{"id":235421,"date":"2012-02-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/san-diego-black-film-festival-awards-announced\/"},"modified":"2012-02-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T08:00:00","slug":"san-diego-black-film-festival-awards-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/san-diego-black-film-festival-awards-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"San Diego Black Film Festival awards announced"},"content":{"rendered":"

S. Epatha Merkerson\u2019s documentary of the antebellum South takes home top honors<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Anthony King | Downtown News<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"San<\/a>
S. Epatha Merkerson (Courtesy "The Contradictions of Fair Hope")<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The powerful documentary \u201cThe Contradictions of Fair Hope\u201d was the big winner at this year\u2019s San Diego Black Film Festival, which took place Jan. 26 \u2013 29 at the Reading Gaslamp Cinemas. The film, directed by S. Epatha Merkerson and Rockell C. Metcalf, won Best Film, Best Director, Best Documentary and the Filmmaker\u2019s Choice Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations to all the winners and a special thanks to all the filmmakers who participated in the 2012 San Diego Black Film Festival,\u201d said Festival Director Karen Willis. Downtown\u2019s Black Film Festival is one of the largest black film festivals in the country with over 100 African-American and African Diaspora films screened each year.<\/p>\n

Merkerson is best known for her role as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren on NBC\u2019s \u201cLaw and Order,\u201d and received an Emmy, Golden Globe, Screen Actor\u2019s Guild, Gracie Allen and Image Award for her performance in the HBO movie \u201cLackawanna Blues.\u201d \u201cThe Contradictions of Fair Hope\u201d is her first feature film project.<\/p>\n

Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, the documentary examines a time in United States history that is not well known, when, in July 1865, over four million slaves had been freed and were forced to cope with the realities of the newfound freedom. The film focuses on The Fair Hope Benevolent Society in Uniontown, Ala., one of many \u201cbenevolent societies\u201d that were created at the time to respond to the hunger, illness and fear of these communities.<\/p>\n

Other winners at this year\u2019s festival include \u201cThe Custom Mary\u201d for Best Religious Film and Best Cutting Edge Film as well as the South African entry, \u201cGlitterboys and Ganglands,\u201d for Best LGBT film. The documentary follows a group of female impersonators competing in the Miss Gay Western Cape contest and addresses issues of poverty, HIV, gangs and attitudes toward sexuality.<\/p>\n

\u201cGlitterboys\u201d director Lauren Beukes, who could not attend this year\u2019s Festival, said, \u201cWhile [\u201cGlitterboys and Ganglands\u201d] might be of special interest to the LGBT community, I think it’s totally accessible and universal for general audiences, too. I’m interested in telling compelling stories about fascinating real lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beukes said being selected for the Festival was an honor, and was thankful for San Diego for hosting an international film as part of the selections. \u201cGetting international recognition for what you do is amazing,\u201d she said, \u201cnot just for the filmmakers, but for the girls who competed in the pageant, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complete list of winners follows:<\/p>\n

Best Film: \u201cThe Contradictions of Fair Hope\u201d
\nBest Drama: \u201cLesson Before Love\u201d
\nBest Director: S. Epatha Merkerson and Rockell C. Metcalf for \u201cThe Contradictions of Fair Hope\u201d
\nBest Diaspora: \u201cTies That Bind\u201d
\nBest Religious Film: \u201cThe Custom Mary\u201d
\nBest Documentary: \u201cThe Contradictions of Fair Hope\u201d
\nBest LGBT: \u201cGlitterboys and Ganglands\u201d
\nBest Short: \u201cBrotherly Love\u201d
\nBest Comedy: \u201cCamp Kickitoo\u201d
\nBest Actor: Choice Skinner for \u201cBrotherly Love\u201d
\nBest Cutting Edge Film: \u201cThe Custom Mary\u201d
\nFilmmaker\u2019s Choice Award: \u201cThe Contradictions of Fair Hope\u201d
\nBest Music Video: \u201cWhip my Mane\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S. Epatha Merkerson\u2019s documentary of the antebellum South takes home top honors By Anthony King | Downtown News The powerful documentary \u201cThe Contradictions of Fair Hope\u201d was the big winner at this year\u2019s San Diego Black Film Festival, which took place Jan. 26 \u2013 29 at the Reading Gaslamp Cinemas. The film, directed by S. […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":235422,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"San Diego Black Film Festival awards announced","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}