Philadelphia Film Festival - Night Catches US and Sex Magic

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 Not only was Friday night’s screening of Night Catches Us sold out, but attracted a cool, racial mix of peeps. This Centerpiece screening included a Q & A with writer/director Tanya Hamilton and lead Kerry Washington who looked really chic in her Costello burnt orange dress. Washington was drawn to the film not only because of it’s strong writing, but also the opportunity to humanize an important time period in our history, apart from the stereotypical depiction of afros, machine guns and fists in the air.

The film is set around my neighborhood of Germantown/Mount Airy, a fact that one audience member was livid about. As a former Black Panther member who lived through the movement and the aftermath, he insisted this area of Philadelphia was not involved and demanded to know from Hamilton if she’d done any research at all! Hamilton replied she had, but decided to take poetic license with the location.

Patricia (Kerry Washington) plays a lawyer with a 9 year old daughter, Iris (Jamara Griffin) (pictured) immediately we understand Patricia uses her profession to advocate those in the neighborhood in trouble with the law. What unfolds more slowly is the fact that she was a former member of the Black Panthers. Nearby,  Marcus (Anthony Mackie) comes home for his father’s funeral and we soon realize he and Patricia share history which includes a secret surrounding the death of her late radical Panther husband/Iris’ father.

Hamilton tells the story through short scenes with minimal dialogue. Along with archival footage of Black Panther activities and police involvement of a decade prior to the happenings taking place in the film. The underlining thread involves characters all stuck in old wounds, still fighting demons of the past. Hamilton said she wanted a feeling of coming home after a war.Maren Reese

Set decoration and subtle costuming by Maren Reese (pictured) create perfect detail to the period (1976) along with a retro-soul score by The Roots. Overall Hamilton has delivered a compelling piece of cinema.  The film has been picked up by Magnolia Pictures, look for it in theaters December 3rd.

After this screening I walked 18 blocks (patting myself on the back) to the Annenberg Theater to see

Sex Magic, which had a good size audience.  Part narrative, part documentary, part unintentional comedy, due to its odd subject matter. I’m not talking about Tantric Sex, I’m talking about  Baba Dez, sacred sexual healer.  He is so over the top and totally doesn’t realize it. He is the epitome of a crunchy granola,chakra balancing, free loving, Sedona AZ living, hippy Guru.

And I say that as someone who owns a crystal representing every chakra of the body, done many 40 day meditations, who drives my neighbors crazy with ringing singing bowls, and I’ve read enough self-help/self-healing books to become the next Depak Chopra. But I have a sense of humor about the whole thing, it can be your truth without becoming weird. Or as the director Jonathan Schell said during the Q & A -”It takes a lot of energy to be so authentic”.

Jonathan was joined by editor George Danno (pictured) for the post screening discussion.They said the genesis for this film was not Dez as the film’s focus, but rather Dez was looking to document his work in sacred sexual healing at his temple. After days of shooting, they got back to the editing room and found the piece lacking; it had a lot of people talking about Tantra, but no actual sessions were filmed. They also discovered a through line of a slightly different story – the rocky relationship between Dez and “his beloved” Mya. Mya had come to Dez from a very broken and abused place in her life; while teaching her the art of sexual healing they fell in love. Mya became a skilled sexual healer in her own right and believed in intimate contact with clients, but Dez also practiced polyamory which basically is a fancy name for being extremely promiscuous (Dez has lost count as to how many lovers he’s had, somewhere between 1000-2000) Mya wasn’t down for this, causing major problems in the relationship. On top of that, Dez was accused by a colleague of being innapropriate with his female clients.

The term Sex Magic is the art of manifesting tangible desires through the sharing of sex, while holding the image of what you are trying to accomplish in your mind during the act. In some ways it reminds me of Kundalini Yoga, which is activating the coiled spring of energy at the base of your spine, to tap into receiving or manifesting material matters.

Schell said Dez practiced Sex Magic to conjure people willing to participate in sexual healing sessions on film.  Well, it worked, cause we see quite a bit!

The whole thing makes for a very entertaining and enlightening 77 minutes. “Hold a space” for this movie if you get a chance to see it!

Tomorrow on the blog: Closing Night Award Winners and Attendee’s Comments on 127 Hours and their favorite film of the festival!