FEATURING ‘SUBJECTS of Desire‘ and Oscar Micheaux ‘The Superhero of Black Filmmaking,’ Britain’s biggest independent film festival Raindance is returning to cinemas, coming back reimagined, reinvented, and with a host of new partners and incredible new films.
“There’s nothing new about independent film, except that indie film is forever new,” Raindance founder Elliot Grove enthused.
“Independent filmmakers tell the most original and individual stories, using the medium of film to show every facet of the complex world we live in.
“Now that cinemas have reopened, Raindance is ready to re-connect with the energy, vibrancy and insurgent spirit of indie film – and this year we have some exciting new partners to join us on our mission.”
The festival will bring this year’s programme of ground-breaking indie features and shorts to a range of new venues as Raindance partners for the first time with local cinemas across London: Curzon Hoxton, Curzon Soho, Curzon Mayfair, Genesis Cinema, Regent Street Cinema and Bertha DocHouse.
Expanding on the experience of hosting a hybrid festival in 2020, when around 70 per cent of the online audience was located outside of London, this year Raindance endeavours to cultivate its digital reach. The in-cinema premieres will be supplemented by a full online programme of films via new digital partner Curzon Home Cinema.
Festival titles from the Official Selection will have a digital repeat screening, available UK-wide via the Curzon Home Cinema platform. Films will be available on a ‘pay per watch’ basis via Curzon Home Cinema’s iOS app, Android app and on Smart TVs.
Micheaux’s ‘The Superhero of Black Filmmaking‘ takes place on November 2 at the Curzon Hoxton and is peppered with pearls of wisdom by terrific contributors such as Chuck D, Amma Asante, Morgan Freeman, Kwame Kwei-Armah and Kevin Willmott.
Micheaux is the subject of the documentary which celebrates the first African American to produce a feature film by black people for black people (The Homesteader, 1919).
Before Spike Lee even existed, Micheaux had broken new ground with silent movies in the 1920s, embraced the advent of sound in 1931 (with The Exile) and went on to make his mark on the independent film scene for thirty years.
An insightful celebration of an iconic African American filmmaker, Francesco Zippel’s work presents Micheaux as an ambitious man who blazed a trail in black representation and counteracted white, racist views – Within Our Gates was made in response to The Birth of a Nation.
Told from the perspective of women who aren’t afraid to challenge conventional beauty standards, and featuring footage from the 50th Anniversary of the Miss Black America Pageant, Subjects of Desire is a culturally significant, provocative film that deconstructs what we understand about race and the power behind beauty.
Inspired by conversations between director Jennifer Holness and her three daughters, Subjects of Desire is a thought-provoking and candid documentary about what it means to be black and beautiful, and the role the media and history has played in creating an image of black women in society.
Through emotional interviews with Miss Black America Pageant contestants, singers, students and scholars, the three main stereotypes related to black women – the Sapphire or “angry black woman”, the obedient and motherly Mammy, and the overtly sexual Jezebel – are dissected, while recent examples of black female rappers and singers such as Nicky Minaj and Cardi B profiting from and being put in a box due to the Jezebel trope are explored.
Subjects of Desire, at the Curzon Hoxton, November 3,
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