Not Just Selma

Wow, this year’s Oscars are just so depressingly white, aren’t they? Everyone’s in uproar over Selma getting robbed of deserving nominations, but the thing is, black people quite often make more than one good movie per year. So it was with 2014, and if you need a reminder (or just need cheering up over the tedious predictability of what happened to Selma), the Denton Black Film Festival arrives just in time. The inaugural event is headlined by screenings of Amma Asante’s Belle and Justin Simien’s Dear White People, two films from last year that took hoary old film genres (period romance and college coming-of-age satire) and gave them a refreshing new point of view.
Even if you already saw those movies in the theaters, there’s much more to the festival. The stock show crowd might well appreciate Cowboys of Color, Jacolby Percy and Coy Poitier’s documentary about American cowboys from various ethnic backgrounds. UTA professor and former Weekly profile subject Ya’Ke Smith contributes Wolf, a family drama about child abuse. Biyi Bandele’s Half of a Yellow Sun details a family saga in war-torn Nigeria and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and future Star Wars star John Boyega. And Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ The Black List, Vol. 1 interviews prominent African-Americans in different fields, including the entertainment industry. Can’t wait for Volume 2, especially if people talk about this year’s Oscars.

[box_info]The Denton Black Film Festival runs Fri-Sat at Campus Theatre, 214 E Hickory St, Denton. Tickets are $6-10, passes $12.50-100. Call 469-573-0799.[/box_info]