By: Brandon Nicholas, Contributing Writer
Issa Rae once beautifully said, “we tend to network up when we really should be networking across.” As I reflect on my time at this year’s American Black Film Festival, in which Rae served as its Creative Director, I appreciate the energy put into the festival this year to be a more inclusive space. Networking across, in this instance, is an analogy for how affirmed I felt while at the festival. I’m sure this was one of the queerest experiences ABFF has had in a while and I think everything was the better for it.
While I was looking forward to seeing Drip Like Coffee, a film by Anaiis Cisco centering the romance between two Black women baristas, the weather in Miami delayed my trip by several days, so I unfortunately missed the premiere. I also wasn’t able to catch Nicco Annan’s docuseries Down in the Valley that explores the nuanced, vibrant, culture of the Deep South. While I missed out on both of those queer premieres, I was able to attend the premiere of Jussie Smollett’s The Lost Holliday which starred himself and one of my favorite aunties Vivica A. Fox. This was a film filled with queer relationships and LGBTQ characters, including one of my favorite trans-men actors Marquis Vilson. Jussie said during his post-screening Q&A how much he loves Marquis and casts him in all of his projects, which I first noticed in Jussie’s previous film B-Boy Blues. I appreciate the relationship Marquis and Jussie have and I look forward to having that type of collaboration and relationship with Black queer artists as I pursue my own work in film and entertainment.
On the note of Jussie, I also enjoyed hearing him speak during the GLAAD x ABFF Queer Lens Brunch moderated by Sidra Smith. The panel included Jussie, Jonica Booth from Rap Sh!t, and filmmaker Alexandra Grey. He approached this moment with vulnerability, comedy, honesty, and insight. He shared his challenges with making The Lost Holliday, how his recent circumstances had key players back out of the project but he was committed to making this film. He shared how the power of community support, from friends like Sidra Smith sitting two seats down from him, got him to the finish line. That lateral support (read: community) got him through. As I reflect on my journey as a filmmaker and the similar challenges and rejections I’ve faced while trying to produce a story important to me, it’s humbling to know that my struggles aren’t unique to me as a Black gay filmmaker, and that community is what will get me through. Jussie’s perseverance was an reminder to be resilient and persistent when facing adversity and resistance from systems and people.
That panel was preceded by a presentation of three short projects from queer artists who won an impromptu pitch competition that I played a small but significant part in materializing at the Black Queer Creative Summit in September 2023. The pitch winners, who– in Issa’s “networking across”– are now friends of mine, were Soy Giraud, Donnie Hue Frazier III, and fellow EMEI cohort member Alexander King. Shar Jossell moderated the panel. I especially enjoyed this conversation because I was able to witness and celebrate work by people who are my “neighbors” in community. Friends screening their projects to an audience of Black LGBTQ folks while at ABFF, it felt like they were a part of the festival to me! I’m such a cheerleader for Black queer artists and creatives, and I experience so much joy when we get to shine and be celebrated.
Donnie offered some beautiful advice during the panel: “… for artists out there who are like me and in a space where they think they don’t have resources or the means to make their dreams come true, just be receptive and open to opportunity, attract opportunity and stay in a vibrational space no matter the circumstances.” This really speaks to the beauty of networking across, in that his opportunity was a result of community members coming together for the advancement of the larger Black queer community.
The biggest highlight for me though was the overall energy of the queer community in attendance, from sitting at the beach with new and old friends, manifesting our creative futures, to crowding Raising Cane’s after an insightful workshop. Recognizing that this was a space that wasn’t exclusively ours, but we were welcomed and embraced all the same. I’m always fueled and inspired when I’m around my people. And while my trip was not without its obstacles–I’m looking at you mother nature–I had a great time in Miami as a GLAAD ambassador and look forward to attending ABFF in the future as a presenter.