Produced in collaboration with the Atlanta Film Festival, the A3C Film Festival—like the larger music and culture festival itself—promises to showcase a diverse array of hip-hop at its very best. The mission of the A3C Film Festival is to use film to unite artists and fans of Hip Hop, Youth, Street and Urban Culture, transform the way audiences see the world, and support the vision of independent artists.
From October 2-6, 2013, A3C will host movie premieres, screenings, music videos, shorts and panels. Headlining the second annual festival on October 3, is the East Coast Premiere of the Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton: This Is Stones Throw Records documentary on one of hip-hop's most heralded labels. There will be a Q&A with director Jeff Broadway, film and music makers, as well as an after party hosted by Peanut Butter Wolf, Jonwayne and more to be announced.
Directed by Jeff Broadway and featuring Peanut Butter Wolf, Madlib, DOOM, Kanye West, A-Trak and more, Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton chronicles 15-plus years of independent hip-hop history through the storied lens of Los Angeles' Stones Throw Records. Variety called the documentary "full of inspired detours, colorful non sequiturs, inside jokes and unexplained phenomena that will likely give hip-hop fans paroxysms of pleasure" and for the first time, people outside of LA will get a chance to see it.
"I'm really pumped to bring the film to A3C and introduce it to a new audience of hip-hop and general music lovers,” Jeff Broadway says, “ I think the concept of what's hip-hop is rapidly evolving, and that Our Vinyl Weighs a Ton really speaks to that evolution and explores it."
The A3C Film Festival will also screen the highly acclaimed Everybody Street documentary to present as part of Atlanta Celebrates Photography and A3C Festival, with a Q&A with director Cheryl Dunn. The film illuminates the lives and work of New York’s iconic street photographers such as Ricky Powell, Martha Cooper, Jamel Shabazz, Jeff Mermelstein, Clayton Patterson and the incomparable city that has inspired them for decades. The documentary pays tribute to the spirit of street photography through a cinematic exploration of New York City, and captures the visceral rush, singular perseverance and at times immediate danger customary to these artists.
Also at the A3C Film Festival: BBoy for Life chronicle of break dancers and gang members in Guatemala City directed by Coury Deeb, Doin' It in the Park: Pick-Up Basketball, NYC directors Bobbito Garcia and Kevin Couliau examine New York City's obsession with playground hoops, Demos a documentary that was created to educate and inspire the emerging hip-hop independent artist to accelerate their career, directed by Kareem Fort & Matt Friedman and Chilltown an animated comedy that follows three hip-hop heads, directed by Leesa Dean.
"Our desire is for the A3C Film Festival to be the preeminent fest that bridges film and hip-hop," says Charles Hudson of Atlanta Film Festival, one of two dozen Academy Award™ qualifying festivals in the U.S. "We couldn't have a better choice to headline the second A3C Film Festival…it speaks to our mission to transform the way audiences see the world."
In this spirit, additions to the festival will be announced in the coming weeks, as A3C is still accepting submissions until August 14 in its constant quest to seek out and support independent artists. Narratives and documentaries, both feature length and short, as well as music videos are now being accepted at www.A3Cfestival.com/film
