News Source: Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center

The festival will feature over 60 short films, screening of three feature films, honoree tributes, panel discussions and the signature opening night event 'A Great Day in Black Hollywood'

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Nov. 14, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — The Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center (BHERC) returns with their fan-favorite event, “A Great Day in Black Hollywood,” which honors ground-breaking talent, community leaders, and organizations making a difference both in Hollywood and the community. This opening celebration kicks-off their 30th Annual S.E. Manly African-American Short Film Festival (SEMAASFF).

Image caption: S.E. Manly African-American Short Film Festival.

This year’s honorees include Deborah Pratt– Director, Writer, Producer, and Novelist; Janine Sherman-Barrois- Producer, Writer and Showrunner; Lyndon Barrois, Sr. – Director, Animator and Artist; Art Sims – Motion Picture Key Art Designer; D. Stevens – Photojournalist & Filmmaker; Gina Lem You Davis – Actress, Dancer, Choreographer and Artist and Gloria Zuurveen – Founder, Owner & Publisher of PACE News. Attendees will also get the chance to hear from the festival’s participating Class of 2024 filmmakers. Special guests include celebrated film director, Michael Schultz (Black-ish, Cooley High), and Juel Taylor (Director, They Cloned Tyrone).

“A Great Day in Black Hollywood” takes place Friday, November 15, 2024, 7:00pm at the Regal at LA Live, 1000 West Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015. The action-packed weekend continues Saturday, November 16th and Sunday, November 17th with more than 60 films and panels featuring this year’s filmmaking class and various BHERC alumni. All events will take place at Regal L.A. Live, 1000 West Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015. This is BHERC’S flagship festival and rounds out the 2024 banner year of programs.

“This festival has become so much more. It is a festival of purpose. BHERC is about making change and anyone who wants to be a part is welcome as we celebrate 30 wonderful years,” stated BHERC President, Sandra Evers-Manly.

Special Event Highlights

Saturday, November 16th – The day starts with the Youth Film Block specially curated for students which begins at 10:00am. The day continues with festival film blocks starting at 11:00am and continuing throughout the day, with the last block beginning at 8:00pm. At 11:00am there will be a screening of Brief Tender Light, a documentary where a Ghanaian alum follows four African students at America’s elite MIT, as they strive to become agents of change for their home countries: Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The “Careers In Hollywood” panel takes place at 2:00pm, where attendees will hear from industry professionals about their career paths and the multiple options available, in front of and behind the scenes. At 4:00pm is a special feature screening and Los Angeles Premiere of Veils: Requiem for Trayvon. This film highlights the women who had to wear a veil due to the loss of a husband or child during the Civil Rights movement and a current reflection on the death of Trayvon Martin.

Sunday, November 17th – The weekend continues with festival film blocks starting at 11:00am and continuing throughout the day, with the final block beginning at 8:00pm. The “Directors On Directing” panel takes place at 2:00pm, where attendees will hear from film and television directors. The special feature of the day at 4:00pm is Tolliver’s Barbershop: a documentary film about Lawrence Tolliver, the owner of an impactful barbershop, where politicians and community leaders would come to check the pulse of the community. Individuals from all walks of life drop in for special interactions and meaningful dialogue. The closing night celebration, “Soul Food and Film” will wrap up the festival weekend.

Film Highlights

Selected from over 1,500 entries, the 2024 S.E. Manly African-American Short Film Festival will offer a variety perspectives from around the world. Several standout films from past BHERC festivals will also be included. The 60+ films, represent well-rounded genres and subject matter that include social justice, historically based events, mental health, romance, drama, faith, sci-fi, horror, fantasy documentaries, animation, action and comedy.

Ticketing

Festival and event passes are available online at www.bherc.org. $25 for a 2-hour block of short films, $75.00 for a Day Pass and $300 for a Full Weekend Festival Pass. Senior and student discounts are available. Log on to https://bherc.org/ to purchase tickets.

