Maupintown Film Festival

2025 FESTIVAL SCHEDULE

Friday, September 5th

6:00pm

Opening Cocktail Event

7:30pm

An Extraordinary Life
Runtime: 15:53
Narrative Short
Written & Directed by: Lisa Arrindell
Co-Producer: Terri Montrel
Alonzo and Adrienne have breakfast and receive some wonderful news... or is it? Morning turns to night as the couple struggles to find language amidst a storm of emotions. When family is the highest value, dreams fight to stay alive.

***Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker and Actress Lisa Arrindell

Lisa Arrindell was born in the Bronx, New York, and brought straight home to Brooklyn. A graduate of The High School of Performing Arts—now The Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts—she went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre from The Juilliard School.

Lisa’s extensive acting career spans film, television, and stage. Her notable screen credits include A Lesson Before Dying, Disappearing Acts, Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First Hundred Years, The Sin Seer, Livin' Large, Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, Random Acts of Flyness, Elementary, Madam Secretary, Saints & Sinners, The Quad, Notorious, Bull, and more. On stage, she has appeared in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Broadway), Jubilee (Seattle Opera), Reparations (The Billie Holiday Theatre), Richard III (NY Shakespeare Festival), Heliotrope Bouquet (Playwrights Horizons), and Earth and Sky (Second Stage), among others.

Her most recent projects include Albany Road, starring Lynn Whitfield, now available on Amazon Prime, as well as Watson on CBS and Favorite Son Christmas on BET. She is best known for her role as Vanessa in Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Family Reunion and for her gripping performance in the Law & Order episode titled "Disabled." Lisa also serves as the resident acting coach for the hit Starz series P-Valley.

Beyond her acting career, Lisa is passionate about health and wholeness, inspiring and educating aspiring performing artists. She teaches theater students who are deeply curious about pursuing a career in the performing arts and is on staff at The Freeman Studio and The Billie Holiday Theatre's Youth Arts Academy in New York City. Most importantly, she is the joyful mother of two stunning, loving, highly creative, and intelligent human beings.

Saturday, September 6th

SATURDAY MORNING CARTOONS

Cereal & milk will be provided

8:00am

Fractured
Runtime: 3:30
Animated Short
Directed by: Jaden L Rohena
Millions of us have electronic devices & yet few of us know what the real cost behind our devices is. Money was just the surface.

8:10am

Brown Money
Runtime: 5:46
Animated Short
Directed by: Warn Wilson
Jay sees his future as a professional athlete or engineer one day but his business savvy father wants him to think even bigger.
Join along as Jay learns an introduction to the working world and building wealth. He will soon learn the world is at his fingertips.
Brown Money is a must watch for young kids that promotes math, college, engineering, stocks, real estate, and having multiple streams of income.

***Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker Warn Wilson

8:45am

Selma, song of the crossing
Runtime: 1:17:36
Documentary Feature
Directed by: Jean-Jacques Cunnac
Selma is gearing up for the 60th anniversary of the “Marches”, led in 1965 by Martin Luther King. Through the prism of New York-based artist Julian Rozzell, in search of a collective history of segregation, an immersion in today's Selma, prey to survival, where the exaltation of the struggle has gradually become mired in resignation.

10:25am

Justice and Reconciliation: From Henry Highland Garnet to Harvey Johnson
Runtime: 32:26
Documentary Short
Directed by: Xavier W Frink, Michael Nelson
This powerful film delves into the lives and legacies of two pioneering Maryland figures—Henry Highland Garnet and Harvey Johnson—who were at the forefront of pushing for justice under the law and a cultural reconciliation for African Americans.
Garnet, a leading figure in the Liberty Party and president of the African Civilization Society, was the first African American to give a speech in the US Capitol.
Johnson, a trailblazer in civil rights organizing, founded the Brotherhood of Liberty, a forerunner to the Niagara Movement and ultimately the NAACP. His formation of the Colored Baptist Convention of Maryland mirrored the organizational structure of the AME Church. Ultimately, he pushed for a theory in Texas, which highlights the importance of Juneteenth.

***Followed by a Q&A with Co-Directors Xavier W. Frink & Michael Nelson

Moderated by. Sarad Davenport

11:25am

Dark Water White Rice
Runtime: 23:20
Documentary Shortt
Directed by: Ron Harris
Dark Water White Rice" is a powerful documentary exploring the enduring strength of the Gullah community in North Carolina's Cape Fear region and beyond. It delves into their vibrant history, cultural preservation efforts, and ongoing struggles with gentrification, economic disparity, and the fight for justice. This film is a moving testament to a people deeply rooted in tradition and hope.

12:10pm

Rectify My Cry: The Samuel F. Yette Story
Runtime: 1:09.32
Documentary Feature
Directed by: Ingrid Kelley
The new documentary Rectify My Cry: The Samuel F. Yette Story from IK Did That Productions provides a name that should be at the forefront of that list; but is often never mentioned.
More than fifty years ago, Samuel Yette authored and published The Choice: The Issue of Black Survival In America. This book boldly asserts that the federal government showed a pattern of repression against African Americans; that if not addressed might lead to genocide. In fact, if you believe cancel culture is a new phenomenon, think again. The book was deemed so controversial that it led to Yette being fired by his employer, Newsweek. But despite the backlash, Yette refused to be silenced. Yette became a Professor of Journalism at Howard University teaching future journalists to use their careers to be change makers.

1:35pm

Shadows of the Past
Runtime: 24:27
Documentary Short
Directed by: Teairrah Nicole Green
In the wake of a forgotten 20th-century genocide, Shadows of the Past explores the fragments of memory, identity, and resistance left behind by the Herero and Nama peoples after German colonial forces carried out one of history’s earliest acts of racial extermination. Weaving together personal testimony, archival imagery, and experimental forms such as dance and collage, the film meditates on generational trauma and the struggle to be heard. As debates over Germany’s recent reparations deal expose deep political and emotional rifts, Shadows of the Past asks what it means to seek justice when history has tried to erase you.

