Saturday

By Saturday the conference was in full swing. The "Writer’s Workshop" wrapped up and there were 12 movies showing at the Regal Theater. We bumped into Brian Hooks ("3 Strikes") who was promoting his new film and John Singleton told us about his new short movie so we went over to check that out. The line for his movie was so long that they had to add additional screening times. Before the screening he explained how this movie was the product of a domestic violence charge filed against him. He said he wasn’t guilty, but his lawyer advised him that plea-bargaining was better than fighting it. As community service he was court ordered to make a movie about domestic violence, so he said he did this movie about his own experience.  Mr. Singleton said that after he presented the parole people with his film they wanted to send him to jail, because he didn’t make the domestic violence movie they wanted. The court however sided with him, saying he fulfilled the terms they agreed to. After the movie he had a good discussion about the movie and domestic violence. Check out a review of the movie here.

We got cleaned up and caught Rob Hardy and Gretchen Palmer ("Trois" and "I Got the Hook Up") in the hotel lobby for an interview and Malik Yoba came over and pointed out an error for us during the interview. Next we bounced over to the ABFF Awards Show ant the Jackie Gleason Theater. Robert Townsend ("Hollywood Shuffle" and "The Parenthood") and Shaun Robinson ("Access Hollywood") hosted the show. Keenan Ivory Wayans and Chris Tucker also came out and spoke and presented Robert Townsend with a surprise award. Mr. Townsend seemed to get very emotional, almost crying, and told everyone about the bitter divorce he was going through. Mekhi Phifer was given an award for his dedication to the craft of acting and he also seemed very emotional. Clifton Powell won an award for best actor, for his role in "Civil Brand". Monica Calhoun won for best actress, for "Pandora’s Box" and was actually competing against herself and her role in "Civil Brand".  "The Riff" won for best feature film. After the awards everyone went back to the lobby to mingle and we got interviews with Monica Calhoun and Tonya Lee Williams ("The Young and the Restless").

There were all types of parties going on and we hopped around from 1771, where we caught an Enyce fashion show and got interviews with Lisa Raye and Darnell. Then we hopped over to Liquid where we got an interview from Gregory Anderson, the writer of "Pandora’s Box". We ended the night at the party for Atlanta filmmakers and called it a wrap.

Sunday

The Actor’s Boot Camp wrapped up and they had encore film screenings. I was out by then, but it had been a memorable week. The festival seemed to be pretty much a success and we look forward to and even bigger and better festival next year.

 

Friday - More movies. Actor's Boot Camp begins. More celebs show.