'Block Reportin' 101' and more at the San Francisco Black Film Festival

Frameline [1] is hitting screens tomorrow (our coverage here [2], here [3], and here [4]), but this weekend also unspools another local festival worth your filmgoing time: the San Francisco Black Film Festival [5], which kicks off Fri/15 with Robert Townsend's latest, based-on-a-true-story drama In the Hive [6]. It's about a group of at-risk teens struggling to continue their educations (with the help of tough-love administrators played by Loretta Devine and Michael Clarke Duncan).

The rest of the fest includes a "Focus on Fathers Family Day" featuring a new short doc by Kevin Epps [7]; a games and animation-focused program topped off by a panel with Leo Sullivan (Fat Albert) and Morrie Turner (Wee Pals); and, of course, a huge slate of features and shorts, on a wide-cast net of subjects: pick-up basketball, hip-hop in Ghana, "good hair," and more. Don't miss mockumentary Thugs, The Musical [8] — SF comedian Kevin Avery's show biz satire in the vein of Townsend's 1987 Hollywood Shuffle.

Of particular local interest is the Sat/16 screening of Block Reportin' 101 [9], S. "C-ya" Samura's documentary about community activist and journalist J.R. Valray, "People's Minister of Information," and his work at the Bay Area's own Block Report Radio [10]. Check out the trailer below, and Valray's own radio report on the SFBFF here [11].

Fri/15-Sun/17, $5-$50
Various venues, SF
www.sfbff.org [5]