BronzeLens Film Festival (BLFF) Recap + PHOTOS

adminNovember 14, 2012

(Deborah Riley Draper, S. Epatha Merkerson, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Stephanie Allain and Kathy Fong-Yoneda)

Written by | Ray Cornelius

The BronzeLens Film Festival was held this past weekend in Atlanta and RC was there to capture all of the sights and sounds of the four-day event, now in its third year!

Festivities began Thursday with a series of firsts including the Atlanta premieres of Second Time Around, a soul stirring documentary about teenage age pregnancy in Georgia and Otelo Burning, the South African coming-of-age story about freedom through surfing.

Friday was all about women’s empowerment as a number of who’s who attended the Women Super Stars Luncheon at the Marriott Marquis ballroom. This year’s honorees included emerging actress Emayatzy Corinealdi, award-winning script writer Kathie Fong-Yoneda, Hustle & Flow director Stephanie Allain and Versailles ‘73’s Deborah Riley Draper. Receiving top honors at the event was noted film and television actress S. Epatha Merkerson, whose documentary The Contradictions of Fair Hope premiered later on that evening at the Georgia Pacific headquarters.

Film icon Reuben Cannon held center court on Saturday with his much talked about producer’s roundtable featuring Roger M. Bobb. Bobb was also honored later on that evening along with television and stage director Kenny Leon during the 2012 BronzeLens Awards. The awards ceremony, which was held at the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center at Morehouse College, recognized the best in BLFF film entries and was hosted by Wendy Raquel Robinson of BET’s The Game.

The weekend came to a close on Sunday with the debut of Crystal Clear Robinson’s Echo at 11 Oak Drive and films from the 11 Eleven 11 Project, which paired rising writers and directors with veteran actors as mentors.

Check out some photos from the weekend…