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Black Arts Alliance NC Black Film Festival Closing and Awards
Join us April 13th for the Closing Ceremony of the NC Black Film Festival, presented by Black Arts Alliance, featuring an awards ceremony followed by a film screening of the closing documentary, Minnie Evans: Draw or Die.
The Black Arts Alliance is proud to present the 22nd Annual North Carolina Black Film Festival, April 10-13 in Wilmington, NC. The four-day juried and invitational festival of independent motion pictures by African-American filmmakers, as well as films on subjects of Black life and history, will showcase features, shorts and documentary films. Trophies will be awarded in each category.
2 PM: 2025 Award Ceremony
ABOUT THE FILM
Minnie Evans began drawing in 1935, compelled by dreams and later a voice that suggested she must “draw or die.”
The desire to fulfill her soul’s purpose given by God is at the center of her visionary work. During her lifetime she drew an estimated 3000 pictures using crayon and other media on found and donated materials. Evans’s paintings and drawings are in the collections of prominent art museums, yet she’s not widely recognized.
The film lifts the unique voice of self-taught artist Minnie Evans from conversations between Evans and photographer, Nina Howell Starr. Preserved in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art archives, their taped discussions from the ’60’s-70’s reveal a loving friendship and Minnie’s resiliency. Grounded in the compositions and forms she produced, the film’s visuals will employ archival images, Nina Starr’s black and white photography along with the gardens and coastal landscapes that inspired Minnie’s work.