Civil Rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
Legacy Project that has traditionally taken place in various locations across Washington, D.C. It offers film screenings, an emerging and student filmmaker competition, various award ceremonies, performances of the arts, exhibits and panel discussions featuring filmmakers, academics, and activists.
The Festival was founded in 2013 by
Robert Raben
Robert Raben (born November 11, 1963) is the founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying and consulting firm The Raben Group, and was Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice under former President Bill Clinton.
...
, former Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice under former
President Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...
, and founder of The Raben Group, a national public policy firm in Washington D.C. The March on Washington Film Festival features film, first-person accounts, scholarship, and the performing and visual arts to share stories based on the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
.
Description
The flagship festival was founded in 2013 in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...
Kitty Kelley
Katherine Kelley (born April 4, 1942) is an American journalist and author of best-selling unauthorized biographies of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Reagan, the British Royal Family, the Bush family, and ...
;
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning historians
Taylor Branch
Taylor Branch (born January 14, 1947) is an American author and historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and much of the history of the American civil rights movement. The final volume o ...
Diane McWhorter
Rebecca Diane McWhorter is an American journalist, commentator, and author who has written extensively about race and the history of civil rights. She won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction and the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize in 2002 for ...
, and
Isabel Wilkerson
Isabel Wilkerson (born 1961) is an American journalist and the author of '' The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration'' (2010) and '' Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents'' (2020). She is the first woman of African-A ...
,
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
s
Eugene Robinson
Eugene Keefe Robinson (born May 28, 1963) is a former American football safety who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He spent the majority of his career with the Seattle Seahawks, who signed him as an undrafted free age ...
and
Hank Klibanoff
Hank Klibanoff (born March 26, 1949 in Florence, Alabama) is an American journalist, now a professor at Emory University. He and Gene Roberts won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for History for the book '' The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Str ...
Diahann Carroll
Diahann Carroll (; born Carol Diann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. She rose to prominence in some of the earliest major studio films to feature black casts, including ''Car ...
Dorie Ladner
Dorie Ann Ladner (born 1942) is an American civil rights activist.
Early life
Dorie Ladner was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on June 28, 1942. In high school, Ladner joined the NAACP Youth Council in Hattiesburg. In this organization, she me ...
,
Rep
Rep, REP, or a variant may refer to:
As a word
* Rep (fabric), a ribbed woven fabric made from various materials
* ''Rep'' (TV series), a 1982 British comedy series
* '' The Rep'', an entertainment guide published by the ''Arizona Republic'' 1997 ...
Rev. C.T. Vivian
Cordy Tindell Vivian (July 30, 1924July 17, 2020) was an American minister, author, and close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights movement. Vivian resided in Atlanta, Georgia, and founded the C. T. Vivian Lead ...
, and Judge
Damon Keith
Damon Jerome Keith (July 4, 1922 – April 28, 2019) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern Distr ...
In 2013, the festival was founded in honor of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Since then, the festival has occurred annually in the Washington, D.C. area.
2014
The 2014 festival toured to three cities: Atlanta, Georgia, New York, New York, and Washington, D.C. Films included "Sam Cooke: Legend” with a performance by members of Ebenezer Baptist Church choir, and “Nothing But a Man,” followed by talk by Georgia State University Professor Jonathan Gayles. Isisara Bey, former radio personality, television news producer,
Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...
and
Sony Music
Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainment ...
executive, joined the festival in 2014 as Artistic Director, and has continued to guide its cultural, historic and artistic vision.
2015
For the 2015 festival, the opening night focused on Fannie Lou Hamer, featuring the film "This Little Light of Mine: The Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer,” with panelists including filmmaker Robin Hamilton, Vergie Hamer Faulkner, Dorie Ladner, Dr. Leslie McLemore, Reverend Ed King and Eleanor Holmes Norton.
The second night, A’lelia Bundles moderated a panel discussion that included Clarence Jones, Taylor Branch, Gilbert King and Diane McWhorter, and Michael Eric Dyson.
2016
In 2016, the Emerging and Student Filmmaker Competition was introduced to the festival. It is managed by Opal H. Bennett, Festival Consultant. This was also the first year that MOWFF served as collaborator for the
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...
and
New York Public Radio
New York Public Radio (NYPR) is the owner of WNYC (AM), WNYC-FM, WNYC Studios, WQXR-FM, New Jersey Public Radio, and the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. Combined, New York Public Radio owns WNYC (AM), WNYC-FM, WQXR-FM, WQXW, WNJT-FM, WNJP ...
