aGLIFF Announces Centerpiece Film and Queer Black Voices Reciepents

Austin's oldest film festival and premiere LGBTQ+ film fest of the Southwest, aGLIFF announces the winners and centerpiece film for The Queer Black Voices Fund for the 35th annual festival PRISM 35 taking place in-person August 24-28, 2022 in Austin, TX. On August 25, aGLIFF will celebrate the winners and mentor of the Queer Black Voices Fund with a dinner and screening at the Holiday Inn Austin Midtown.

This fund has been set up to ensure that queer black filmmakers, directors, writers, and actors are represented as part of aGLIFF programming every year. This year's recipients will be given $500 with aGLIFF covering all costs involved with submitting and showing their films as part of PRISM 35 including attending the festivals and screenings, participating in live forums, Q&A sessions and other special events. More information on the fund and event can be found at agliff.org/qbv.

The 2022 recipients are How Not To Date While Trans writer/director Nyala Moon, The Funnel writer/director Charlene A. Carruthers and Body Language director/producer Odu Adamu. Special guest Micheal Rice, writer and director of the documentary Black As U R will act as a mentor to the 2022 inductees. Black As U R will screen as the Documentary Centerpiece film on Friday, August 26 at 7pm at the Galaxy Theatres.

"This year's class of Queer Black Voices Fund award winners are equal parts relatable and creatively brilliant. From navigating the dating world as a young trans woman to discovering unspoken Queer roots in your family history to confronting early messages about what black maleness is supposed to look like - we get three unique and important perspectives of the Black LGBTQ+ experience," said Jeremy Teel, the Chair of the QBVF committee. Micheal Rice's Black As U R is a much needed examination of where Queer Black people fit, or don't fit, in the Black Lives Matter movement and might be the most important film shown at this year's festival. We are excited to welcome all of these talented filmmakers in Austin to showcase their work."

Queer Black Voices Fund Awards Banquet & Screening

Thursday, August 25 at the Holiday Inn Austin Midtown

5:30pm - Red Carpet & Social Time

7:00pm - Dinner, Screening & Live Filmmaker Discussions

This special evening will award grants to the three filmmakers at PRISM 35, celebrating their work, and raising money for future black creatives. Guests will have an opportunity to meet the filmmakers, view their short films, and hear from each on the inspiration behind the films and their creative process. All funds raised will support the Queer Black Voices Fund and future filmmakers.

"Identifying Black queers voices in the world - whose artistry amplifies and displays what it means to fight through adversity and to have self-love - curates a foundation of affirmations for younger Black and brown LGBTQ people in the world to have pride in who they are in the present and know where they can go in the future," said filmmaker and Queer Black Voices mentor Micheal Rice. "This is the reason why I created BLACK AS U R so that future generations of queer folks can show up fully AS THEY R."

PRISM 35 taking place in-person August 24-28, 2022 in Austin, TX. The annual event will celebrate in-person throughout the vibrant city of Austin with screenings, events, Q&As and more. More information on the festival can be found at agliff.org/prism.

aGLIFF's celebration for the 35th annual festival will salute both the rich history, but also recognize how the LGBTQ+ experience has changed. Most importantly, this year's festival will provide the opportunity to reunite in-person in a way that has been challenging throughout these past two years.

For PRISM 35, aGLIFF will additionally offer a virtual component August 29 - September 5, 2002, after the in-person festival has concluded. The PRISM 35 virtual festival will not be a full line up but will include a majority of titles playing in-person.

Recently named the Nonprofit of the Year by the Austin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, aGLIFF cultivates the Texas LGBTQ+ community by enlightening, educating, and entertaining moviegoers through programs that enrich LGBTQ+ and ally communities while developing LGBTQ+ awareness. The nonprofit organization's programs include Queer Youth Media Project, Community Partnership Program, "Queer Spectrum" Monthly Screening Series, and the Queer Black Voices Fund, all of which culminate around its annual film festival, PRISM.

More information about the PRISM 35 festival will be announced over the coming weeks.

QUEER BLACK VOICES FUND 2022 WINNERS:

HOW NOT TO DATE WHILE TRANS | United States | 2022 | 12 minutes | English

Writer and Director: Nyala Moon | Producers: Eileen Makak and Chien-Yu Wang | Cast: Nyala Moon, Malachi Beasley, Patrick John Boyle, Tyler Brooks

How Not to Date While Trans is a break-the-fourth-wall, dark comedy that follows the dating life of a black trans woman and the problematic men she meets along the way. Andie searches for romance and self-love but ends with heartbreak.

