tell us what we should be excited about this year.

- Well, it comes from the diaspora.

So we have films that come from all around the world, and the criteria, we start with a jury and they have 10 different categories that they rate the films in.

And some of them are really technical, like production quality, sound, all those things, but honestly, the biggest, I think, criteria is just overall entertainment, quality entertainment.

Do we think our audience are going to enjoy this particular film?

And so it narrows down to that, and we get hundreds of films.

We deliberate and then our final lineup is what people come out to experience.

And we have several screening locations, the Michigan State University Detroit Center, the Marlene Boll YMCA Theater that's downtown, and the Car Center Performance Studio as well.

The Car Center usually has the documentary films.

We have a number of films that we're calling our "Racial and Social Justice" series.

So for those who like social impact films, we have that.

At the YMCA, most of them are feature films, and those are kind of our urban films, our dramas, but we do have some romantic comedy in there as well.

And so there's something for just everyone to enjoy.

- So Lazar, tell me about the spirits and what people will be able to experience with that part.

- So last year we introduced Rod Isley.

So he'll be back with us this year.

We are also doing a grand tasting of Beyonce's Sir Davis whiskey.

We're doing a, I wanna say a private grand sampling in the Cage Jewels Lounge.

So we created some lounges for brands and products for folks who participate in the lounges, but also we have three days of education.

So we bring in spirit buyers from Meyer, we bring in folks who have offered capital, distributors like MHW, and so forth.

And we also have Derrick Whitehead, who is a financial guru, who comes in and talks about how to structure your business, how to use your money wisely, which is very important for all of us, right?

But it's gonna be a great time.

And then the sampling itself, you're able to sample over 150 African American-owned spirit brands, beer, wines, and beverages.

When I say beverages 'cause we also have non-alcoholic items and beverages.

And we also are presenting some of our Detroit products, like Nikki's Ginger Tea, our guy Black Eden from Out of Idle Wild, and several other brands.

So it's gonna be a great time.

It's gonna be full of education, entertainment, and elevation is what I like to call it.

- Yeah.

(pair laughs) - So you've been doing this for five years.

I wonder if y'all can reflect some on the effect that you feel like this festival is having on Detroiters, on film, on black film and the support for it.

It seems like there's a lot of momentum that's just been built up while y'all have been doing this.

- There's been a lot of momentum that is built up within the last five years, especially in the Detroit community.

I know that our community, like the independent film community kind of knows this, but I don't know if the broader community knows how much content is really being made here.

I could say that there's at least three to four feature film productions that are happening in Detroit, in the metro Detroit area, on a consistent basis.

And some of those films are in our festival as well.

So this is a great time to see the film.

Some of them are on streaming platforms already, but this is a time for you to connect directly with the producers, directors, the actors that are in these films.

And the momentum is just going to increase and get even stronger, I think, and festivals like this gives artists a platform for the community to really experience what's happening in the Detroit independent film community, and the independent community across the board.

- Yeah, yeah.

Go ahead, Lazar.

- And I think it gives us, as filmmakers, and as independent filmmakers who are working in the market, there's an opportunity to hear their voices, right?

To tell these stories that we may not hear on a large or a huge festival, or streaming channel.

But we've seen some short films, I'm talking about some amazing short films, since day one.

Our very first year, I think, we only had very few films, but 90% of those films, so the first year of Detroit Black Film Festival was difficult to choose because it was so many, it was so many great films that were submitted that we end up awarding probably 60% of the films that we chose because they were all great films.

And the stories range from narrative to short documentaries to, it was a film called "About Our Hair," right?

About the Black hair.

It was a great film about that.

So the things that folks we're able to reach and the things we're able to achieve with what we do, 'cause we're very intentional about what it is we do.

We're very intentional about delivering the message and the power of our voices and the power of what we are able to do as Black people.

And I think this is one of those platforms that really gives us, as Black people, an opportunity to really raise awareness about our experiences.

- And what's really great is that you are gonna see some new faces, up and coming actors that you may not have known before.

And you're also gonna see some very seasoned actors that have household name recognition, like Lynn Woodfield and Malik Yoba and Aunjanue Ellis.

And so it's gonna be an array of what folks are gonna experience.

- Yeah, yeah.

- And we definitely got our Detroit filmmakers in there, right, we definitely got those in there.

Got some great films happening, and those films will play at the Marlene Boll Theater.

Some great actors, some great films, and we've always supported our hometown filmmakers.

We try to give them as much of a stage presence as possible because we have a lot of visitors and we want them to really shine in that, and we set the presentation up for them to really shine.

- Who are making a name in their own right.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

All right, well again, Marshalle and Lazar, it's always great to see you and I'm always really excited about the work you're doing with the film festival.

Thanks so much for being here on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

And people can find out more about the film festival at Film Freeway, Detroit Black Film Festival.

- All right, thank you.