2:05pm

A Mother’s Gift
Runtime: 7:25
Documentary Short
A Mother's Gift tells the powerful story of a mother who overcomes adversity with the support and resilience found within her community.
Directed by: Krystal Shaw

***Followed by Q&A with Director, Krystal Shaw
Moderated by Jaime Duke-Hawkins

2:40pn

Chœurs Atlantiques | Tales from the Atlantic Beyond
(WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES)
Runtime: 1:59:00
Documentary Feature
Directed by: Safoi Babana-HamptonThe film is a poignant personal memory quest that begins at the Bay of Diamant, in Martinique, and carries us to 3 continents, to shine light on what it means to be black today in a globally interconnected world, as seen through the eyes of Martinican artist Laurent Valère and his transatlantic dialogs with the black diaspora.

5:00pm

Edward Ayers
Meeting the Moment—America @250 and Our Shared American Visions
As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Americans will give special attention to remembrance of the nation’s history. In this talk, Edward Ayers will reflect on how the ways we consider the past shape our own time and possibilities for the future. His recent book, American Visions, shows how the first generations of the new nation sought to align the nation’s ideals with the challenges of living up to those ideals.

Edward L. Ayers:
Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities at the University of Richmond, and President Emeritus
Ed Ayers has been named National Professor of the Year, received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama at the White House, served as president of the Organization of American Historians, and won the Bancroft Prize for distinguished writing in American history. He served as the founding Chair of the Board of the American Civil War Museum. Ed is the host of The Future of America’s Past, an Emmy Award-winning television series that visits sites of memory and meets the people who keep those memories alive. He is President Emeritus and Professor of Humanities at the University of Richmond. He was formerly professor and Dean of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia and now serves as Executive Director of New American History, a digital humanities project based at the University of Richmond, designed to help students and teachers to see the nation’s history in new ways. His newest book is Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790-2020.

Annie Evans:
Director of Education and Outreach
New American History
Annie Evans has spent over half her life teaching history, civics, and geography in Virginia’s K12 public schools. With New American History, she collaborates with a network of educators across the country to create learning resources to inspire the next generation of educators, public historians, and community leaders. Embracing inquiry and place-based learning, she serves as co-coordinator of the Virginia Geographic Alliance and a National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and Certified Educator. Annie is a frequent educational collaborator with several local school divisions across the Commonwealth, the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, and the Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society.

Sunday, September 7th

12:00pm

Count it up | The Prolyfyck Sole Systaz take on The Detroit MarathonRuntime: 14:31
Documentary Short
Directed by Kenny Hamlett
The good, the bad and the ugly. Follow the journey of 7 women from Prolyfyck Run Creww, the Prolyfyck Sole Systaz, as they work together to train for their first marathon. Through their training cycle they experience the highs and lows of preparing to run 26.2 miles by pushing their minds and bodies to distances they haven't been before.
***Followed by Q&A with Prolyfyck Run Crew

12:40pm

a film called Black: Kings Speech
Runtime: 19:20
Documentary Short
Directed by: Cam Be
‘a film called black’ is an evolving film. Each screening presents different elements to an ongoing conversation. Blackness. ‘King’s Speech’ is a short film that resides within the entirety of ‘a film called black.’ ‘King’s Speech’ centers around the conversation of Blackness - What is Blackness? Who gets to define it? Additionally asking Black fathers what it means to be a king? All while telling the parallel story of Chicago artist Cam Be & Neak’s creation of the song and visual story of ‘King’s Speech.’
The narrative aspect of the film adorns different black faces with custom crowns made by artist Simone Yael.

1:05pm

Diligence
Runtime: 1:30:00
Documentary Feature
Directed by: Brooklyn True Heart Demme
Carrie Jones shows us what it takes to keep her Lenape/African/European cemetery in the family.

2:40pm

The Pathway to Freedom
Runtime: 21:00
Documentary Short
Directed by: Sam Hampton
One mother's effort to save a community from mass incarceration in the State of Washington.

3:10pm

When Does Freedom Begin
Runtime: 1:26:12
Documentary Feature
Directed by: Linda Genereux
Three formerly-incarcerated activists are working in their Bridgeport CT community to become leaders in the struggle to expand freedom, justice and opportunity for people affected by crime and the criminal-legal system.

4:40pm

Echoes of the Forks of Cypress
Runtime: 44:36
Documentary Feature
Produced by. History Before Us
Directed by: Frederick Deshon Murphy
Forks of Cypress delves into the intertwined lives of the enslaved humans and their enslavers at the Forks of Cypress plantation in Florence, Alabama. It narrates the historical significance of the plantation, focusing on the daily lives, struggles, and resilience of the enslaved individuals who lived and worked there. The film then transitions to the present day, where descendants of both the enslaved and the enslavers come together to introduce and confront their shared history. By transforming the plantation and its enslaved cemetery into spaces of remembrance and healing, the descendants aim to confront the painful legacy of enslavement and foster a collective path toward healing and understanding.

5:35pm

Finding Edna Lewis
Runtime: 56.48
Documentary Feature
Hosted by: Deb Freeman
Directed by: Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren
From Freetown, Virginia, to New York City, Edna Lewis carved a remarkable path. She introduced many Americans to seasonal cooking, Southern cooking — the cooking of the Black community in rural Virginia that raised her. Yet despite a life that included fame and acclaim, she is not a household name. In FINDING EDNA LEWIS, Deb Freeman travels to the places where Miss Lewis made her mark.