Launched in 2017, The Space Consortium is an MA-based, space academics & researchers-led 501(c)(3) non-profit and public charity, which organizes a series of space education & outreach initiatives, including MA Space Week, to help democratize space knowledge and connect MA-based space experts and enthusiasts with each other and with the public. Supported by the Massachusetts Space Grant and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Massachusetts Space Week stands as a testament to grassroots collaboration & community effort among space experts across the state, aiming to make space science accessible to all. This annual, week-long celebration seeks to bridge the gap between academia and the broader community and to foster a shared enthusiasm for space science. Through engaging events such as a Space Film Festival, a Space Career Fair, and more than 20 space events statewide, The Space Consortium invites you to join this dedicated effort to connect the academic world with the wider community.

April 12-14, 2024 | Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building (2300 Washington St., Roxbury, MA 02119)

FREE EVENT!

Join RoxFilm at the SSBC’s The Konnect Konference! There will be have 3 days worth of events and programming centered on education and networking for the film and advertising commercial industries. For filmmakers of all levels from working professionals to those just starting out.

And our very own Lisa Simmons will be one of the speakers during the Opening Remarks on Saturday 4/13!

The L.A. Rebellion film movement, sometimes referred to as the "Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers", or the UCLA Rebellion, refers to the new generation of young African and African-American filmmakers who studied at the UCLA Film School in the late-1960s to the late-1980s and have created a black cinema that provides an alternative to classical Hollywood cinema.

Featuring in person conversations with Charles Burnett and Zeinabu irene Davis

Seating is first come, first serve.

Friday, March 22, 2024 

MassArt Tower Auditorium

7:00 pm:

Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema at UCLA by Zeinabu Davis (2016)

Followed by a panel discussion with Zeinabu Davis and Charles Burnett

Attendees are welcome to attend a post-discussion reception.

Saturday, March 23, 2024  

Design Media Center Lecture Hall

2:00 pm:

Program of Short Films by Zeinabu Davis: Cycles (1989), Mother of the River (1995), Crocodile Conspiracy (1986) 

Followed by a Q & A with Davis

4:00 pm: 

My Brother’s Wedding by Charles Burnett (1983)

7:00 pm: 

Killer of Sheep by Charles Burnett (1978) 

February 16 - 25th | 7:30PM | ONLINE

Shared Stories: Encore! Shorts

Shared Stories is a spring film series that seeks to build community, shared conversation, and experiences through cinema. This series aspires to create a shared space to find commonality across experiences, and encourage the exchange of stories and ideas. Presented by ArtsEmerson in collaboration with the Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF), CineFest Latino Boston and the Roxbury International Film Festival (RoxFilm).

Films Screening:

• Lili (dir. Brian Rios0

• In Tow (dir. Sharon Arteaga)

• NaiNai and Waipo (Grandma and Grandma) (dir. Sean Wang)

• The Old Young Crow (dir. Liam LoPinto)

• Savi the Cat (dir. Netsie Tjirongo and Bryan Tucker)

• Ro and The Stardust (dir. Eunice Levis)

Viewing window: Feb 16 @ 7 pm - Feb 26 @ 12 pm

PROGRAM AND TICKET INFORMATION HERE

Amplifying Voices: A Celebration of Diversity in Film

Hosted by The Cabot in Beverly, MA. Curated by ROXFILM Fest and Cinefest Latino Boston, featuring films from these festivals. Some of the films from 2023 RoxFilm festival selections that will be shown include A Story of Bones, The Mural Master, Boston Bound, Trapped Shadows, Savi the Cat, and Blueberry - among many others!

PROGRAM + TICKET INFORMATION HERE

FRIDAY, 2/2

3:00pm: Next Generation Youth Films – FREE for all!

6:00pm – 6:50pm: Opening Reception

7:00pm: Opening Night Feature: La Pecera (The Fishbowl)

8:35pm: Talk Back featuring actress, Magali Carrasquillo + Moderator: Sabrina Aviles, CineFest Latino Boston (immediately after feature film)

SATURDAY, 2/3

1:30pm – 3:00pm: Relationships, an Animated Shorts Series

4:00pm – 5:35pm: Artists in Their Own Words – Shorts Series

 7:00pm: Closing Night Feature: A Story of Bones

8:35pm: Talk Back featuring producer, Peggy King Jorde + Moderator: Lisa Simmons, Roxbury International Film Festival (immediately after feature film)

Don't miss out on the full RoxFilm experience -- get your in-person and online festival passes now for access to screenings for 60+ films with Q&As, special events, filmmaker hangouts, workshops, and more!

The festival schedule will be released in late May/early June.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

• If you would like to only attend screenings and events in person, please only purchase the in person festival pass.

• If you would like to only attend screenings and events online, please only purchase the online festival pass.

• If you would like to attend screenings and events both in person and online, you must purchase both passes.

Various dates, February | Online + In Person

The Boston Globe’s Black History Month Film Festival

Co-presented GlobeDocs, A Beautiful Resistance, RoxFilm, and the Museum of Science. The Boston Globe is proud to host its 4th annual Black History Month Film Festival. This event series aims to celebrate the lives, culture, and creativity of Black Americans through a mix of classic and new films, which will be available for virtual viewing throughout the month. Each screening will be followed by a virtual panel event to provide insight and context for these stories of strength, joy, and love.

Film screenings include If Beale Street Could Talk, Crooklyn, Eve’s Bayou, and The Mural Master — along with an in person event, A Beautiful Resistance Live!

Join Globe writers and editors, filmmakers, and talent for these five installments. Sign up once to register for free for all virtual Black History Month film events.

FREE | PROGRAM INFORMATION + SIGN UP HERE

Sandra Valls (Prima Fulvia), Carla Jimenez (Pancha), Shelby Acosta (Prima Flaca), Jennifer Sánchez (Rosalí), and Florencia Cuenca (Estela) in Real Women Have Curves: The Musical.

