Source: The Toronto Black Film Festival
It’s Black History Month and were looking at all the latest and greatest happenings that celebrate black icons both in Canada and the world. The Toronto Black Film Festival is on now and runs from February 10th to 15th 2015. The Toronto Black Film Festival is dedicated to giving unique voices in cinema the opportunity to present audiences with new ways of looking at the world with free industry panels and screenings of other innovative features, shorts and documentaries from Black filmmakers around the world at Carlton Cinema and Jackman Hall, Art Gallery of Ontario.
Notable TV producer Spike Lee is again lending his expertise for up and coming producers in Film. On Tuesday, February 10, 2015, after a VIP reception, an enthusiastic audience at the launch event for the Toronto Black Film Festival was treated to a unique film for which Spike Lee provided backing. Directed by Asian-American film-maker, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Manos Sucias, “Dirty Hands” in English, was shot along Colombia’s Pacific Coast and in the predominantly Black barrios of Buenaventura. This feature film brought to life real-life experiences through a screenplay written by Josef Kubota Wladyka and Alan Blanco. Refusing to glamorize the drug trade, Manos Sucias instead offers a rare glimpse of its devastating effects.
Hollywood Legend Bill Cobbs will also receive the Toronto Black Film Festival’s inaugural LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD on Saturday, February 14, 2015, 6:30PM at Jackman Hall (Art Gallery of Ontario). “The TBFF is thrilled to grant him this prestigious award in recognition of his amazing body of work and for his great contribution to Films both in Television and Cinema”. Bill Cobbs, born and raised in the Unites States, has starred in over 160 television programs and movies. As an amateur actor in the city’s Karamu House Theater, Cobbs starred in the Ossie Davis play Purlie Victorious. Cobbs was an Air Force radar technician for eight years; he also worked in office products at IBM and sold cars in Cleveland. In 1970, at the age of 36, he left for New York to seek work as an actor. There he turned down a job in the NBC sales department in order to have time for auditions. He supported himself by driving a cab, repairing office equipment, selling toys, and performing odd jobs. His first professional acting role was in Ride a Black Horse at the Negro Ensemble Company. From there he appeared in small theater productions, street theater, regional theater, and at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre. Cobbs made his feature film debut in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three in 1974.
Cobbs has been a regular on many television programs, including The Michael Richards Show, The Outer Limits, I’ll Fly Away, Yes, Dear, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Others, JAG, The Drew Carey Show, October Road, One Tree Hill, and many more. He had a recurring role in the TV series, Go On, which premiered in 2012. In 2006, Cobbs had a supporting role in Night at the Museum. He played in Disney’s Air Bud and in Rob Reiner’s Ghosts of Mississippi. He had a role in the Coen Brothers’ The Hudsucker Proxy and played in Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do.
Check out the Toronto Black Film Festival.
– See more at: http://torontoblackfilm.com/2015-festival/#/event/129
