Third Annual Homo-Harlem Film Series

Curated by Michael Henry Adams

Co-sponsored by State Senator Bill Perkins, Harlem United, Sage Harlem, Men of All Colors Together Harlem Pride, Third World Newsreel and the Maysles Cinema the Homo-Harlem Film Series is Upper Manhattan’s foremost celebration and recognition of the cultural accomplishments of LGBT people of color.

Three Queer Mice

Supafriends/Global Action Project, 2008, 2 min

In Three Queer Mice, based on real stories, this at once quirky and tragic animated remake of the Three Blind Mice nursery rhyme hauntingly reflects the dangers and discrimination queer youth face.

Keisha Knows

Supafriends/Global Action Project, 2010, 8 min

Inspired by the intense love affairs of lesbian pulp-fiction novels, Keisha Knows is an homage to the film noir aesthetic.  Addressing hetero-normativity, Keisha Knows is not just any ordinary love story, but one that explores what is at stake when a community is divided.

Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project

Dir. Charles B. Brack, 2008, 58 min.

This documentary tells the little known story of Sakia Gunn, a 15 year old student who was fatally stabbed in a gay hate crime in Newark, New Jersey. Sakia held promise as a basketball player and was an "A" student, looking forward to becoming a senior at Newark's West Side High School.  "Dreams Deferred: The Sakia Gunn Film Project" depicts the homophobia that caused this murder and questions the lack of media coverage of the murder of a Black Gay teenager. "This 15 year old black lesbian was murdered, and I didn't know about it", says activist Swazzi Sowo of Black Rap in San Francisco.  The documentary follows the reaction of the Newark community where several rallies and vigils were held, galvanizing the community and prompting several LGBT organizations to form, including the Newark Pride Alliance and Sakia Gunn Aggressives & Femmes, as well as a scholarship fund in her name.  May 23, the day Sakia was murdered, was declared by the city of Newark's Mayor as "No Name Calling Day.”

Sakia Film Website: http://www.sakiagunnfilmproject.com/

Three Blind Mice/Keisha Knows Film Website: http://global-action.org/

Discussion to follow, speakers TBA