Ann Clanton has spent two decades contributing to Rhode Island’s thriving journalistic and creative communities, providing support to the state’s African-American, AfroCaribbean and Afro-Latin filmmakers while running her own business, Ann Clanton Communications, as a consultant. Not only is she the founder of the Rhode Island Black Film Festival (RIBFF), an event designed to promote black arts in Rhode Island, but Clanton is also a founding member of the Southern New England Association of Black Journalists.
Clanton was generous enough to answer some questions about this upcoming event and the woman behind it. The Rhode Island Black Film Festival began in 2017. “I started the Rhode Island Black Film Festival to provide a platform for Black filmmakers and performing artists to showcase their storytelling through the medium of film. RIBFF was also established to be a public space to promote Black-owned small businesses. The film festival invites vendors to sell their products at our events. RIBFF is a public space for enjoying and learning about Black culture,” Clanton told me, proving her passion for creating community and giving unheard voices a platform. The efforts of the RIBFF have not gone unnoticed. Clanton praised RIBFF board members and participants for their national impact in film, calling attention to winners that have received Daytime Emmy Awards.
The organization behind the event has helped film students intern on real film sets, including Nickelodeon’s Good Burger 2 which was filmed locally in 2023. Clanton also mentioned that Disney consulted the RIBFF board during the filming of Hocus Pocus 2 as they sought production talent in Rhode Island. But what makes the RIBFF so special? Clanton pointed to Rhode Island’s unique Black film culture. “Black film culture in Rhode Island is unique and is evident in the arts and music scene. Rhode Island has a great jazz music scene. Black Culture exists in the storytellers at organizations like the Stages of Freedom, Rhode Island Black Storytellers and the RI Rhythm & Blues Society, who keep historical and cultural traditions of black culture alive.” •
The RIBFF’s 8th annual event is set to take place April 10–15 at Johnson & Wales University. To learn more about the RIBFF, its board members, participants, and films, visit ribff.org.
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS
A season for love, Michael M. Terrance
The Golden Ghost Film, Mark Oliver
The Optics of Aging, Michelle LeBrun
Somewhere In Brooklyn, Brandon Wilkerson
Welcome to School – A Documentary Celebrating 25 Years of Maya Angelou Schools, Leah Lamb
54 and Counting, Calvin Smith
Even Me, Megan T. Ebor
Redemption Road, Yusef Bunchy Shakur, Scott McCartney
Some Kind of Justice, Brian Jervay
Harm in the Water, Kendall Moore, URI professor and Dr. Tiara Moore, founder of Blacks in Marine Science
The Six Triple Eight, a film that follows the all-Black female 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion during World War II. Followed by a panel with RI native Angie Cooper, a Trinity Academy for Performing Arts graduate, who appears in the Netflix film.
PANELISTS INCLUDE:
Providence native and Trinity Academy for Performing Arts graduate Angie Cooper, who is an extra in The Six Triple Eight
Françoise N. Hamlin, Associate Professor, Africana Studies & History, Brown University
Matthew Delmont, a Dartmouth College History Professor
