Schedule:

February 15, 2024

ArtSmart: African-American Film Festival - The Beauty of Blackness - 7:00 PM

THE BEAUTY OF BLACKNESS chronicles Fashion Fair, the first cosmetics brand created exclusively for Black women created in 1973 by Eunice Johnson, the co-founder of Ebony and Jet Magazines. The film examines Fashion Fair’s rapid rise to icon status and how the brand surpassed cultural obstacles to overcome beauty standards that previously excluded people of color. Despite revolutionizing the beauty industry and becoming a household name for every Black and Brown woman in the 1970’s, the brand faced a rocky media landscape and encountered challenges due to emerging competitors.

The film’s director Kiana Moore will be joining Dr. Terri Francis as a panelist for this event.

February 16, 2024

Art Smart: African-American Film Festival - Losing Ground at 7:00 PM

Moderated by Director, Filmmaker and Artist, Ja’Tovia Gary and curator, Terri Francis

Kathleen Collins’s feature film, Losing Ground, focused on the tensions between freedom and fidelity, abstraction and representation in this

American independent film. In her experimental short film, An Ecstatic Experience, Gary explores themes of beauty, resistance and freedom.

February 17, 2024

ArtSmart: African-American Film Festival - Bright Road at 2:00 PM

Moderated by Director Stefani Saintonge,

Professor Tiffany Gilbert and Curator Terri Francis

In this charming literary adaptation, Bright Road, Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte play a caring teacher and a thoughtful school principal who mentor a troubled but gifted student. Stefanie Saintonge’s short film about friendship in the tumultuous tween years, Seventh Grade.

ArtSmart: African-American Film Festival - Island In The Sun at 7:00 PM

Moderated by Professor Tiffany Gilbert and Curator Terri Francis

James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge and Joan Collins star in this drama that explores the politics of beauty, family and interracial relationships in a Caribbean society.

February 18, 2024

ArtSmart: African-American Film Festival - Ruby Bridges at 2:00 PM

Moderated by Curator Terri Francis and guest panelists

French director, Euzahn Palcy’s docudrama, Ruby Bridges, presents the heroic and beautiful portrayal of a little girl’s gigantic courage as an instrument of historical transformation in American society.

ArtSmart: African-American Film Festival- Daughters Of The Dust at 6:30 PM

Moderated by Filmmaker and Community Organizer Helen Peña and Curator Terri Franci

Daughters of the Dust portrays the conflict of tradition and change for a close-knit Gullah family on the cusp of migration north and is credited with inspiring some of the beautiful imagery in Beyonce’s, Lemonade, (2016). Peña’s poignant portrait of a grieving woman, When Angels Speak of Love, evokes mythical mermaids and political realities.

6-Show Series $70 - Includes opening night reception - Save $30 when purchasing the entire festival.

Date: February 15 - 18, 2024

Location:

Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts -

701 Okeechobee Boulevard

West Palm Beach, FL 33401

Buy Ticket

Click here for more Information