There’s a special way the young people of Chicago’s South Shore Drill Team glistened down King Drive during 2021’s Bud Billiken Parade — decked out in silver and black sequined jackets, the heat of the August day not slowing down a single move.

Like other groups that require in-person practices, the drill team went on an unexpected hiatus at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. So this return was special and was captured in a new, 5-minute short film titled For The Crib, which documents the iconic squad’s post-shutdown return and its decades-long history.

“I just felt so connected to them, especially with the kids and their stories,” said filmmaker Lawrence Agyei, who grew up in Italy but has since made Chicago home. “So I just pretty much started spending almost every single day with them.”

• RELATED STORY
• Culture & The Arts

How to catch up on ‘The Chi,’ the most relevant show about Chicago right now

read more

Agyei’s short film will be featured in this year’s Black Harvest Film Festival, opening Friday and running through Nov. 16, as one of several film shorts that focus on different aspects of Black love. This menu of shorts is packaged in a program called “From the Block — For Real,” which will run Nov. 11 and 13.

Although the 29-year-old fest has a reputation for celebrating Black artists at all levels, the Chicago-curated Black Harvest has become a significant avenue for supporting and introducing new filmmakers to the industry. In addition to giving filmmakers exposure, it also raises money for the new generation of filmmakers through the new Sergio Mims Fund for Black Excellence in Filmmaking, named after the festival’s late co-founder who died last fall.

Agyei, a longtime photographer, is making his Black Harvest debut with For The Crib — his first film.

“Before I became a photographer, I’ve just always been in love with cinema,” he said. “And then I was just like, if I’m going to do something in motion, it would have to be about the drill team.”

Chicago artist Jada-Amina, the fest’s lead curator, said she sees in Agyei a similar feel for narrative as in great Black artists such as Gordon Parks, the famed photographer, who allowed people to “speak their truth into the image.” Her goal is to highlight this art, championing Black stories and history.

“Growing up, just as a Black child, so much of that human interest was sparked by the people that raised me, my community, the things that I saw,” she said, describing everyday places as “cultural institutions.”

“I venerate my grandmother’s home as being one of those institutions that I was just fascinated by: just the history, the stories, the colors, the smells, the things I didn’t like,” she added, explaining how even the smell of pork still holds a specific and fond memory, despite not being present in her own household with a Muslim father.

These experiences that feel communal to the Black experience but are not seen as mainstream stayed top of mind for her as she selected films for this year’s festival.

“So much of my curatorial experience is coming from a place of selfishness and understanding that I have these specific interests, but also, that Black people share so many of my experiences,” Jada-Amina said. “How do we reimagine what it could look like to really present ourselves as these cultural stewards, despite what mainstream or dominant understanding of our contribution — or acknowledgment of our contributions — have been?”

Chicago visual artist and new filmmaker Rachel Gadson examined the journeys of Black artists when interviewing 77 creatives, including Jada-Amina, for her short film, Dear Black Artist.

“A lot of stories or backgrounds about people’s introduction to art were very similar, in that it was connected to either someone in their adolescence — an art teacher at a Chicago Public School, or going to a Black church on the South Side of Chicago — these were all intellectual foundations to a lot of Black artists here,” Gadson said.

Like Agyei, Gadson is dipping into filmmaking for the first time. The Black Harvest Film Festival is her first screening of this magnitude.

“Opportunities like these are really transformational for budding artists or even artists who are exploring other disciplines,” Gadson said. “It means a lot. I’m super excited to get other’s feedback and hear how this film will touch other people.”

Arionne Nettles is a lecturer and director of audio journalism programming at Northwestern University’s Medill School. Follow her @arionnenettles.

If you go: The Black Harvest Film Festival opens Friday and runs through Nov. 16 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. General admission tickets are $13 for most events; a festival pass includes six tickets and is $60 for the public and $30 for film center members.