About Nyala Moon:

Nyala Moon is a filmmaker, writer, and actress of trans experience. After working in the nonprofit community helping other transgender and queer people of color access affirming health care, Nyala took a leap of faith and pursued her passion for filmmaking. Before going to film school, Nyala worked with the indie LGBT film scene as a director, writer, and producer. Nyala was also a contributor for the anthology, Written on the Body: Letters from Trans and Non-Binary Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence by Lexi Bean. Nyala Moon has been touring colleges with her other anthology contributors, speaking to college students about sexuality, gender identity, and sexual assault. In May 2020, Nyala graduated from City College with her MFA in film production. Last year her student thesis film, One Last Deal, was screened at NewFest, Inside Out Toronto, Outfest, and many other film festivals. Nyala was also a 2020-2021 Queer Art Film fellow with Tue Me Manques director Rodrigo Bellot as her mentor. She also is a TV writing fellow for Hillman Grad 2021 inaugural class.

THE FUNNEL | United States | 2022 | 16 minutes | English

Writer and Director: Charlene A. Carruthers | Producer: Elizah Turner | Cast: Cat Christmas, Vena Howard, Wriply Bennet, Martin Davis, Laketa Caston

Trina lives on the South Side of Chicago with her mother amidst an escalating housing crisis. After falling into an intimate recollection of her family's history, she awakes in a world with people, sounds, and possibilities she's never known. An encounter with a familiar spirit opens Trina's eyes and heart to a new gift.

About Charlene A. Carruthers:

Charlene A Carruthers (she/her) is a writer, filmmaker, and Black Studies PhD student at Northwestern University. A practitioner of telling more complete stories, her work interrogates historical conjunctures of Black freedom-making post-emancipation and decolonial revolution, Black governance, and Black feminist abolitionist geographies. She is a 2020 Marguerite Casey Presidential Freedom Scholar and Mellon Interdisciplinary Cluster Fellow in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her work spans more than 15 years of community organizing across racial, gender and economic justice movements. As a founding national director of BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100), she worked alongside hundreds of young Black activists to build a member-led organization dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people.

Her work has been covered in several publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Chicago Reader, The Nation, Ebony and Essence Magazines. She has appeared on CNN, Democracy Now!, BBC and MSNBC. The Chicago native has also written for theRoot.com, CRISIS Magazine, Teen Vogue, Truthout, Colorlines, and the Boston Review. She is recognized as one of the top 10 most influential African Americans by The Root 100, one of Ebony Magazine's "Woke 100," an Emerging Power Playing in Chicago Magazine and is the 2017 recipient of the YWCA's Dr. Dorothy I. Height Award.

A believer in telling more compete stories about the Black Radical Tradition, the filmmaker is a highly sought-after speaker at various institutions including Wellesley College, Shaw University, Princeton University, Northwestern University and her alma mater Illinois Wesleyan University. She is author of the bestselling book, Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements.

BODY LANGUAGE | United States | 2022 | 9 minutes | English

Director and Producer: Odu Adamu

Body Language is a candid conversation about body image and body experience for Black gay, queer, and same gender loving men. Men share their personal journeys through childhood, coming into the gay community, and acceptance and rejection based on body type. BODY LANGUAGE is an authentic dialogue about pain, heartache, healing, and self-love. This film speaks directly to Black g/q/SGL men but the ideas around body perfection, and what influences our perspectives, are universal.

About Odu Adamu:

Award-winning filmmaker Odu Adamu is a Brooklyn-based Creator who uses documentary film to express his vision. After twenty years in community building and nonprofit organization development, while NYC was on pause in 2020, he formed his own production company, ROCK MY SOUL Media, LLC, and began journeying on his Creative Path. ROCK MY SOUL's initial focus was ALL THINGS BLACK MUSIC, as experienced through the hearts and lives of Black and Brown LGBTQIA/SGL people. ROCK MY SOUL's projects explore how music inspires and influences our personal journeys. The work also showcases Black queer community's history, and its cultural impact. With ROCK MY SOUL Media, Odu directed and produced over thirty episodes of virtual programming for several series including IN THE GROOVE (music themed discussion series); OPENING ACT (a music docuseries); and A DIFFERENT BEAT (a docuseries spotlighting Black LGBTQIA music artists).

In fall 2021, Odu was one of twelve Brooklyn-based filmmakers invited to be a part of the BRIC 2021 Documentary Intensive Cohort. This experience supported him in the development of OURWORLD, the arm of RMSM dedicated to sharing authentic stories of Black and Brown LGBTQIA/SGL people and exploring the issues that impact our communities. BODY LANGUAGE is OURWORLDS's premiere release. Odu is also the winner of Inside Out Toronto's 2022 Pitch, Please competition.

