ACS, AMFA screening ‘We Have Just Begun’
Elaine documentary
The Arkansas Cinema Society and the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts will screen “We Have Just Begun,” a documentary about the 1919 Elaine Massacre and Dispossession, as part of its Dreamland Film Series, 6 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Performing Arts Theater at the museum, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock.
Director and co-screenwriter Michael Warren Wilson will take part in a post-screening question-and-answer session after the film. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Admission is $15. Visit tinyurl.com/yusewhc4.
The film is the result of more than seven years of investigation into the history and legacy of the so-called 1919 Elaine Massacre and “explores the continuity of exploitation and domination in the Delta from before 1919 to the present,” according to a news release. San Francisco Poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin co-wrote the script and narrates the film.
Arkansans who worked on the film include Arkansas State University faculty member Cherisse Jones-Branch; Brian Mitchell, head of the Abraham Lincoln Archives in Illinois; former Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffin; and James White and Leonora Marshall of the Elaine Legacy Center. More information about the film is available at wehavejustbegun. com.
Fayetteville Film Fest
Fayetteville Film Fest will screen films created by Black people, indigenous people and other people of color from Arkansas and Oklahoma at 8 p.m. Feb. 3 at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St. Films will be screened in two blocks with an intermission.
The films:
■ “La Telaraña” (14 minutes), directed by Dan Husted. Two brothers struggling to keep their narcotics operation afloat while being relentlessly hunted by the Drug Enforcement Administration don’t realize a third brother is a DEA informant.
■ “The Measure of a Man” (15 minutes), directed by Denzel Jenkins. The father of a young male rape victim provides a healing space.
■ “Baking” (20 minutes), directed by Daniel Beltram. After leaving Puerto Rico with his grandfather, a young man struggles to find his true home.
■ “A Song of the Bluff” (14 minutes), directed by Neba Evans. Pine Bluff residents work to bring life back to a once-thriving agricultural center that now has a reputation of crime, violence and decline.
■ “All Units” (20 minutes), directed by Mike Day. A married couple find themselves at odds over their roles at a protest.
Tickets are $15 plus fees. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.
It’s one of four collaborative film showcases between the two organizations, “designed to bring diverse and global cinema to local audiences to enrich our understanding of our neighbors and of the world at large,” according to a news release. Subsequent showcases: Arkansas Filmmakers, April 6; Indie Films Artosphere, May 11; and LGBTQIA Filmmakers, June 13.
Critical awards
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists, which every year hands out the EDA Awards representing professional women critics’ collective perspectives on movies and cinema culture, has given “The Zone of Interest” its award for Best Film and Best International Film.
“Barbie” captured four awards, including Best Director for Greta Gerwig, who also shared Best Original Screenplay Award with Noah Baumbach; Best Supporting Actor for Ryan Gosling; and, tied with “American Fiction,” Best Ensemble Cast/Casting Director.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” won for Best Actress (Lily Gladstone), Best Cinematography (Rodrigo Prieto), Best Editor (Thelma Schoonmaker) and Best Women’s Breakthrough Performance (Gladstone). Other award winners: Best Screenplay, Adapted: “American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson
Best Documentary (tie): “American Symphony” and “Smoke Sauna Sisterhood”
Best Animated Film: “The Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki
Best Actress, Supporting: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”
Best Actor: Jeffrey Wright, “American Fiction.”