African-American Film Festival Transcends Race

Director Eduardo Montes-Bradley vividly remembers the day he sent University of Virginia professor and social activist Julian Bond a very specific email—not only the subject matter, which regarded his newest documentary about the civil rights movement, but the response.

“In about half an hour, he said, ‘Come in and bring your camera. Let’s chat,’” Mr. Montes-Bradley recalled of Mr. Bond during a telephone interview last week. “When I walked in, he said, ‘Let’s make a movie.’”

Mr. Bond was born into an erudite family—his mother, Julia, was a librarian, and his father, Horace, would go on to be the first African-American president of Lincoln University, a position that moved his family from Tennessee to Pennsylvania in 1945.

Almost two decades later, the civil rights movement pulled Mr. Bond’s attention away from his studies at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee before dropping out in 1961.

“The children of the bourgeoisie led the movement forward. It’s usually the enlightened who are less conservative,” Mr. Montes-Bradley said. “Don’t forget, he grew up on a campus. He grew up with some of the most studious black intellectual scholars of the 1960s. You don’t have to come from a struggling background in order to raise the flag and carry the torch.”

Mr. Bond relives the civil rights movement and approaches it from a personal perspective in Mr. Montes-Bradley’s 30-minute film, “Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement,” which will screen on Sunday, October 4, during the 10th annual African American Film Festival at the Southampton Arts Center.

During a time when “#BlackLivesMatter” is trending and racism is alive and well in America, the 10th annual African American Film Festival—presented by the Southampton African American Museum—is particularly poignant. The slate of feature and documentary films, spoken word and theater from Thursday, October 1, through Sunday, October 4, showcase activists, artists and icons who have had a hand in moving the United States forward.

Among them is R&B icon Marvin Gaye. Director Sam Pollard describes his life as Shakespearean, culminating in a “Hamlet”-esque tragedy at the hands of his father on April 1, 1984—all ground covered in his biopic, “Marvin Gaye: What’s Going On,” which will screen on Friday, October 2.

“Marvin Gaye and my birthday are the same day, April 2,” Mr. Pollard said last week during a telephone interview. “It was a really fun project. I got a chance to interview Smokey Robinson, Mary Wilson, Gladys Knight, and Otis from the Temptations for it. It was a very fun job.”

The film follows Gaye through his childhood—specifically, the painful relationship with his father—and the many loves of his life, including drugs and wives, as well as Motown.

“I think the most surprising thing was to learn that he was an extremely ambitious man,” Mr. Pollard said. “He was able to get to Motown and carve out a career. You know, he married [Motown Records founder] Berry Gordy’s sister, Anna, which was a smart move. I’m not sure it was 100-percent love. It was a very calculating move.

“Most of us are looking for love, and sometimes that can be painful and self-destructive,” he continued. “The complexity of his personality, his issues with women and drugs. He didn’t deal with these issues effectively.”

When asked who was the real love of Gaye’s life, Mr. Pollard paused. “When [his duet partner] Tammi Terrell died, he went into a kind of depression. I don’t know about the love of his life, though. I think the love of Marvin’s life was Marvin.”

Incidentally, Mr. Pollard edited another film that will screen on October 2 at the festival, “Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks” by Craig Laurence Rice, an intimate look at the life and career of the man who most famously directed the film “Shaft,” but also excelled as a novelist, journalist, poet, musician and photographer, according to film producer Bruce Nalepinski.

“I can’t say enough about his track record in terms of documenting what was going on in this country for years. He was the first African-American hired by Life magazine. His photography was transcendent,” Mr. Nalepinski said. “A lot of what Gordon wanted to say about the world came through his photographs. That’s why all the collections of his work are still traveling the world to this day.”

With exposure to both Gaye and Parks, Mr. Pollard draws a stark line between the two greats.

“On the one hand you have Marvin Gaye, a phenomenal performer and singer who creates ground-breaking music that will live on forever—an intense, complicated and self-destructive life, which basically finished him off at a young age with his father killing him,” he said. “Then you have Gordon Parks, another African-American male who came from a humble beginning, like Marvin, whose agenda to be a success is a different kind of journey. Photographer, composer, filmmaker, writer and he lived into his 90s. He’s an iconic person. Most black people don’t even know about him. Gordon was complicated, too, but in a way that complexities of his life did not cause him to implode like with Marvin.”