About the Honorees

IVAN DIXON AWARD OF ACHIEVEMENT

Deborah Pratt – Director, Writer, Producer, and Novelist

Starting her career in Hollywood at the age of twenty, Deborah M. Pratt has worked for over four decades establishing herself as a trailblazer in the entertainment industry. In college, Deborah double majored in Psychology and Theatre and chose to pursue the latter. Her singing and dancing talents were discovered in Chicago through a nationwide talent search that won her a contract with NBC in Los Angeles, where she quickly began making her mark in Hollywood. Her career highlights include co-creating the iconic original television series Quantum Leap, on which she served as executive producer, showrunner, head writer, the voice of Ziggy the Computer, and wrote and delivered the unforgettable weekly intro to the series. Co-creating the TV series The Net for USA Network and directing Cora Unashamed for the BBC’s Masterpiece Theater. Recently, she Executive Produced the Quantum Leap Reboot for NBC/Universal where she oversaw the series and directed two episodes. Additionally, Deborah directed the season 19 finale, Put On A Happy Face on Shonda Rhimes’s Grey’s Anatomy. Currently, she is leading the charge for creator ownership of intellectual properties and building a blueprint for trans media production in the industry. She believes it and the technology evolving around it will be the foundation of the next generation of entertainment. She is a futurist, novelist, song writer, historian, and an admitted science nerd.

PRESIDENT’S AWARD

Janine Sherman-Barrois – Producer, Writer and Showrunner

Sherman-Barrois is a two-time NAACP Image Award winner and has been nominated for several other awards for television writing, including the prestigious Humanitas Prize. Sherman Barrois was an executive producer on all four seasons of Claws, the hit TNT dramedy starring Niecy Nash, and was the showrunner for the first three seasons. In addition, she was the co-showrunner and executive producer of Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam CJ Walker, the award-winning Netflix limited series starring Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer. In addition, she served as creator of the highly acclaimed OWN series The Kings of Napa, a drama about an influential family who runs one of the most prestigious Black-owned vineyards in the world. Barrois and her production company also are executive producers of the Tribeca selected documentary, Hargrove, a vérité-style film chronicling the last year of trumpet legend Roy Hargrove’s life as he embarks on his final European summer tour. She serves on the admissions committee for the Writers Guild of America’s Showrunner Training Program and has mentored younger writers though the guild’s Writer Access Project. Barrois named her own production company Folding Chair Productions as an homage to Shirley Chisolm, the first African American and first woman to run for President of the United States, whose famous quote “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair,” continues to provide inspiration today. Sherman Barrois is a graduate of the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop and attended Howard University.

Lyndon Barrois, Sr. – Director, Animator and Artist

An AMPAS VFX Executive Branch member, Lyndon boasts a long career in art and animation. His film credits include The Matrix Trilogy, Happy Feet, and The Thing, where he directed pivotal character animation sequences in those features and many others. He currently wins accolades for his unique gum wrapper sculptures and stop-motion animations of historic figures and events, whose portrait and Sportrait films are produced entirely on iPhones. A New Orleans native and HBCU graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, Lyndon serves on the boards of The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, California Institute of the Arts (his MFA Alma mater), and on the Academy Museum’s Inclusion Advisory Committee, fostering programs and supporting exhibitions.

BHERC AWARD OF ACHIEVEMENT

Art Sims – Motion Picture Key Art Designer

Sims’s career started modestly, with the “Draw Me” test featured in magazines and on TV back in the 1950s and ’60s designed to uncover artistic talent. He started winning awards for his artwork in elementary school, then attended Cass Tech, where his curriculum was dedicated to the arts. Sims excelled and earned a scholarship to Michigan State University. He has earned many awards and was featured in a book and exhibition titled “Close Up in Black: African American Film Posters”. Sims’ designs can be seen with his posters for films such as The Color Purple, Malcolm X, School Daze, Love and Basketball, New Jack City, Do The Right Thing, I Am Legend, Get On The Bus, Crooklyn, Dreamgirls, The Secret Life of Bees, The Best Man, If God Is Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise, Black Panther and many more. In addition to film, Art also desiged album covers for arts such as Minnie Riperton, The Average White Band, Johnny Guitar Watson, The Little River Band and more. Sims currently teaches graphic design at a middle school for African Americans and is in process of launching a project called the Artists in Residence Foundation, designed to unite artists with students who don’t have art classes at their schools. He is the CEO & Founder of of 11:24 Design.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