Whether it's community, music, culture, or style, Odu only dedicates his head and heart to projects that reflect his passion and can be produced from a place of power.

QUEER BLACK VOICES FUND 2022 MENTOR AND CENTERPIECE FILM:

BLACK AS U R | United States | 2020 | 84 minutes | English

Writer and Director: Micheal Rice | Producer: Edward Radford

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin igniting protests across the city, the nation, and around the globe. As Black Americans were chanting "Black Lives Matter" in Minneapolis, Iyanna Dior, a young trans teenager, was brutally attacked by a mob of Black men and women only a few blocks away. Documentarian Micheal Rice takes the audience on a journey through the homophobia that characterizes many Black spaces, both contemporarily and through an autobiographical look into his own upbringing in the south.

Black As U R confronts the African American community about queerphobia by amplifying the stories of queer Black people.

About Micheal Rice:

Micheal Rice is a filmmaker, producer, choreographer and creative director for stage and film. His uncompromising vision is to bring the stories and art of LGBTQ communities of color to the forefront of society.

Rice has over ten years' experience working across multiple platforms, from television to regional theatre. His debut documentary, party boi, black diamonds in ice castles (awarded Best Documentary at the prestigious Pan-African Film Festival in 2020) sparked intense controversy and generated a much-needed dialogue among urban LGBTQ communities of color about self-love, affirmation, substance abuse and HIV infection. Micheal's work is a fusion of art and activism from behind the lens.

QUEER BLACK VOICES FUND

The Queer Black Voices Fund was created in response to the events of 2020 surrounding the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Javier Ambler, among other incidents between police officers and African Americans. The fund has been set up to ensure that queer Black filmmakers, directors, writers, and actors are represented as part of aGLIFF programming every year. The organization began awarding grants last year to cover costs associated with submitting and showing qualified films as part of PRISM 34 and aGLIFF's year-round programming. The fund also will be used to cover travel expenses to bring filmmakers to Austin for special events surrounding the festival when possible.

aGLIFF board member, Lenore Shefman of Shefman Law gave the fund a jump start by pledging to match donations made to the Queer Black Voices Fund up to $5,000, which was matched during the 2020 festival. The fund has raised nearly $18,0000 to date and aGLIFF continues to fundraise as part of its ongoing commitment to future Queer Black filmmakers.

TICKETS:

aGLIFF encourages fans to consider membership to get the best access and support aGLIFF's year-round programming. Members and badge holders have priority access to reserving tickets for individual films and events upon purchase.

QBV DINNER & SCREENING: Business Level Memberships and above receive 2 complimentary tickets with additional tickets at a discounted rate. Badge Holders, Fan & Director level memberships receive 1 ticket with additional tickets offered a discounted rate. General admission tickets are $75. Tickets are on sale now at agliff.org/qbv and agliff.org/prism. All proceeds from the evening will benefit the QBV Fund.

PRISM 35: Festival badges are available now for $125. Memberships get the best access, support aGLIFF's year-round programming, and include festival badges and an array of other perks depending on the level. Memberships are available now; Festival badges are on sale now at agliff.org/badges. Single tickets will start at $15, plus applicable service fees and will be on sale one week before the festival based on availability.

aGLIFF MEMBERSHIP: Memberships start for as low as $25 a month and are available for purchase now. Memberships can be paid upfront or in monthly installments. Memberships include festival badges and array of other perks depending on the level and range in price from $300 to $2500 and above. Memberships are available now at agliff.org/members.

PRESS: For press needs including access to events, interviews, reviews, or film screeners please contact nicole.shiro@motleycrewmedia.com

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About aGLIFF:

Founded in 1987 aGLIFF is Austin's oldest film festival and became a 501(c)3 in 1995. The festival began as a four-day event with just four films primarily focused on coming out and the AIDS epidemic. It has grown into a multifaceted nonprofit organization with year-round community programs and events culminating each year in the annual film festival. Originally named the Austin Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival (1987) the organization changed its name in 2018 to All Genders, Lifestyles, and Identities Film Festival to reflect the changing landscape of how queer people identify, and as of 2020 now goes by simply aGLIFF. In 2019, the Board of Directors selected PRISM as the festival theme to highlight the way the festival can refract a single beam of art into multiple viewpoints, showcasing all the voices in the spectrum of our LGBTQIA+ community through film.

The organization's mission is to create positive and visible film programs relevant to the lives of LGBTQIA+ identified people, to educate the community about LGBTQIA+ issues, to produce and promote the best in LGBTQIA+ community building events, and to support and partner with other organizations to enlighten the public.

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