Black Talkies on Parade Puts Films on View

Fifteen works on black themes by promising film makers will be shown this afternoon at 1:30 p.m. at the Four Star Theatre, 5112 Wilshire Blvd., as part of the 11th annual Black Talkies on Parade, organized by the Black American Cinema Society.

The first-prize winner, carrying a cash award of $1,500, is Sandra Sharp’s “Tribes,” which makes ingenious use of graphics and animation to shape the charmingly wry, tender story of a young girl confronting her mixed African and American Indian heritages.

John Brown won the $1,000 second prize for his haunting and poignant “Tweet,” which, in evocatively grainy black-and-white against a sinuous background of John Coltrane’s version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things,” shows the confrontation between a young boy determined to be a musician and an aging, reclusive jazz trumpeter.

Third prize of $750 went to Yule Caise for “Shoes,” a tense, urban drama of confused adolescence in a culture that seems to value clothes, style--and guns--above life, loyalty and friendship.

The three honorable mentions, carrying cash prizes of $100 apiece, were won by Marie Kellier for “Minstrels,” a documentary on the street comics of Venice Beach’s boardwalk; Celeste A. Frazier’s work-in-progress, “Dreams Deferred,” a “Twilight Zone”-style time-warp meeting between an ‘80s black restaurant owner and the ‘50s white bigot who blighted his youth; and Zernaba Davis’ experimental and brilliantly innovative reflection on black womanhood, “Cycles.”

Throughout the remainder of the festival, which continues through Thursday, Black Talkies on Parade offers a generous mix of classics from the past, films by pioneering directors like Oscar Micheaux or early stars like Paul Robeson, Bill (Bojangles) Robinson and Josephine Baker, mingled with more recent movies, like 1978’s “Sounder” (Tuesday) or 1982’s “Gospel” (Sunday).

This year’s selection features a special tribute to jazz singer Billie Holiday (in four films shown throughout the week), alongside such jazz greats as Louis Armstrong and the bands of Count Basie and Duke Ellington. Also scheduled are such excellent recent movies such as Euzhan Palcy’s 1983 Martinique boyhood tale, “Sugar Cane Alley” (Wednesday), and Gordon Park’s musical biography of “Leadbelly” (Sunday).

A few other recommendations: the rare, bizarre 1951 film version of Richard Wright’s “Native Son,” shot in South America by a French director and featuring Wright himself as Bigger Thomas; Otto Preminger’s film of the Bizet-and-Hammerstein musical “Carmen Jones” (Sunday); Sidney Poitier going toe to toe with the late John Cassavetes in Martin Ritt’s 1957 “Edge of the City” (Tuesday); and Vincente Minnelli’s superb 1943 musical, “Cabin in the Sky,” with Ethel Waters, Eddie (Rochester) Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne and Duke Ellington’s great 1943 orchestra (Wednesday).

Film makers receiving prizes and cash awards will be feted at a reception and screening May 7 at the Writers Guild of America.

Information: (213) 737-3292.