‘I want to make Hampton Roads the home of the new Black Hollywood’
Inaugural Virginia Black Film Festival opens this weekend
Bryan Thompson balanced being a U.S. Army logistics officer and a professional filmmaker for years.
He acted in and directed short films and a web series, often while stationed in Newport
News. After 12 years in the military, he directed 11 feature films.
Thompson, 54, now wants to bring fresh resources and industry contacts to local filmmakers.
“I want to make Hampton Roads the home of the new Black Hollywood,” the Hampton resident said. His first step is starting a film festival.
The inaugural Virginia Black Film Festival will be held Friday through Sunday at Hampton University. Thompson hopes the festival generates enough interest that the university will consider adding a film major.
He said it’s important for historically Black colleges and universities to have robust film programs so that people can tell their stories that can’t be skewed and made with “a desire to be truthful.”
The festival features close to 50 films, international and domestic, and provides master classes covering topics from stage combat to how actors can improve pay equality and avoid pitfalls in independent filmmaking.
A course on directing will be led by award-winning director and producer Jesse Vaughan. Vaughan has worked on NBC’s “Meet The Press” and “The Charlie Rose Show,” and directed the comedy show “In Living Color” and the 2002 movie “Juwanna Mann.”
A Lifetime Achievement award will be presented Sunday to actor Clifton Powell for his work in over 100 films, such as “Menace II Society” (1993), “Rush Hour” (1998) and “Ray” (2004).
The festival has 21 featurelength and 27 short films, so there will be plenty of dimmed lights and popcorn as stories play on screens at the student center movie theater and Phenix Hall. Festival selections featuring wellknown performers include “The Comeback” starring Taye Diggs, who is known for his work on Broadway and has appeared in the movie musicals “Chicago” and “Rent.”
Sean Patrick Thomas — of
“Save the Last Dance” and “Barbershop” fame — stars in “Kemba.”
In the 1990s, Kemba Smith was a Hampton University student when she became romantically involved with a drug trafficker and victim of domestic violence. She was sentenced to federal prison, but her sentence was later commuted to time served by President Bill Clinton. She went on to become a national advocate for reforming mandatory sentencing laws.
Many of the festival’s films weren’t made with sizeable
budgets, and those are the ones that excite Thompson the most. Those are the filmmakers he hopes can benefit most from the festival. Maverick Entertainment, a Florida-based movie and distribution company, has committed to offering distribution deals to some of the festival winners. Films that don’t win also have a chance, Thompson said.
And he would know — he’s made close to a dozen films with the company.
Before joining the Army in 2003, Thompson was living in Miami and landing small parts in big projects such as “Out of Sight,” starring Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney, and the music video for Will Smith’s “Miami.” The momentum of his performance career slowed down with the military. He was deployed to Iraq in 2008, and the danger he faced sparked an epiphany.
“I realized I hadn’t experienced the version of me that was fully creative. If I made it back alive, I wanted to make sure that I focused on the creative stuff.”
He got stationed in Hampton Roads and reached out to local filmmakers who taught him how to write a script. He made his first short film, “No Venta,” in 2009. At night or on the weekends, he began working on a web series, “The Cell.” The next year, he won a Best Directing honor at the
Los Angeles Web Series Festival. He moved back to Miami and, in 2014, he founded a web series festival, Miami Web Fest, which partnered with Maverick. The company suggested Thompson turn “The Cell,” into a feature film, which he did. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2015.
“And we were off to the races. They started asking me asking me for more and certain types of content.”
His motivation for founding the local festival was to find a way to enrich the community. Hampton University agreed to co-sponsor and host it.
“I want to create filmmaking opportunities, additional funding opportunities, in Hampton Roads not just for Black filmmakers but really in general,” he said. He wants young storytellers to have the infrastructure they need to show off their talent to the world.
Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, colin.warrenhicks@virginiamedia. com