50 Fifty Reel Challenge

50 Fifty Reel Challenge THE 50 FIFTY REEL CHALLENGE! Can you make a 5-15 minute short film in 50 Days? Th...

Choose the Challenge that best fits your "vision" of the film that you want to make. At registration, choose your Genre or Theme and the Date you want to Start the Clock. The 50 Fifty Reel Challenge is a year-long, multi-event film challenge where you and your friends can hone your craft, make a short film, and it premiere on the BIG Screen. If you make a really good film, you could win prizes, and possibly 50 percent of the BOX OFFICE of screening!

07/19/2024

ANNOUNCEMENT
NO CHALLENGE FOR 2024

#1 - Films studied during Film School series This series will cover films that my class studied during class, but stil...
05/21/2024

#1 - Films studied during Film School series

This series will cover films that my class studied during class, but still has grabbed me for multiple viewings.

Koyaanisqatsi (1982) -

“Koyaanisqatsi is an impressive visual and listening experience.” - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The title comes from the Hopi word meaning "life out of balance," in this experimental / well known documentary, nearly dialogue-free with an incredible musical score by Phillip Glass, it reveals how humanity has grown apart from nature.

The documentary was followed by it's sequels;

Powaqqatsi (1988) - "life in transition"
Naqoyqatsi (2002) - "life as war" or "civilized violence"

BLACK HISTORY #19Peter Ramsey became the first African-American to win BEST ANIMATED FEATURE for the film "Spider-Man: ...
02/27/2024

BLACK HISTORY #19

Peter Ramsey became the first African-American to win BEST ANIMATED FEATURE for the film "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" back in 2018.

Peter A. Ramsey (born December 23, 1962) is an American illustrator, storyboard artist, and filmmaker. He is best known for directing DreamWorks Animation's Rise of the Guardians (2012), becoming the first African American to direct a major American animated film, and co-directing Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).

For Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, he became the first African American to be nominated for and win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

His first job in Hollywood was painting a mural, but soon he was working as a storyboard artist and production illustrator on 26 films including Predator 2, Backdraft, Independence Day, Fight Club and A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

He was a second unit director for Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Tank Girl and Godzilla. Aron Warner, the producer of Tank Girl, suggested he join DreamWorks Animation. After initially being uninterested, Ramsey joined DreamWorks as a story artist for Shrek the Third and Shrek the Halls.

BLACK HISTORY #18Rupert Crosse (November 29, 1927 – March 5, 1973) was an American television and film actor noted as t...
02/27/2024

BLACK HISTORY #18

Rupert Crosse (November 29, 1927 – March 5, 1973) was an American television and film actor noted as the first African American to receive a nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award — for his role in the 1969 adaptation of William Faulkner's "The Reivers."

After studying acting under John Cassavetes, Crosse appeared in two of Cassavetes' films: Shadows (for which he won a Venice Film Festival Award) and Too Late Blues (1962).

A life member of The Actors Studio, he made numerous guest appearances on television in the decade prior to landing the role of Ned McCaslin in the 1969 film "The Reivers", directed by and starring fellow Studio members Mark Rydell and Steve McQueen, respectively.

His last onscreen role was in the sitcom The Partners, alongside Don Adams. Shortly before his death, Crosse was cast as Mulhall in "The Last Detail" (1973), withdrawing from the role after learning he suffered from terminal cancer. He was replaced by Otis Young.

Crosse died March 5, 1973, of lung cancer in Nevis.

BLACK HISTORY #17Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress and singer. She ...
02/23/2024

BLACK HISTORY #17

Dorothy Jean Dandridge (November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965) was an American actress and singer.

She was the first African-American film star to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role, which was for her performance in Carmen Jones (1954).

Dandridge had also performed as a vocalist in venues such as the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. During her early career, she performed as a part of The Wonder Children, later The Dandridge Sisters, and appeared in a succession of films, usually in uncredited roles.

n 1959, Dandridge was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for "Porgy and Bess". She was the subject of the 1999 biographical film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, with Halle Berry portraying her.

She had been recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was married and divorced twice, first to dancer Harold Nicholas (the father of her daughter, Harolyn Suzanne) and then to hotel owner Jack Denison.

Dandridge died in 1965 at the age of 42.

We would have to wait until 2001 for Halle Berry to actually win the prestigious Oscar for her role in "Monster's Ball".

BLACK HISTORY #16In 1958 Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American actor to be nominated for a film. Almost 30...
02/22/2024

BLACK HISTORY #16

In 1958 Sidney Poitier becomes the first African-American actor to be nominated for a film. Almost 30 years after Hattie McDaniel took the honors in 1939. The film below "The Defiant Ones" was his nomination for the role. It's a gritty of story of racism seen through the eyes of two escaped convicts one black, the other white, trying to elude capture to gain their freedom.

Sidney would have to wait until 1963 for his actual win, for his role as the handyman working for nuns in "The Lillies of the Field".

Poitier becomes quite the powerhouse of roles in the 1960's, appearing in 3 of the most successful films of 1967. "To Sir with Love", "In the Heat of the Night" which took Best Picture at the Oscars and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner".

BLACK HISTORY #15"Blacula" is a 1972 American blaxploitation vampire horror film directed by William Crain. Starring Wi...
02/21/2024

BLACK HISTORY #15

"Blacula" is a 1972 American blaxploitation vampire horror film directed by William Crain. Starring William Marshall in the main role about an 18th-century African prince named Mamuwalde, who is turned into a vampire (and later locked in a coffin) by Count Dracula in the Count's castle in Transylvania in the year 1780 after Dracula refuses to help Mamuwalde suppress the slave trade.