D Stevens – Photojournalist & Filmmaker

For three decades, Stevens’ powerful imagery has propelled him to expand boundaries as a communicator, documenting indicators of our times. Stevens has dedicated his life to bringing reflections of honesty in the human spirit. As an advertising key art photographer, Stevens has photographed over forty movie posters. His clients have included Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, HBO, New Line Cinema, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Miramax, CIBY 2000, etc. He has been a unit stills photographer on over twenty-five feature films since his first movie Boyz N The Hood in 1991. Other works include: What’s Love Got to Do With It?, Menace II Society, White Men Can’t Jump, Devil In A Blue Dress, Tuskegee Airmen, Truman, Set It Off and Biker Boyz among others. Stevens received the prestigious Hollywood Reporter “Key Art Award” as photographer for the Best Drama Poster 2001 for Love and Basketball. He received ABET’s (Alliance of Black Entertainment Technicians) ‘Pioneer Trophy’ in 2000 and has won the Southern California News Directors ‘Golden Mike’ Trophy for a documentary he produced on Soledad Prison. Stevens was raised in Compton, California and attended UCLA and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism-Television Institute. Since 1990, he has been commuting between Paris and Santa Monica, California. He is presently developing Delta Blues Soul – a historical feature movie and book project about the blues in addition to scriptwriting and directing a comedy about exercise in America entitled SLAVERSIZE.

Gina Lem-you Davis – Actress, Dancer, Choreographer and Artist

Gina Lem You Davis has led, and continues to lead, a fulfilling life. Born and raised Los Angeles, CA in 1937, the only child of an African American mother and Chinese immigrant father, her inherent cultural knowledge has been the ground on which she has stood for decades. She discovered her passion for dance at an early age and began professionally at the Lester Horton Dance Company studying alongside greats such as Alvin Ailey. Once professional print and acting work began to take off in her teens, Gina graced the cover of prominent magazines such as JET over tend times. She then transferred from Los Angeles High to Hollywood Professional School. As if the woes of the 1950’s were not enough, she found that her racial identity would also prove to be an unfortunate barrier. Stuck on the divider of two different cultures, she was forced to make decisions at an early age that led to deep feelings of resentment and erasure. After being on the cover of Ebony magazine and being “outed” as a Negro by a fellow white classmate, she was asked by the high school’s administration to keep quiet to keep her enrollment. Gina vehemently refused, went straight to her locker, and went home never to return. She went back L.A High and continued to thrive in entertainment as years progressed. At 21, Gina booked her first major film role in the 1958 classic, South Pacific, the Rodgers & Hammerstein inspired romantic musical set in Hawaii. On set, her skin was darkened to make her look more native. She went on to dance in another Rodgers & Hammerstein classic, Flower Drum Song, and was featured front and center in the dance break. She was featured on more than fifteen Jet Magazine covers and blazed a path to Las Vegas where she became the only African American woman to join the Kingo Sun Imperial Japanese dance company. She was asked to lighten her skin to appear more Japanese. Eventually, the legendary Sammie Davis Jr. was blown away by her dancing talent and enlisted her to join him on his world tour. Gina held and choreographed shows all over Los Angeles and Hawaii at major venues, a few being the Dodger Stadium and the Shrine Auditorium. After retiring at the age of 86, Davis, now 87, continues to serve as a beacon of light and wisdom for all those around her.

COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD

Gloria Zuurveen – Founder, Owner & Publisher of PACE News

Dr. Zuurveen is the Founder/Owner/Publisher of PACE NEWS, where she publishes a weekly newspaper, print and digital. Additionally, Dr. Zuurveen is a licensed minister who is founder and teacher of Branch of Christ Outreach Ministry (BCOM); Founder/President/CEO of Parent Action Coalition for Education (PACE), a 501c3 nonprofit that work with underprivileged, disenfranchised, disadvantaged youth and young adults. Her organization provides training in journalism, financial literacy, mentoring, and tutoring. In addition, PACE also teaches home economic and cultural literacy, violence prevention, and overall life skills to support self-sufficiency for low income, pre-incarcerated ex-offenders, youth and their families. Dr. Zurveen’s objective though PACE is to reduce truancy and crime while increasing high school graduation rates and mentorship among community members and parents. Dr. Zuurveen is also the founder of Glory Thrift Store, a resale social enterprise that provides donated clothing and job-readiness skills to help homeless and low-income youth and young adults to dress for success. In 2018, Dr. Zuurveen created and founded the Glory Awards, where she has celebrated “Light Leaders” for letting their lights shine to help others.

About Black Hollywood Education & Resource Center:

Founded in 1996, by Sandra Evers-Manly, BHERC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public benefit organization designed to advocate, educate, research, develop, and preserve the history and future of Black images in film and television. BHERC programs include film festivals, mentoring, book signings, script readings, film and animation contests, scholarships, and other programs and special events. BHERC recognizes the contributions of Black representation in front of and behind the scenes in the entertainment industry.

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