My husband Todd and I recently returned from one of my favorite vacation destinations - MIAMI. We attended the 16th Annual American Black Film Festival, better known as ABFF, to support our dear friends and the festival founder Jeff Friday and his wife, Nicole.
Founded in 1997, ABFF is dedicated to strengthening the Black filmmaking community through resource sharing, education, artistic collaboration and career development. The festival originally began as the Acapulco Black Film Festival (for 5 years) and was renamed the American Black Film Festival. The events over the past 10+ years have been held primarily in Miami with a sabbatical in Los Angeles for 2 years.
This vacation is not about rest and relaxation but more like our annual four day party. As I'm typing this, I can hear Will Smith singing in my head, "Welcome to Miami, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah" (thank God you can't hear me sing). I don't remember how many times we've gone to ABFF but each year we see great films by emerging filmmakers, have celebrity sightings and attend fabulous parties as well as take in some of the most beautiful beaches in the country.
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| ABFF Fans attending the Opening Night Film |
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| Festival Opening Night Film: Beasts of the Southern Wild |
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| Will Packer, Rob Hardy, Tim Story and Terrence J during the 'Think Like A Man' Panel Discussion |
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ABBF Founder Jeff Friday, Will Packer, Malihka Malette, Nicole Friday, Tim Story, Rob Hardy
and Terrence J following the 'Think Like A Man' panel discussion. |
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| Malinda Williams and Vanessa Williams with Robert Townsend |
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| Power Couples: Jeff & Nicole Friday and Mara & Salim Akil |
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| Tracee Ellis Ross, Festival Ambassador during the ABFF Awards Presentation with Nicole and Jeff Friday |
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| ABFF 2012 Award Winners |
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| Festival Closing Night Film: Raising Izzie |
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| New webseries: The Q & A Show starring Quin Walters and Addison Henderson |
Looking forward to the 17th...
Peace and Blessings,
Tammy
Photos courtesy of ABFF.com, Eurweb.com, ProgressivePulse.com, BlackFilm.com and Zimbio.com.
