In 2000, D.C. resident Tim Gordon launched the Black Reel Awards here in the nation’s capital.
Now, he has expanded it into the fifth annual LightReel Film Festival at the Angelika Pop-Up at Union Market in Northeast D.C. this Wednesday, June 5 through Saturday, June 8.
“This is our first festival in person since our first festival because we’ve been hybrid and virtual from years two through four because of the pandemic,” Gordon told WTOP. “We’ve grown from the first year. In 2019, we had 48 films in the festival. This year we have 72. We used to be in Columbia, so we moved it over to Union Market now.”
The lineup kicks off Wednesday night with a 40th anniversary screening of Prince’s “Purple Rain” (1984).
“We’re opening up the doors and doing our sing-along film,” Gordon said. “We had this film in our festival for its 35th anniversary back in 2019 and I’m going to announce breaking news for you, it will become the ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ of our festival. We’re going to show it every year at our festival because we want people to come out dressed in purple. People who love Prince and love this movie will come, sing along, dance in the back.”
The new slate of movies starts Thursday with the D.C. premiere of “Dandelion,” which debuted at South by Southwest. It stars KiKi Layne from “If Beale Street Could Talk.”
“It is an outstanding story about a young woman trying to find her voice, a musician,” Gordon said.
Friday brings the first two episodes of the four-part A&E series “James Brown: Say It Loud.”
“Normally, when you go to film festivals, they usually show you like the first episode then you have to wait, but we’re going to give you a bonus episode. I insisted on that. I was like, ‘If we’re going to do this, I want to show at least half of this miniseries,’ and it’s really, really strong.”
Saturday brings “Freedom Hair,” directed by D.C. native and Oscar nominee Dianne Houston, as well as the western multiverse flick “Quantum Cowboy,” starring Lily Gladstone. It all culminates with the comedy “Thelma,” starring June Squibb (“Nebraska”) and the late Richard Roundtree (“Shaft”) for a hilarious closing night.
“I saw this movie at Sundance,” Gordon said. “The story is about June Squibb, who is bilked out of $10,000. She borrows her friend’s scooter — played by Richard Roundtree — and the two of them go around and investigate how to get her money back. It’s like a geriatric action film that’s really, really funny to watch … and it’s the final screen performance of Richard Roundtree, which is why I wanted it in the festival. He is brilliant in this film.”
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