Three Organizations Partner to Present Virtual Film Festival with Nova Frontier Film Festival 2020 Spotlighting Independent Filmmakers of Color

Nova Frontier Film Festival and Lab, The Billie Holiday Theater and Laurel Channel TV have joined forces to launch the Nova Frontier Film Festival 2020, a unique and timely virtual edition of the innovative global film festival taking place online Friday, June 12th - Sunday, June 14th in response to COVID-19. The Festival typically takes place at The Billie Holiday Theatre, artistic anchor to the largest community of African descent in the nation: Central Brooklyn. Now in its 3rd year, the Nova Frontier Film Festival showcases and nurtures the works of filmmakers from and around the African Diaspora, the Middle East, and Latin America. This year's Festival will center around the themes of immigration and identity and will include a robust suite of screenings and events all free and accessible to the public.

NFFF 2020 features a comprehensive line-up consisting of 17 curated long and short-form films, panels, and performances designed to create a far-reaching platform for independent filmmakers

and artists to be able to share their stories and perspectives with the world amid the current global health crisis. The selected films raise questions that force viewers to re-examine notions of home and family, state, nationalism, borders, and communities. Even the concepts and constructs of

social distancing and self-quarantining are echoed throughout with many of the films depicting people living in somewhat enforced quarantined existences in refugee camps, or squatting on the edge of cities and society, caught in the limbo of state bureaucracies and red tape. All of the films part of the Festival collectively utilize the power of storytelling as a tool to communicate ideological divides and the disruption of the status quo.

"We are excited to continue our partnership with The Billie Holiday Theatre, which has been our home since the inception of the Festival and welcome our new partner Laurel Channel TV as we bring this edition of the Festival to our audiences - and potentially new audiences as well. We believe that art matters, stories matter, our filmmakers, and our audience matter - now more than ever," said Billy Gerard Frank, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Nova Frontier Festival. "We hope this online virtual space will bring communities together to reflect, share, and experience our deepest humanity and connections through these curated global films and discussions."

"Our partnership with NOVA Frontier Film Festival and now with Laurel Channel TV to present NFFF 2020 is perhaps more profound than ever, given where we are today. This partnership among our three organizations is so especially fitting because at the core of all of our respective missions is the commitment to stories," said Dr. Indira Etwaroo, Executive Director of The Billie Holiday Theatre. "During these unprecedented times in our global society which has severely affected communities of color underscoring systemic inequities, we as leaders in the arts decided to come together to find fresh and unique ways to allow important stories to be told. We all feel deeply that these perspectives- which celebrate our diverse experiences and human connectedness - needed to be shared, particularly now!"

"Our goal at Laurel Channel TV is to showcase The Best Films from the Best Film Festivals. I have followed both NOVA Frontier Film Festival and the Billie Holiday Theater for many years and their respect for history, dedication to excellence in storytelling, and devotion to raising the tide for all filmmakers made this the ideal team to help us launch our streaming platform," said Theodore Adams III, Award-Winning Filmmaker and Founder of Laurel Channel TV. "The purpose of Laurel Channel TV is to showcase film festivals and filmmakers that demonstrate a level of quality that raises the tide for everyone involved in independent film. While I insist that an in-person film festival is an experience second to none, COVID-19 forced us to accelerate our agenda to provide a virtual festival experience that connects filmmakers with their communities."

For more information and the full NFFF 2020 schedule, please visit: http://www.novafrontierfilmfestival.com/program

Photo: Image from TEGHADEZ AGADEZ by Morgane Writz (Belgium) - Courtesy Nova Frontier Film Festival

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