The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) has been celebrating #PRIDE all month long and yours truly—Ray Cornelius—recently hosted a panel discussion about Black LGBTQ images in television, film and media.

The exclusive conversation features some of the most influential figures in the Black LGBTQ community including Native Son Now founder and media maven Emil Wilbekin; media personality, producer and author Patrick Riley; V. Scott Hamilton from Better Brothers L.A. plus Charles Stephens and Michael Ward from the Atlanta-based organization, The Counter Narrative Project

From James Baldwin to RuPaul to groundbreaking television series like POSE and Hollywood to iconic movies like The Color Purple and Moonlight, the #PRIDE2020 conversation takes a look back at the cinema and pop culture images that “pushed the envelope” and gave the Black gay community a voice. 

In addition to that conversation, I also talked one-on-one with iconic LGBTQ filmmaker Patrik Ian-Polk. He opens up like never before about his classic film Punks, his groundbreaking TV series Noah’s ARC, his coming-of-age film Blackbird and his newest project, P-Valley.

Watch the conversations below and click here for more AAFCA Pride programming: 

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