This week, St. Louis native Shatara Michelle Ford will be back at the institution that kickstarted their journey as a filmmaker.
When Ford’s first film “Test Pattern” debuted in Philadelphia at the BlackStar Film Festival in 2019, it was a demonstration of their grit and commitment to seeing the story through to the screen. Ford poured everything into the film’s completion – including using nine credit cards to help finance the movie.
The film earned Ford and co-producer Pin-Chun Liu BlackStar’s 2019 Lionsgate/Starz Producer Award at BlackStar. “Test Pattern” became a darling of the film festival circuit that year and the next. It received three Gotham Award nominations and four Spirit Award nominations to name a few. Ford was also subsequently awarded the prestigious New Generation prize by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and named a 2020 Pew Fellow.
When “Test Pattern” screened at BlackStar, the film was Ford’s introduction. They return to the acclaimed festival in 2024 as a featured attraction. Their sophomore film “Dreams in Nightmares” has the distinction of a coveted anchor spot on the festival’s opening night lineup.
“Five years after BlackStar world premiered my first film ‘Test Pattern,’ catapulting my career and the careers of countless others on my team; it only felt fitting to return to the festival that embraced my work from the beginning,” Ford said in a statement. “Especially since ‘Dreams in Nightmares’ was made most immediately for the BlackStar audience.”
In the film, a group of three queer Black friends travel across the Midwest in search of a friend that seems to have disappeared.
“It’s hard to imagine a more exciting film for the opening night of the 2024 festival,” said BlackStar Film Festival director Nehad Khader. “Imbued with a sense of radical possibility — ‘Dreams in Nightmares’ is the kind of genre-defying work that our audience has long embraced, reflecting a collective vision of a more liberatory world.”
Along with the story, Ford was intentional about the aesthetics within “Dreams In Nightmares.”
“I wanted to play with and reinforce standards of beauty that we have always known existed, but might not have been permissed on-screen for a million different reasons,” Ford told ESSENCE. “I wanted to challenge the idea of what we are wearing on screen, of how we actually look as we sit in our living rooms with our besties.”
Ford said those types of scenes are the exception and not the rule in commercial films.
“Typically, we usually try to find the hottest label, the hottest brand, even the sexiest, most-elevated bonnets for the look, and those things subconsciously feedback to us, signaling that we need to look perfect,” Ford continued. “We are beautiful as we are and I was interested in forcing us to remember that.
“Dreams in Nightmares” stars Denee Benton, Sasha Compère, Charlie Barnett, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mars Storm Rucker, and Dezi Bing.
Ford wrote and directed the film – and produced it along with her “Test Pattern” co-producer Liu. Naima Abed of Paradise City, Josh Peters and Robina Riccitiello of Spark Features, Ben Stillman of Birchall Entertainment, Ana Leocha of Tango, Adam Wyatt Tate, Chris Quintos-Cathcart and Tyler Bagley also served as producers for the film
“I believe that my role as an artist is to hold a mirror up to society,” Ford told the New Orleans Film Society in 2020. “I think good art should confront an audience, and that there is great value in work that attempts to do so. However, the way that contemporary films are manufactured – emphasizing entertainment and profitability over all else – has crowded out a good many films that challenge and provoke – often these films are led by and center the experiences of non-white, non-straight people. This has been to the detriment of the medium and to society. This cannot continue.”
Ford’s return to BlackStar is truly a full-circle moment for the filmmaker, who has been based in Philadelphia for several years.
“The fact that Philadelphia is also where I reside, only takes the cake as I’m excited to share my very tender film with my community and celebrate this momentous achievement with my loved ones,” Ford said.
Shatara Michelle Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares” will screen at the BlackStar Film Festival on Thursday, August 1 in Philadelphia. For more information, visit https://www.blackstarfest.org/
Shatara-your old history teacher is so proud of you and not surprised by your amazing success!