Hollywood Black Film Festival 2008

We live in a society where fear is a driving force. Mainstream media bombards us everyday with warning messages against countless threats that could destroy our well-being. Fear serves a purpose from an evolutional standpoint: It makes us react when there is something or someone that could do us harm. But how reliable is that mechanism when anything and everything becomes a potential threat?

Kansas 1962. America's heartland. Rich, a small town teen, finds himself in a nightmare of his own creation when Bill, his older brother, picks him up on the way home from school one afternoon. What would appear to be an innocent joyride turns sinister when Mark, Bill's best friend, reveals Ira, a black teen new to the area, gagged and bound in the bed of the truck. Trapped in the situation with Jessica, his brother's girlfriend, it becomes clear that the humiliation and cruelty are but a prelude to the true purpose of the drive: a lynching. Called to repeat a rumor he told Mark, Rich is faced with a choice between family and the life of an innocent teen.

Kenya Jackson is from the inner city, Alton Sheffield come from a life of privilege; however these differences were not enough to keep them from fallen madly in love. It's the day of their dream wedding and family and friends have been cordially invited to attend. In spite of the bride's dirty little secret being exposed, a meddling mother in law, a drunken wedding crasher, feuding bridesmaids, and a philandering best man, the couple has vowed to make the best of their big day.

Set amidst the vast landscape of South Los Angeles, Crenshaw Nights is the story of Frank 'Jupiter' Johnson (Vondi Curtis-Hall, Talk to Me), an ex-con trying to walk the straight and narrow, working for a local bail bondsman hunting criminals down that fail to appear for their court dates. Jupiter's steady world of fast-deals and tricky seizures gets thrown in upheaval when an old friend and prison mentor, Irwin Mosely, approaches him for help with a serious problem involving the closing of his neighborhood business, a bookstore that's survived twenty years.Not one to flinch in the face of danger, Jupiter decides to help his old friend, but what starts as a series of calculated street moves, quickly escalates into a tangled web of deceit, and corruption, involving a millionaire property owner, a wild stick-up crew, a deceptive beauty with a shadowy past, and a ruthless bookie. Jupiter must navigate the labyrinth of this treacherous, hard-boiled world, where one false step could prove to be fatal...

As life goes on all around John's mother, Flossy sinks into seclusion. Will John's visit from afar awaken her and will daughter Susi persuade her to return to The Curry Club where husband Bob and neighbour Audrey are getting cosy.

Curtain Call follows Isaiah, an African-American artist, as he reaches for his dreams amidst the negative images and opinions about African-Americans held by the outside world. Using Shakespeare's famous 'To be or not to be' soliloquy as the spine, the film reveals how Isaiah, like Hamlet, decides between three options to overcome the obstacles in his path. Does he accept them, fight them or escape them through suicide? In the end, Isaiah realizes that he must commit a metaphorical suicide that of his ego which relies on others for love and acceptance in order to gain all of his desires.

“A Day In The Life” is a Hip Hop, action-drama, musical headlined by Sticky Fingaz who is making his directorial debut. The feature film stars many of Hollywood’s elite actors and actresses such as Mekhi Phifer, Omar Epps, Michael Rapaport, Clarence Williams III, Bokeem Woodbine, Drena De Niro, Tyrin Turner, Faizon Love, Fredro Starr, Troy Garity, Treach, Michael K. Williams, Ray J and Malinda Williams to name a few. We are taken through a single whirlwind day of a man torn between a normal family life and the allure of crime. A colorful cast of characters along the way throw him obstacles left and right...but who will remain standing when the smoke clears?

It is a dark time on the streets of London. An American serial killer 'The Cyber Vigilante' is tracking down victims. Clarkie (Q) has just been released from prison. His brother Bones (Brian Bovell), a rising internet artist and entrepreneur has just bought a designer house in Notting Hill and has a new girlfriend, Melanie (Jo Martin), the lawyer who defended Clarkie. Froggy (Roger Griffiths) a friend of the two brothers tells Clarkie that Melanie and Bones set him up to go to prison. When Bones is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Clarkie embarks on a desperate quest to solve his brother's murder. Froggy thinks that Clarkie is doing this to cover up his own tracks, as Clarkie is the prime suspect for the murder. Four Years Later...Melanie who is now heavily pregnant tracks Clarkie down, he is living in Woolwich, south east London. She gives him a vital piece of evidence that she has just found, a clue that will help him solve the case. Clarkie travels to Cricklewood, North West London and searches for the gang that killed his brother. He tracks them down with the help of an undercover cop, and calmly takes his revenge. A detective, Clayderman (Martina Laird), starts her investigation into the triple gang killings, but is frustrated when two of her undercover officers are caught up in a store robbery. Jamal, a fourteen year old boy is a key witness to the killings; however, he guards a dark secret

When Tony is told off for stealing a pencil, his ten year-old logic seethes at the injustice. What course of action is open to him other than to inspire a juvenile revolt? With truth, justice and his comrade pupils marching by his side, what can possibly stop him?