Oak Park’s Black Film Festival to highlight Black culture and uplift community

By Marie-Elena Schembri | Solving SacramentoEmbracing vulnerability. Grief. Community healing. Musical icons.These are just some of the themes viewers can engage with at the upcoming third annual Oak Park Black Film Festival. The festival will feature a diverse lineup of independent films and panel discussions at The Guild Theatre Oct. 8-13.The film festival, a project of education and economic development nonprofit St. Hope, highlights Black culture while allowing viewers to “challenge your thinking and your imagination about certain things,” according to Cassandra Jennings, St. Hope board president and CEO.Jennings stresses that the event is open to all and will be a fun-filled six days of “lifting up a community.” Evening receptions at the end of each day offer a source of fellowship, and an opportunity to network and learn from others, according to Jennings.It’s also an opportunity for young or aspiring filmmakers, actors and people of color to see Black success firsthand.“This is really trying to support the people and bring them the sort of hope — that they would be able to see through these films — that things are possible,” Jennings said.The FilmsGuild Theatre manager Dru Burks on stage at the 2023 Oak Park Black Film Festival. Panel...