The Syracuse University South Side Initiative and the Southside Community Coalition are sponsoring the fourth annual South Side Film Festival in July. Other sponsors of the event include KeyBank and Visual Technologies.

A film will be shown each Friday beginning July 9 at 8:30 p.m. in the KeyBank parking lot, located on the corner of South Salina and Colvin streets. The showings are free and open to the public. Those attending should bring chairs or blankets. Refreshments will be available for purchase; no coolers, alcohol or glass bottles will be allowed on the premises.

"The South Side Film Festival provides an opportunity for the youth and elders in our community to socialize and connect, all while receiving powerful and inspiring messages through African American films," says Calmesha Givens, chair of the Southside Community Coalition’s cultural committee.

The films to be shown are:

• July 9: “I Can Do Bad All by Myself” (2009)—Madea returns in this film, in which three siblings are placed with their only relative, heavy-drinking nightclub singer Aunt April. The arrival of the children—as well as a basement boarder—encourages April to refocus her priorities on the possibilities of family, faith and love.
• July 16: “The Princess and the Frog” (2009)—Disney’s newest musical, set in New Orleans, is a modern twist on a classic tale featuring a beautiful girl named Tiana, a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again and a fateful kiss that leads them both on a hilarious adventure through the mystical bayous of Louisiana.
• July 23: “Girl Trouble” (2006)—An intimate documentary by directors Lexi Leban and Lidia Szajko, “Girl Trouble” goes beyond the statistics and chronicles four years in the lives of three teenage girls struggling to free themselves from San Francisco's complex and flagging juvenile justice system.
• July 30: “Good Hair” (2009)— When Chris Rock's daughter, Lola, came up to him crying and asked, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" the bewildered comic committed himself to search the ends of the earth and the depths of black culture to find out who had put that question into his little girl's head, and how to respond to her question. Rock visits hair salons and styling battles, scientific laboratories, and Indian temples to explore the way black hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships and self-esteem of black people.

For more information on the South Side Film Festival, contact Margie Gantt at (315) 443-1916.

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