The 2017 March on Washington Film Festival took place from July 13th to July 22nd and consisted of 21 events. This year featured the first annual Vivian Malone Courage Award which was awarded to author Ta-Nehisi Coates by Vivian Malone's sister, Dr. Sharon Malone, whose husband is the former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Vivian Malone
Vivian Juanita Malone Jones (July 15, 1942 – October 13, 2005) was one of the first two black students to enroll at the University of Alabama in 1963, and in 1965 became the university's first black graduate. She was made famous when George Wal ...
was one of two students who integrated the
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and la ...
and was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Alabama.
This was also the first year the March on Washington Film Festival hosted the Freedom's Children Student Journalists Competition. High school and undergraduate students from around the country submitted writing samples for the chance to publish original work covering the film festival in various major news outlets.
2018
The 2018 March on Washington Film Festival began on July 12 and went through July 21, and included 27 events.
The Festival's Opening Night event was a Tribute to Sonia Sanchez, seminal figure of the 1960s
Black Arts Movement
The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from ...
, who has raised her voice as a poet, playwright, teacher, activist, early
Spoken word
Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...
artist and thought leader in African American culture for over half a century. Amanda Gorman, the first US National Youth Poet Laureate and inaugural poet for President Biden, delivered an original composition in Sanchez's honor.
That same year, MOWFF proudly hosted an art exhibit presented by Black Art in America, and curated by its founder, artist
Najee Dorsey
Najee Dorsey (born 1973) is a contemporary American visual artist known for using mixed-media, collage, paint and photographic works that depict Southern African American experience and culture.
Biography
Najee Dorsey was born Jan. 26, 1973 in ...
. The exhibit featured the work of the ''Spiral Group'', a collective of famed artists including Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Hale Woodruff and Emma Amos among others. The Group formed in 1963 in support of the March On Washington for Jobs and Freedom of that year. Their mission was to use their art and influence for
social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
. The name "spiral" referred to the Archimedean spiral that moves outward, embracing all directions, while continually moving upward. The MOWFF exhibit paired works from the original Spiral Group with that of contemporary African American artists.
2019
The 2019 festival celebrated women in the civil rights movement.Ferguson, Eve M. Film Festival Focuses on Women in Civil Rights Movement. The Washington Informer. Retrieved 2021-06-29. It consisted of 22 events and was held in Washington, D.C. from September 22–29. This year introduced the March on Washington Film Festival Inaugural Awards Gala, and honored
Congresswoman
A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
Terri Sewell, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, and Dr. Joyce Ladner. The Lifetime Legacy award was given to Nikki Giovanni.
The death of 14-year-old
Emmett Till
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery ...
in 1955 was the foundation for the Festival program She Lied – Carolyn Bryant and the Murder of Emmett Till. The acquittal of Till's murderers (Bryant's husband and brother-in-law), by an all-white jury galvanized the
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
. A panel of historians following this film examined the historical roles white women played in white nationalist thinking from the 1700s to the present day and was moderated by former assistant to President Obama,
Tina Tchen
Christina M. Tchen (born January 25, 1956) is an American lawyer and a former official in the President Barack Obama Administration. She was CEO of Time's Up from 2019 to 2021, when she resigned following allegations that she provided legal aid ...
.
Also in 2019, MOWFF commissioned an original production of music and dramatic readings, written and composed by
Nolan Williams, Jr.
Nolan E. Williams Jr. is an American composer, musicologist, and producer. He was an editor of the ''African American Heritage Hymnal''.
Early life and education
Williams grew up the son, grandson and great-grandson of Baptist ministers. At the ...
on the little known Contested Congressional Election of
Annie Devine
Annie Bell Robinson Devine (1912–2000) was an American activist in the Civil Rights Movement.
Biography
Born in Mobile, Alabama and raised in Canton, Mississippi, Devine attended Tougaloo College, similar to Anne Moody (also in the Civil Righ ...
, Fannie Lou Hamer and Victoria Gray. It tells the story of the three aforenamed Civil Rights activists who contested the seating of the all-white, all male Mississippi Democratic delegation, all the way to the floor of Congress. Their challenge, supported by several white Members of Congress, caused a postponement of the Mississippi delegation's swearing-in, and prompted a year-long hearing in 1965 including depositions from Devine, Hamer and Gray. The production's libretto is transcribed from actual transcripts of those hearings taken from the Congressional Record.
2020
With the onset of the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, in-person events were canceled. In its stead, a virtual festival was introduced and took place from September 20-19, 2020. At the 2020 Gala, Congressman John Lewis was posthumously honored with the March on Washington Lifetime Legacy award.
2021
In the spring of 2021, The March on Washington Film Festival offered a series of three workshops for student and emerging filmmakers.Minding Your Movie Business: Pro Tips for Writers, Directors and Producers . March on Washington Film Festival. Retrieved 2021-06-07. The first workshop was geared toward writers, the second for directors, and the last for producers. They featured presentations and panels of professionals in the film industry and one of the winning films from the Emerging and Student Competition.