Greg Turner has always been a movie fan.
“Back in the day when I was a kid, me and my buddy used to go to the old dollar theater out at Fox Valley Mall over there,” he said.
When he stationed in Japan while serving in the U.S. Marines, he got 27-inch TV and home theater. Now, the Yorkville resident has a 150-inch screen in his living room and a surround sound system.
It only seems logical that the next step would be founding a film festival.
“I just kind of decided, ‘you know what, I think it’s time to do a film festival,'” he said. “I really wanted to share this world of film with people that aren’t the movies made by your MGMs and Disney and that kind of thing.”
The first ever Black Film Summit will be held March 18-19 at Northern Illinois University’s Naperville campus. The film festival runs from 6 to 10 p.m. March 18 and from 12 to 8 p.m. March 19.
Tickets are $25 each day for just the movies, $45 two-day pass for the just the movies, $55 for the Opening Night reception with drinks and hors d’oeuvres and March 18 films and $85 for an all inclusive weekend pass, which includes all films, the Opening Night reception and a midday break with beverages and snacks on March 19.
Tickets that include food/beverages are available in advance only.
The idea for the festival was sparked, in part, by the release of the blockbuster “Black Panther,” said Turner, who grew up in Aurora.
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“When ‘Black Panther’ came out, churches would rent out whole theaters and everybody was going to see the movie, I was kind of just like, ‘well, there’s this whole world of Black films out there and I really just wanted to share it with the world,” he said.
“For me ‘Wakanda Forever’ didn’t just pertain to “The Black Panther,” but when I heard it, the way I interpreted it, it means the whole Pan-African diaspora of films. There’s just so much wonderful, rich history in Black films. And we all love films. There’s nobody out there who hates movies, right? Just because this is called the Black Film Summit, it’s not just for Black people. It’s literally some really awesome, great films and an opportunity to be exposed to films that were directed by, produced by, performed by people of African descent.”
Twenty films by independent filmmakers were selected from the 67 submitted for screening at the festival, including dramas, comedies, suspense, science fiction and documentaries.
“We’ve kind of got the whole gamut for people to see,” Turner said. “Whatever your taste is, I think we got you covered at some point.”
Opening night screenings include four short films and one feature-length film, a faith-based crime drama titled “Meeting Boone,” which was written and directed by Paige B. Alston.
“It’s a little bit edgier than the typical faith-based films. However, almost all of the work that I do is faith-based,” said Alston, who lives in Detroit.
Previously screened at the Capitol City Black Film Festival in Austin, Texas, “Meeting Boone” is about Russell Boone, who after 10 years in prison arrives home to discover the mysterious death of his brother, Bryson, and then befriends Bryson’s close friend, Laila.
The idea for the film, she said, came at the start of the pandemic when she noticed lot of people were losing their loved ones.
“At the time, I hadn’t lost anybody, but I felt God put it on my heart to tell a story about love and loss,” she said. “I feel like this generation or this era is where everything is so fast-paced. Everything has to heal quickly and I wanted to tell a story that was interesting enough to make people stop and process the effects of life and death using love and spirituality.”
“Meeting Boone” is Alton’s second feature film. Her first, “Chasing After You” is currently streaming on IMDb TV, Amazon, Tubi and Pluto. Alston, who studied film at Western Michigan University, said she began making independent films as a way to get her work to the public.
“I realized when I got out of college, nobody was really going to give me the opportunity to do films unless I took the opportunity myself and started putting together things on my own,” she said.
She submitted to the Black Film Summit to showcase her work and to network with other filmmakers.
Pauline Williams is among the other filmmakers who will be at the festival. Her short film, “When Marcelle Met Maya,” will be screened opening night. The comedy is about the first date of an African-Caribbean man and an African-American woman and the cross-cultural misunderstandings and miscommunications they had, she said.
“It was inspired by my relationship with my husband, who comes from the Commonwealth of Dominica in the West Indies,” said Williams, who wrote and produced the film. “It was a class assignment in a basic film class. I didn’t really expect it to go as far as it’s gone. But I’m so pleased because it’s my first film.”
Although she’s been an educator for the past 37 years, she always dreamed of making movies.
“I never stopped thinking about becoming a filmmaker,” said Williams, who is a professor at Illinois State University in Normal. “Now at the age of 62, I’m pursuing my dream.”
On the second day of the festival, 15 films will be shown throughout the day, including “Kapana,” an award-winning film from Namibia and “The Last to Know,” a documentary about the “grandmother of Juneteenth,” Opal Lee, and her efforts to make the day a national holiday.
Time for discussions is built into the day on March 19, Turner said, should audience members want to talk about the movies.
“Because some of the films they elicit that … one film is a documentary and it’s entitled ‘Becoming Black Lawyers’ and it’s the journey of these African-American people who become lawyers and what their experience was in law school,” he said. “But the film that is following is called “Blind Ambivalence’ and it’s about this Black lawyer, but he’s a prosecuting lawyer.
“It deals kind of in the realm of Black Lives Matter. So you get the ‘hey, this what we’re going through in real life to become lawyers, but now on the back side you got this guy who is a lawyer and he’s looking at it from a different perspective. Those two films will be shown back-to-back, and I think when people see those two back-to-back I think it’s going to lead to some really good discussion and events that are going on in the world.”
The festival will conclude with an awards ceremony for best feature and best short films.
Black Film Summit
When: March 18-19
Where: NIU Naperville Campus, 1120 E. Diehl Road, Naperville
Tickets: $25-$85
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Information: theblackfilmsummit.com
Kathy Cichon is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.