The Black Archive’s held their 1st Annual Folklife Film Festival featuring the Elijah Wells Youth Indie Film Festival on May 19, 2016 at the Black Archives Historic Lyric Theatre. The Festival, which celebrated and inspired the youth to develop their technical and creative skills, could only be described as a massive success! Every seat in the theater was filled. The Elijah Wells Youth Indie Film Festival (EWYIFF) will help promote a diverse economy and draw people to Overtown as a historic community, and promote small business development to meet the needs of the community it attracts. The red carpet was filled with special celebrity guests, starting from Pastor Marty Glen Davis, Dwayne Wade Sr., Dr. Dorothy Fields, Founder of the Black Achieves, to Dr. Jamie Brown, the publisher of Sister 2 Sister Magazine. The event began with a tour of the Archives gallery, which was followed by master classes taught by Allen J. West and Wills Felin; where they gave insight on business and money management in the film industry. As the invited youth groups left with their EWYIFF goody bags sponsored by ST Records and glow stick giveaways sponsored by House of Wings, the adults came in for the screening of the short films. High school students from all over the district were asked to submit films of their own for an opportunity to win a $500 EWYIFF scholarship provided by Urban Philanthropies. Four lucky students were asked to participate in the screening, and they entertained the audience with their films. Out of the four came winners Dominique Seward and Saliba Crespo. Between Dominique’s intriguing informational documentary on Huntington’s disease and Saliha’s on aids, the students and audience were completely enticed with their work.