Something similar could be said of artist Winfred Rembert, who first crossed paths with film director Vivian Ducat during an art opening, she recalled last week during a telephone interview.

“It was on Madison Avenue full of white people with green pants,” she said. “There was one African-American person in the room who had a large presence. I asked him where he learned to make art and he said, ‘In prison,’ with a raised eyebrow.”

It was after a brief conversation with Mr. Rembert, who was explaining how he’d met his wife, Patsy, during his time on a chain gang, that she realized that there was a film here.

“All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert,” which will screen on Friday, October 2, follows the current story of Mr. Rembert, who is now in his 60s and passes the time by creating intricate paintings on leather. The work can be unsettling: scenes of toiling in cotton fields, working on chain gangs, bigotry and injustice carved, hammered and painted onto the tanned leather.

“He’s just a very original guy. He has a great sense of adventure. You’re always on a mission with him, he has a great energy,” Ms. Ducat said. “For example, lately, he’s been wearing this funny yellow shirt with some paint on it. I asked him, ‘You’re wearing this same shirt again. What’s that about?’ He said it makes him look like an artist. I said, ‘Yeah, it does.’ He is really into images in this amazing way.”

Much like his paintings, Mr. Rembert’s storytelling flows nonstop, often overlapping and weaving, making him a tough interview, Ms. Ducat said. “I didn’t ask him that many questions,” she said. “What was amazing was we’d start at 9:30 in the morning and we didn’t even go outside until 6 p.m. He told story after story. What’s really amazing was his wife, Patsy, how much stuff she had kept. He told me a story about how he drew something that showed the two of them in a car where they are waving bye-bye. When I asked him where it was he said it probably didn’t exist, but then she would yell out, ‘Yes it does!’ She produced all the letters he had sent her during prison and found the item we were talking about. Every time.”

His art is joyful and colorful despite its subject matter. The style has a distinctly traditional African hand with pattern over pattern, color over color. The leather itself has its own texture and smell. He is revered. Despite this, he still lives the life of a poor man in a New Haven. And, yet, he incorporates humanity into everything he does.

Art can be a discovery, as it was when Mr. Bradley turned his camera on Mr. Bond. During the course of their interviews, Mr. Bond brought up poetry from his youth—which he attempted to discredit.

“I had him read them in front of the camera. He said, ‘You’re right, they’re nice,’” Mr. Bradley said, laughing. “After he died, the obituaries and notes wrote about him as a poet. The truth of the matter is that he rediscovered himself as a poet through our film. Mr. Bond said after making our film, ‘I’m going to give it another shot.’”

Mr. Bond died at age 75 on August 15, which was followed by President Obama releasing the statement: “Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life. Julian Bond helped change this country for the better. And what better way to be remembered than that.”

“There is a big connection between Bond and Obama,” Mr. Bradley said. “Mr. Obama has shown support for Mr. Bond all throughout the last 10 years. Obama is what Mr. Bond could have been but the country was not ready.

“Mr. Bond was nominated as vice president at the Democratic National Convention in 1968, but he was too young to accept,” Mr. Bradley continued. “He tried to run for the democratic nomination for president in 1976. I have the T-shirts and bumper stickers. When I asked him what happened, he said he could never raise the money to run.”

He was the Obama that was not meant to be, Mr. Bradley said. He was certainly ahead of his time.

The 10th annual African American Film Festival “Sing Your Song” will kick off with the East End premiere of the stage play “Martin, Malcolm and Me” by J.D. Lawrence, followed by a Q&A, on Thursday, October 1, from 6:30 p.m. at the Southampton Arts Center. Advance tickets are $30 and $20 for children, or $35 and $25 at the door, respectively.

The festival will continue on Friday, October 2, with an evening of spoken word and jazz from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Southampton Arts Center. Advance tickets are $30, or $35 at the door.

Film screenings will be held on Saturday, October 3, from 1 to 9 p.m. and Sunday, October 4, at the Southampton Arts Center. Admission is $12 per film, or $15 at the door. The final film, “Bessie,” is open to the public.

For more information, visit southamptonafricanamericanmuseum.org.