By John Benson
Conceived less than six months ago, Society of Urban Professionals’ Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival (GCUFF) makes its debut Sat 4/19 through Tue 4/22 at Shaker Square Cinemas.
The visionary behind the event is GCUFF Executive Director Donna Dabbs, a Glenville area native who as director of the Urban League’s Small Business Development Center saw an opportunity to create something unique for Northeast Ohio. Even though this is the inaugural year, there will be no baby steps as the GCUFF welcomes veteran stage and screen actor S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order) to open the festival with her new film The Contradictions of Fair Hope [pictured below].
The documentary examines a little known aspect of American history, where newly freed slaves throughout the South formed benevolent societies to respond to the abject hunger, illness and the fear of a pauper’s grave. Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg, The Contradictions of Fair Hope score is composed by jazz artist Christian McBride.
Furthermore, GCUFF has eight features and roughly 25 shorts covering all genres, including comedy and horror. Cool Cleveland talked to Dabbs about the idea behind GCUFF and its future potential.
Cool Cleveland: Let’s start at the beginning. What’s the impetus for GCUFF?
Donna Dabbs: The idea behind the event was actually going to the Cleveland International Film Festival. We were looking for people of color and didn’t see them. I thought, “OK, maybe we should do our own festival.” Then I did a little bit of research and found several urban film festivals around the country. They’ve been going on for years and going well. I felt this would be good for Cleveland.
How does one not only create a film festival but attract a big name in its inaugural year?
In January I went to a film festival in San Diego where I learned a lot. We patterned ours after that festival. I had an opportunity to meet S. Epatha Merkerson because she was at one of the events. Another filmmaker I met told me she had a film. I went up and introduced myself to Merkerson and told her we were doing a festival. I went to her movie’s screening. It was energetic, very well done. I asked if we could show it, and then I asked if she was available to join us and she said, “Yes.”
So what’s the mission statement behind GCUFF?
It’s really to promote African-American films. The mantra of Society of Urban Professionals is connecting people and building relationships. For us it was just one more way to do that but specifically with the opportunity to educate and promote and show African-Americans in a positive light. Not all the films feature African-Americans. The criteria are the films have to be produced, directed or star African-Americans. There are things for the majority as well.
Finally, what’s the future of GCUFF?
I’m just trying to get through this year and see how it goes but from what I’m told it can get pretty big. We really want to help attract people to Cleveland and help them understand this is an interesting place with things going on. So that’s sort of the driving thing behind it as well. I’m excited we have people coming who aren’t typically here. That in itself to me is success but I would like to see hotels packed, lots of people. I see how big the Cleveland International Film Festival got and I can’t imagine it being that big but even a quarter of that would be great for Cleveland and for us.
The Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival runs from Sat 4/19 – Tue 4/22 @ Shaker Square Cinemas. For more information, visit http://GCUFF.org.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.