#bummingcigarettes

[tionanekkiamcclodden-blog]

✌🏿 #BummingCigarettes | #OneDayThisKidWillGetLarger (at DePaul Art Museum)

[lhaaff]

See the film and enjoy a Q&A discussion with filmmaker Tiona McClodden on Saturday, April 20, 2013 at the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Seattle WA - presented in partnership with Sistah Sinema. Sistah Sinema started in Seattle, WA in January 2011. In the Spring of 2012, Women of Plenty launched Sistah Sinema - San Antonio (curently in hiatus). In June 2012, Sistah Sinema - Cleveland was launched. Sistah Sinema - Portland & Atlanta launched in January of 2013. Sistah Sinema - Greensboro went live in April 2013 and Sistah Sinema - Kingston in May. For details on bringing Sistah Sinema to your city, click here. Our goal is to become an international distribution network for Queer Women of Color cinema.

Bumming Cigarettes (USA, 2012) 22 minutes

Directed by Tiona McClodden

Bumming Cigarettesis a short film about a brief and intimate meeting between a young Black lesbian woman who is in the process of taking an HIV test and a middle aged Black Gay HIV Positive man. Coming off of the devastation of a bad breakup with a girlfriend, Vee musters up the courage to go and take an HIV test to put her worst fears to rest. What she experiences during her trip to a local clinic is much more than she expects while sharing a cigarette with a stranger, Jimmy, during the 10 minutes that she awaits her test results.

Alia Hatch makes a strong debut in this short film, as a young Black lesbian woman looking to discover her status. This is a breakthrough performance for James Tolbert, a native Philadelphian and professional actor living with HIV for 21 years. Alia and James deliver a moving performance in this film that explores complex issues surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic including the loss of intimacy and stigma that persons living with HIV/AIDS may encounter, while also encouraging awareness around HIV/AIDS testing and the way we treat persons living with the disease.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/51232736

Shown with Zanele Muholi's Difficult Love

Difficult Love (South Africa, 2011) 48 minutes

Zanele Muholi / Peter Goldsmid

  A highly personal take on the challenges facing black lesbians in South Africa today emerges through the life, work, friends and associates of “visual activist” and internationally celebrated photographer, Zanele Muholi. How real are the freedoms of newly won democracy for this diverse minority? This documentary offers a moving answer - and a compelling plea for understanding and tolerance. It offers a poignant personal journey illustrated by Zanele’s photographs and a diverse range of encounters - lesbian activists, critics, commentators, victims and even a lesbian sangoma (traditional healer). It counters the charge head-on that being lesbian or gay is “unAfrican” or unChristian.