NYC’s Urbanworld Film Festival launches tonight, Wednesday, September 18, screening two dozen features and more than thirty shorts through this Sunday, September 22. Focused on spotlighting the work of African American and multicultural filmmakers, the festival celebrates its 17th edition this year.
Among its lineup are nine documentary features. Screening as a Spotlight is Nelson George’s FINDING THE FUNK, a loving survey of the music genre that bridged soul and hip hop. Music is also at the core of Reuben Atlas’ BROTHERS HYPNOTIC, about the brass band made up of jazz legend Phil Cochran’s sons; Kerri Gawryn’s A LOVELY DAY (pictured), following Oakland youth as they work to express themselves through hip hop; and Manauvaskar Kublall’s AMERICAN BEATBOXER, a chronicle of the first-ever American Beatbox Championship in Brooklyn.
A different championship is at stake in Crystal McCrary’s LITTLE BALLERS, which follows four eleven-year-olds as they set out to win the Amateur Athletic Union’s National Basketball competition. Youth and sports figure in Daphne Schmon’s CHILDREN OF THE WIND (pictured), the story of Caribbean windsurfers; while kids and their education is the subject of Jyllian Gunther’s THE NEW PUBLIC. On the lighter side, Tamarat Makonnen’s IN SEARCH OF THE BLACK KNIGHT wonders where all the eligible black men are. Finally, Yoruba Richen’s THE NEW BLACK takes on the complex issue of the African-American community’s response to gay marriage.
what (not) to doc 