Photo: Nile Hawver/Maggie Hall

Now running until January 21st | The A.R.T. (Cambridge, MA)

Real Women Have Curves (World-Premiere Musical) - A MUST SEE!

About: Summer 1987, Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. After eighteen years under the roof of her immigrant parents, Ana is ready to spread her wings. Her dreams of college and a career in New York City are bursting at the seams, but her family’s expectations would keep her home, working at their garment factory. Is it worth sacrificing the dreams of her family, who have sacrificed everything for her? Based on the play by Josefina López that inspired the iconic hit film, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical is an empowering new show that explores life’s unexpected curves. Recommended for sixth grade and up

Review: Real Women Have Curves has to be one of the top theater experiences this year. The music, performances, design, and over all production took my breath away. It is not to be missed. I saw the film many many years ago and the storyline is as relevant today as it was in 1987 when the story takes place. Politics, family dynamics, young love, friendship, aging, this performance has it all, you will laugh, maybe shed a tear, but I can guarantee you won't want it to end. (Lisa Simmons)

MUSICAL + TICKET INFORMATION HERE

Back for a second year, WQ: Docs celebrates the rich and vibrant true stories of the LGBTQ+ community and the ever-evolving art of the documentary.

GlobeDocs 2023 celebrates the true stories told in documentary films, and the artists and visionaries who bring them to life. The 9th Annual GlobeDocs Film Festival October 25 - 29, 2023 will feature both in-person and virtual film screenings followed by engaging conversations with Globe journalists and filmmakers.

Support our festival partners, Boston Asian American Film Festival, and check out their 15th Annual festival happening from October 12th-22nd!

Boston Asian American Film Festival (BAAFF) empowers Asian Americans through film by showcasing Asian American experiences and serving as a resource to filmmakers and the Greater Boston Community. BAAFF is a production of the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW). BAAFF builds on over 40 years of AARW supporting the Asian American Community through film.

Support our festival partners, CineFest Latino, and check out their 2023 festival happening from September 27th to October 5th!

CineFest Latino Boston LLC is an annual film festival conducted in Boston, highlighting stories by and about Latinos. The festival is committed to using the power of film to break stereotypes, bring cultures and communities together and reveal the complex issues affecting the Latinx community in the United States, as well as communities in Latin America and Spain.

Thank you for attending our outdoor screening of NOPE with the MFA Boston! Read some more of our reflections on the film’s themes below.

Check out the rest of our website to learn more about RoxFilm and sign up to the newsletter to stay updated!

SOME THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MOVIE NOPE

BUT THERE IS SO MUCH MORE

By Lisa Simmons, Artistic Director of RoxFilm

*potentially mild spoilers below*

• The film deals with many themes, but at the center of it all is the theme of spectacle. The text that opens NOPE is Nahum 3:6: I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle. A verse from Nahum, one of the Bible’s least-quoted books. Just before this verse, Nahum describes Nineveh as a lion’s den, the “city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims,” a place with “galloping horses and jolting chariots,” full of bodies of the dead. Basically, Nineveh arrogantly chews people up and spits them out (a reference to Hollywood). Spectacles are barbaric, as they strip the autonomy and dignity of a living thing for the entertainment, amusement, and invasive curiosity of others. To bear witness to a spectacle is not always an experience of wonder.

• The action takes place in Agua Dulce, about a 40-mile drive north of Hollywood. There, siblings OJ and Emerald Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) run Haywood’s Hollywood Horses, named for their great-great-great grandfather Alistair E. Haywood, who rode the horse in the first moving picture ever made.

  Alistair Haywood’s character is Peele’s invention, though the film in which he rode a horse, was made by Eadweard Muybridge in 1878, is real. We know the name of the horse (Annie G) but not the jockey, a troubling reflection of the erasure of Black horsemanship in history. Peele’s reference is to say, history remembers the horse but has lost track of the jockey’s identity, which is sort of Nope’s point.

• This is partly a film about how frequently Black film history has been pushed out of memory. In the ranch house, you can glimpse posters for the films Duel at Diablo and Buck and the Preacher, the first Westerns that Sidney Poitier starred in and directed, respectively, in 1966 and 1972. Buck and the Preacher, in particular, was groundbreaking for casting Black actors as main characters. Coupled with the Haywood connection — and the fact that it’s still hard, 50 years later, to get a movie made starring Black actors that isn’t about trauma in some way — NOPE points to Hollywood’s history of shoving inconvenient histories aside.

• In the end, the title of Nope might be its thesis. Maybe Peele is calling out the messiness of human nature, where we look at the world around us, recognize the looming cloud as a threat, and instead of confronting it, we say, "Nope," and go back to looking down, ignoring the horror that's oncoming.

• Jupiter’s Claim also has some symbolism to it. It’s very much about how Hollywood has made a mythology out of the Wild Wild West. He stated that movies have sanitized the time period and that it not only erased the Black Cowboy but also toned down how brutal the time was. It also also ties in with the Kid Sheriff poster that we see, and it shows how Jupe has very much played to this simplified version of the time period.

• Through the lens of spectacle, NOPE teaches lesson after lesson about the greed of Hollywood, the insatiable hunger of capitalism, the false promise of legacy that a spectacle offers, and who and what we are willing to sacrifice for the spotlight.

• Everything in this film means something from the t-shirts that characters are wearing to the soundtrack, to the scenes that are influenced by other horror and “alien” films to actual tv shows and true government name change from UFO to UAP. There is nothing in a Jordan Peele movie that doesn’t have significance.

Any other thoughts or reflections come to mind? Share them with us on social media and tag us at @roxfilm #roxfilm!