The San Diego Black Film Festival is one of the largest black

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

s in the United States. It was founded in 2002 as the Noir Film Festival and takes place annually in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the fi ...

, to recognize

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

movies and production. The festival's motto is "Spotlight on African American and

African Diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

Cinema".

History

The San Diego Black Film Festival, originally known as the Noir Film Festival, began in 2003 in a hotel room in the

Gaslamp Quarter The Gaslamp Quarter is a 16½-block neighborhood in the downtown area of San Diego, California. It extends from Broadway to Harbor Drive, and from 4th to 6th Avenue. Listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places as ...

. Three films were shown, and approximately 20 people attended. In 2006 the name of the festival was changed to the San Diego Black Film Festival because the organizers realized that there was confusion with "

Film Noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

". By 2011, with 120 films scheduled and between 15,000 and 30,000 attendees expected, the festival had become one of the largest black film festivals in the United States and one of the most important festivals in San Diego. The festival screens films in the following categories: comedy, drama, documentaries, animation, GLBT, horror, religious, foreign/African Diaspora, shorts, feature films and

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

s. The festival also hosts panes and reception banquets. Venues have included United Artists Theatre in the

Westfield Horton Plaza Horton Plaza, not to be confused with its adjacent namesake Horton Plaza Park, was a five-level outdoor shopping mall located in downtown San Diego. It was known for its bright colors, architectural tricks, and odd spatial rhythms. It stood on 6.5 ...

mall, the Pacific Gaslamp multiplex, the

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

Grossmont Theater in La Mesa,

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** AM ...

Fashion Valley Fashion Valley (also referred to Fashion Valley Mall) is an upscale, open-air shopping mall in Mission Valley in San Diego, California. The shopping center has of leasable floor area, making it the largest mall in San Diego and one of the larges ...

Theaters, UltraStar

Mission Valley Mission Valley is a wide river valley trending east–west in San Diego, California, United States, through which the San Diego River flows to the Pacific Ocean. For planning purposes the city of San Diego divides it into two neighborhoods: Missi ...

and the Theatre Box downtown. In 2017 it expanded to three theaters and began developing a Black Film Centre, which will ultimately host the festival as well as housing an archive. Karen Willis is the director of the festival;

Robin Givens Robin may refer to: Animals * Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae * Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including: **European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'') ** Bush-robin **Forest ro ...

has hosted it a number of times.

References

External links

{{Portal, California, Film
Official website
African-American film festivals African Americans in California Film festivals in San Diego Film festivals established in 2002