By Heidi Philipsen
The voices of Black, Middle Eastern, and Latinx artists have long been marginalized. But at Nova Frontier Film Festival and Lab, they take center stage. Actor, filmmaker, writer, producer, and film programmer Lydia Darly discusses why she co-founded the festival (where NYWIFT is proud to present an Outstanding Female Content Creator Award), and what she hopes to see from the 2020 edition which, like so many recent events, is going virtual.
The festival will stream for free online June 11-14th, 2020.
Nova Frontier Film Festival Co-Founder and Managing Director (CFO) Lydia Darly (left) with Co-Founder and Executive Director Billy Gerard Frank
What was the inspiration for starting Nova?
Nova Frontier Film Festival and Lab was inspired foremost by my love of foreign films, particularly films from the African Diaspora, The Middle East, and Latin America. As a filmmaker and actress who is an Afropean with origins from Guadeloupe and Paris, traveling to film festivals with my own films, I have always felt the programming at most film festivals was limited when it came to films from these regions represented, especially in film festivals and theaters in the USA. There is also the fact that as a black actress, I hardly ever saw myself represented on the screen.
After many conversations with my best friend, the multi-artist and filmmaker Billy Gerard Frank, who is also Afropean from Grenada and London, and a cinephile like myself, we decided to start The Nova Frontier Film Festival and Lab, and the rest is history. The festival came out of a place of frustration, love of foreign films, and friendship.
The short film Bab Sebta (dir. Randa Maroufi) is a series of reconstructed situations observed at Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on Moroccan soil.
Your festival has been amplifying the voices of the African Diaspora, the Middle East, and Latin America for three years. Given the national events of the last few weeks, your festival could not be more timely. How has your festival worked to amplify these voices? Are there projects featured this year that will resonant especially with our current national conversation?
The annual film festival takes place at the Iconic Billie Holiday Theatre in Brooklyn, NY that has been our home since its inception. With year-round screenings, panels, VR, and performances, we are more than just a film festival, but an experience: a hybrid curated program of global films that celebrate our diversity and human connectedness. Our films and programs deal with socially and politically relevant issues and themes like immigration, cultural identity, and social justice.
Despite the global health crisis, and the challenges that independent filmmakers and the film industries are facing as a result of this pandemic, Nova Frontier Film Festival is fully dedicated to working with our partners to support our independent filmmakers. We are partnering with Laurel Channel to bring a virtual 2020 Edition of the festival.
The documentary Slam Sworded Words (dir. Tatiana Lohman and Roberta Estrela D’alva) explores the poetry slam scene in Brazil.
If art is any guide to the times in which we are living, our 2020 program of 17 curated long and short-form films, panels, and performances tackles family, global migration, and community, with immigration and cultural identity as the dominant themes running throughout all the films in this year’s submissions. They raise questions and force us to re-examine notions of home, state, nationalism, borders, and communities, apropos to the times.
For many of the real-life characters depicted in the films, concepts and constructs of social distancing and self-quarantine are not novel to them. They were already living a somewhat enforced quarantined existence in refugee camps, or squatting on the edge of cities and society – caught in the limbo of state bureaucracies and red tape.
What do you hope the film community at large will take away from seeing the voices of Black, Latinx, and Middle Eastern stories on screen?
Nova Frontier Film Festival and Lab came at a crucial juncture and is a direct response to all the complexities and currents unfolding in the USA and globally. Our programs and our NOVA LAB, which is a core component of what we do, nurture and teach filmmaking and media skills to underserved and underrepresented youth in the community of Brooklyn and beyond. Our main aim is to provide a platform that promotes intercultural understanding and intellectual engagement through exceptional films and the arts, addressing critical social issues of our times, while celebrating the diversity that surrounds us.
We hope that our community and audience at large, will get to see versions of themselves on the big screen; see stories of real-life people and communities from the African Diaspora, the Middle East, and Latin America, which most Westerners learn about only through soundbites and headlines in the media that frame them in negative stereotypes.
In most cases, these are filmmakers coming from countries like Iran and the Middle East that have been banned and boycotted from Europe and the USA, with no access to financial institutions to submit their films to festivals. The filmmakers focus their lens on people caught up in the maelstrom of wars, oppression, and displacement, giving voice and humanity to them.
