Boyz in the Hood, Eve’s Bayou and other Black films are now showing at Black Cinema Weekend

Black History Month is here, so get your popcorn ready.

This Friday through Sunday, the Philadelphia Film Society is hosting a Black Cinema Weekend, filled with screenings and special events that explore and celebrate the Black experience.

All screenings and events will take place at the Philadelphia Film Center, located at 1412 Chestnut St. Tickets, including discount bundles, and detailed information about the chosen films are available at filmadelphia.org.

“These films were curated to show how expansive Black American cinema is [and] how expansive Black life is,” said Yace Sula, education and programming coordinator with PFS.

“And what better way to celebrate [this] work than to experience it on the big screen and in community?”

The selected films for the weekend are a mix of familiar stories and lesser-known ones. On Friday night, PFS will screen Boyz in the Hood, the beloved 1991 drama about growing up in South Central LA, for which John Singleton became the first African American to be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards.

“This space is for you.”

Meanwhile, one of the films shown on Sunday is Chameleon Street, a 1989 independent film based on the life of a Detroit con artist, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival but never reached commercial acclaim.

Others screenings over the weekend include Eve’s Bayou, Losing Ground, a free screening of the George Foreman biopic, Big George Foreman, and more films.

Many of the films are directorial debuts, where Black filmmakers put their unique life experiences to the forefront of the story.

“They were made by directors interested in depicting the essence of Blackness through their own lens ... in these films, we follow characters moving through life and its complexities in their own distinct way. And their Blackness isn’t divorced from that,” Sula said.

The Black Cinema Weekend organizers believe that their event and these kinds of movies are particularly important right now, and not just because it is Black History Month.

“We’re watching Hollywood tell one [or] two types of Black stories ... and we’re watching Black shows get canceled as well,” said Josh A. Campbell, director of education for PFS.

“So what becomes important is education, and really giving [people] a space to see their humanity dignified.”

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PFS also has planned several free community-building events to accompany certain screenings. Before Boyz in the Hood on Friday night there is a Creatives of Color networking happy hour, a Black Women in Film and Media meet-up before the Saturday afternoon screening of Losing Ground, and an array of family friendly activities before Big George Foreman.

“Speaking as a Black person that loves film, often coming into certain spaces, you may feel isolated or you may not feel welcome. And adding these activations to those screenings is a way to make it clear that not only are you seeing a film, [or] not even just network, but build bonds with other people that may also love film,” Sula said.

“This space is for you, and you’re going to meet others like you as well, and it’s going to be a great time.”