Blacula was released to mixed reviews in the United States, but was one of the top-grossing films of the year.

It was the first film to receive an award for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards and was followed by the sequel, "Scream Blacula Scream" in 1973 and inspired a wave of blaxploitation-themed horror films including Blackenstein, Killjoy, G***a & Hess, and J.D.'s Revenge.

They also have green-lit a remake of Blacula for 2024.

BLACK HISTORY #14Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, ...
02/21/2024

BLACK HISTORY #14

Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer, that worked as an active filmmaker into the 2000s.

His feature film debut, "The Story of a Three-Day Pass" (1967), was based on his own French-language novel, "La Permission" and was shot in France, since it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time in the United States.

This film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut "Watermelon Man", in 1970, opening more opportunities from Hollywood, which he used to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.

In 1971, he released his best-known work, creating and starring in the film "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song", considered one of the earliest and best-regarded examples of the blaxploitation genre.

He followed this up with the musical, "Don't Play Us Cheap", based on his own stage play, and continued to make films, write novels and stage plays in English and in French through the next several decades; his final films include the French-language film "Le Conte du ventre plein" (2000) and the absurdist film "Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-Itchy Footed M***a" (2008).

His son, filmmaker and actor Mario Van Peebles, appeared in several of his works and portrayed him in the 2003 biographical film "Baadasssss!".

BLACK HISTORY #13In 1971 Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song begins a NEW ERA of film for African-Americans with the begin...
02/19/2024

BLACK HISTORY #13

In 1971 Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song begins a NEW ERA of film for African-Americans with the beginning of blaxploitation films that broke existing film stereotypes by presenting self-possessed Black men (and occasionally women, notably Pam Grier) in control of their own destinies.

These were made, in all varieties of genre including horror (notably "Blacula", 1972), westerns ("Buck and the Preacher", 1972), comedies ("Watermelon Man", 1970), dramas ("Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes", 1974), and, by far the most-popular subgenre, action ("Shaft", 1971).

From the outset, African American critics found the stereotypes made possible by the behaviours of the heroes and heroines of the films—which often included drug dealing, violence, and easy sex—to be the most-pervasive and damaging effect of the movies.

As well the absence of a Black cultural aesthetic. The Studios received much criticism for their careless eagerness to cash in on the blaxploitation trend, but the most-stinging indictment was reserved for the actors and actresses who contributed to the offending stereotypes by playing pimps, prostitutes, street hustlers, drug dealers, and other unsavory types.

BLACK HISTORY #12The RACE FILM or RACE MOVIE was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and t...
02/16/2024

BLACK HISTORY #12

The RACE FILM or RACE MOVIE was a genre of film produced in the United States between about 1915 and the early 1950s, consisting of mostly films produced for black audiences, and featuring black casts.

500 of these race films were produced, and fewer than one hundred remain today. These films were produced outside the Hollywood studio system, they were largely forgotten by mainstream film historians until they resurfaced in the 1980s on the BET cable network.

In their day, race films were very popular among African-American theatergoers. Their influence continues to be felt in cinema and television marketed to African-Americans.

The race films vanished during the early 1950s after African-American participation in World War II contributed to the starring of black actors in lead roles in several Hollywood major productions.

Many of these focused on the serious problems of integration and racism, such as "Pinky" with Ethel Waters; "Home of the Brave" with James Edwards; and "Intruder in the Dust", all in 1949; and "No Way Out" (1950), which was the debut of the notable actor Sidney Poitier.

The last known race film appears to have been an obscure adventure film of 1954 called "Carib Gold."

In the South, to comply with laws on racial segregation, race movies were screened at designated black theaters.

Though northern cities were not always formally segregated, race films were generally shown in theaters in black neighborhoods.

Many large northern theaters segregated black audiences by requiring them to sit in the balconies or by attending later showtimes.

While it was rare for race films to be shown to white audiences, white theaters often reserved special time-slots for black moviegoers.

This resulted in race films often being screened as matinées and midnight shows. During the height of their popularity, race films were shown in as many as 1,100 theaters around the country.

BLACK HISTORY #11It would be 10 years after Hattey McDaniel's Oscar nomination for the second African-American to be no...
02/15/2024

BLACK HISTORY #11

It would be 10 years after Hattey McDaniel's Oscar nomination for the second African-American to be nominated for an Oscar, and still no male nominations.

Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 – September 1, 1977) was an American singer and actress.

Frequently performing jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues.

With notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow".

Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the 1949 film "Pinky". She was also the first African-American to star on her own television show, and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

BLACK HISTORY #10Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893 – October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and com...
02/15/2024

BLACK HISTORY #10

Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1893 – October 26, 1952) was an American actress, singer-songwriter, and comedienne.

For her role as Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939), she was the first African-American to be nominated and the actually won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first African American to win an Oscar.

She has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, and in 2006 became the first Black Oscar winner honored with a U.S. postage stamp.

In 2010, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame, which I'll have to check out now that I'm living in Colorado.

McDaniel experienced racism and racial segregation throughout her career, and was unable to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta because it was held at a whites-only theater.

At the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, she sat at a segregated table at the side of the room.

In 1952, McDaniel died of breast cancer. Her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery was denied because the graveyard was restricted to whites only at the time.

Below is her accepting the Oscar, not on stage but in a private room off to the side of the main stage, which was segregated to whites only.

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