Six of the Nations Most Provocative Filmmakers Receive 2012 BronzeLens Film Festival Awards

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The third annual BronzeLens Film Festival (BronzeLens) was host to over 3000 attendees from across the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa. During the course of four days 50 films in the Feature, Narrative Fiction, Documentary and Shorts categories November 8^th-11^th were screened at Georgia Pacific Center, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, World of Coca-Cola, Morehouse College, Morehouse School of Medicine and Georgia Power Auditorium. A total of six films received prestigious BronzeLens Awards top honors in the following categories:

Best Documentary Short, Best Overall Film and Winner of the Panavision $50,000 Camera Equipment Prize
Colored My Mind: Diagnosis Director: Nia T. Hill
The synopsis: In this powerful Short Docu-Drama by award-winning writer and director Nia T. Hill, an educator, an actress, a lawyer, a music manager, and a homemaker are our guides as we explore the overlooked world of autism. Intercut in the documentary Nicole Ari Parker and Blair Underwood dramatize how a couple faces the reality of their autistic child.

Best Documentary
The Contradictions of Fair Hope Director: S. Epatha Merkerson and Rockell Metcalf
The synopsis: The documentary sets the stage in rural Alabama, prior to Emancipation, and traces the development, struggles, contributions and gradual loss of tradition of one of the last remaining African American benevolent societies, known as "The Fair Hope Benevolent Society" in Uniontown, Alabama. Through gripping human stories the film provides an unprecedented look at the complex and morally ambiguous world of Fair Hope juxtaposed against the worldly pleasures of what has become known as the annual "Foot Wash" celebration.

Best Feature Film
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty Director: Terence Nance
The synopsis: A quixotic artist explores his life after getting stood up by a mystery girl.

Best Short
Barbasol Director: Ralph K. Scott
The synopsis: A man has a desire to bond with his aging father that is suffering with dementia. He comes to realize he needs to turn that attention toward his own son.

Best International
Otelo Burning Director: Sara Blecher
The synopsis: Based on true events, three teenage friends from a South African township discover freedom through the joy of surfing. Otelo Burning is a strikingly dynamic portrait of hope and growth for a group of proud adolescents and a nation at the end of apartheid.

Audience Award Winner
Kunta Kinteh Island: Coming Home Without Shackles Director: Elvin Ross
The synopsis: Kunta Kinteh Island: Coming Home Without Shackles chronicles the pride, strength and journey of the most celebrated captive African, Kunta Kinteh, who was enslaved and brought to the New World during the West African Slave Trade. Recently Dr. Yahya Abul-Aziz Jemus Junnkung Jammeh, President of the Republic of The Gambia, reclaimed and renamed the old British Fortress from James Island to KUNTA KINTEH ISLAND to honor his legacy during the Roots Festival in February 2011.

Honorable Mentions

Features: Homecoming, Director: Eugene Ashe, Documentary: Color Outside the Lines, Director: Artemus Jenkins and Short: The Christmas Tree, Director: Angel Kristi Williams, International Short Documentary, On Our Land: Being Garifuna in Honduras,

Directors: Neal Dixon, James Frazier, Erica Harding

Other BronzeLens Award honorees were legendary film, television and theater director Kenny Leon who received the BronzeLens Trailblazer Award and television and film producer/director Roger Bobb received the BronzeLens Film Advocate Award. Also noted Atlanta community advocate W. Imara Canady received the BronzeLens Faith Award.

About the BronzeLens Film Festival

Founded in 2009, The BronzeLens Film Festival of Atlanta, Georgia is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing national and worldwide attention to Atlanta as a center for film and film production for people of color. Its mission is twofold: to promote Atlanta as the new film Mecca for people of color; and to showcase films and provide networking opportunities that will develop the next generation of filmmakers. Since its inception the BronzeLens Film Festival has evolved as one of the most comprehensive film festivals for filmmakers of color in the United States. Visit www.bronzelensfilmfestival.com for more information regarding the BronzeLens Film Festival.

Sponsors of the BronzeLens Film Festival are Coca-Cola Company, Georgia Lottery Corp., Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau, Turner, Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Panavision, Delta Air Lines, HBO Documentary Films, The Levy Group, Georgia Pacific, Macys, AT& T, Morehouse College, France Atlanta 2012, National Center for Civil and Human Rights, The Sai Sai Group, Inc., White Oak Restaurant, Organix Food Lounge Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, MHR International, Movie Magic and Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council. Media Partners Include: 11Alive/WXIA-TV, WCLK-FM, Atlanta DAYBOOK, Modern Luxury and Oz Magazine