Glen Theater film festival champions African-American film-making
By Lisa Deneal Post-Tribune correspondent February 1, 2012 3:58PM
Walter Jones. | Provided Photo~Sun-Times Media
If You Go
◆ The African American
Achievers Youth Corps Inc.
Film Festival hosted by William L. Johnson.
◆ Glen Theater, 20 W. Ridge Road, Gary
◆ 6 p.m. Feb. 17, 7 p.m. Feb. 18 and 5 p.m. Feb. 19
◆ Feb. 17 tickets for Urban League Night cost $50 to be a sponsor or $25 for standard admission. Tickets for Feb. 18 and 19 cost $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Tickets may be purchased at Beautiful Things, 3570 Village Court inside the Village Shopping Center.
◆ For more information call Vernon Smith 887-2046
Article Extras
Updated: March 4, 2012 8:02AM
Vernon G. Smith said it was by chance while inside Dorsey Johnson’s salon one day that he noticed a photo of a young man on a wall.
“I kept looking at the photo and thinking I know this young man and when I asked Mrs. Johnson she replied that it was a photo of her son, William,” Smith said.
William L. Johnson is an actor and singer living in California with his wife and two children. Smith and Johnson eventually held a telephone conversation that will bring the Emerson School of Visual and Performing Arts alumnus to his hometown to host a film festival Feb. 17-19 at the Glen Theater.
Smith, a state representative from Gary, is founder of the African American Achievers Youth Corps Inc., which oversees productions at the Glen Theater.
The festival will include short- and feature-length films and independent films, many that feature Johnson who has appeared in more than 20 of them since the late 1990s.
“Opening night will be a double feature — ‘Dating While Black’ and ‘Tears of the Clown,’ ” Johnson said.
Johnson said it’s been a while since his last visit, but has wanted to return to do some projects.
“After this film festival and when it is warmer I want to return to do a workshop for actors, show them how to truly be prepared for auditions.
“I also want to make a movie in my hometown. You don’t have to be in Hollywood or New York to make movies,” he said.
He wants to encourage blacks and minorities to get into film-making. “Hollywood truly does not give a damn about us but they are taking our identities as a people and infusing them into nonblack characters.”
“We have to create movies that tell our stories at broader levels,” he said. “We are more than the buffoonery, thug and drug dealing gangster and abusive killer or pimp Hollywood always depict us to be.”
Smith said each night of the festival will be sponsored by various organizations with the Urban League of Northwest Indiana sponsoring opening night with a reception.
The Alpha Kappa Alpha Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and the Froebel Alumni Committee will sponsor Feb. 18, and the Northwest Indiana Media Group will sponsor Feb. 19.
Other movies screening at the festival include movie shorts “Oxtail,” “Move” and “Catfish and Gumbo,” full-length feature film “Marco Polo” and “Posin” by West Side Theatre Guild artistic and film director Mark Spencer.
Johnson said other guests include producer, writer, director and filmmaker Van Elder and actor Walter Jones, best known for his role as the Black Ranger in the TV series “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” and “Malibu Shores.” Jones was recently in an episode of the NBC drama “Prime Suspect.”
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