From the feature documentary Slam Sworded Words (dir. Tatiana Lohman and Roberta Estrela D’alva)
What has been your favorite moment from the past festivals? What do you hope to see happen with the festival this year?
Some of my favorite moments at the festival is seeing the excitement and joy on the faces of the children and adults in our communities when they get to have a Virtual Reality experience for the first time, seeing themselves as superheroes on the screens. Our panels on Immigration and Identity last year, that erupted into engaging and meaningful discussions around real issues and concerns of the community. The Billie Holiday Theatre bustling with creative energy, telephone numbers being exchanged, passionate dialogue, and folks in the community mingling with global filmmakers and artists as one family.
See the 2020 Nova Frontier Film Festival program.
Follow on Instagram at @NovaFrontierFilmFestival
Additional reporting by Katie Chambers.
Heidi Philipsen
Related Posts
Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Samantha Herrera
Welcome to NYWIFT, Samantha Herrera! Samantha Herrera is a queer Filipina artist born and raised in Queens, NY. Her roots began in theatre with training at LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, The Neighborhood Playhouse, and LAMDA. Saint Vegas is the first narrative film she has directed, written, and produced. It will internationally premiere in the Philippines hosted by Cine Balikbayan. This November, she played one of the lead roles in Diwata, directed by Shea Formanes. Aside from filmmaking, Samantha works at her alma mater - The Neighborhood Playhouse - and runs a Filipino food pop-up business with her partner. In our interview, Samantha discussed the mentors who shaped her artistry, her inspirations, and her upcoming work.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Joyce Hills
Welcome to NYWIFT, Joyce Hills! Joyce Hills is a recent graduate of NYU Tisch, where she co-wrote and directed the culturally-rich epic Viking short film The Feather, featuring out-of-this-world SFX hair and makeup, practical stunts, and generative workflows on a virtual production volume. She was the First Assistant Director and VFX Supervisor on the Seed & Spark-awarded short film Night of Melancholia, interned in Virtual Production at Gum Studios in Brooklyn, and performed as Sugarsop, The Widow, and assorted household servants in Will Kempe’s Players’ The Taming of the Shrew. Joyce is developing her first feature film, a dark fantasy inspired by mystical quests, heroes’ journeys, and time and destiny in popular culture. She is also developing a science fiction feminist short, and is pursuing additional education in XR mediamaking and STEM. In our interview, she discussed her childhood inspirations, emerging technologies, and the future of storytelling.
READ MORENYWIFT Member Spotlight: Kelcey Edwards
NYWIFT Member Kelcey Edwards found her way into documentary filmmaking through Iron Gate Studios, a nonprofit gallery and artist workspace she cofounded in her early twenties in Austin, Texas. At the time, she was making small narrative films alongside many other Austin-based filmmakers involved in the “mumblecore” scene; her first film, Letter, screened at SXSW in 2006. Since cameras and equipment were always present in the gallery, she began interviewing many of the artists who visited the space. Over time, the habit of recording conversations and documenting artists’ lives became a steady part of her practice. That interest eventually led her to pursue an MFA in Documentary Film at Stanford and later to move to New York, where she continued developing their work. About a decade later, she directed The Art of Making It, a feature documentary about the art world, which won the Audience Award at SXSW in 2022. It’s currently available on most streaming platforms. Kelcey’s films have received support from the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance, and Tribeca Film Institute, among others, have been broadcast internationally, and have screened at top-tier festivals including SXSW, Berlinale, and Hamptons International. In our interview, Kelcey discussed her teaching philosophy, approach to filmmaking, and upcoming projects.
READ MOREMeet the New NYWIFT Member: Therese Cayaba-Jones
Welcome, Therese Cayaba-Jones, to NYWIFT. Therese is a filmmaker with over 15 years of experience with films, documentaries, and series across the Philippines, Singapore, and the U.S. She just finished the feature screenplay for UnMarry, which was recently announced as one of the entries for the Metro Manila Film Festival 2025. Currently, Therese is producing the film Tales My Father Told, and raising money through NYWIFT fiscal sponsorship. Read on to see Therese’s story of moving to New York, her role in the 48 Hour Film Project, and her take on the state of independent filmmaking in the Big Apple.
READ MORE
1 Comment