Reaching for the stars. It's a metaphor to consider when it comes to Black history in this country.
To mark Black History Month, the Honolulu African American Film Festival will share documentaries, movies and shorts at the Honolulu Museum of Art throughout February.
The film festival will feature notable achievements in the areas of science and sports as well as politics and the arts.
Sandra Simms sits on the committee tasked with selecting films. She was also the first African American woman to sit on the bench in Hawaiʻi's judiciary.
The festival starts Thursday with an opening reception for National Geographic Documentary Films' "The Space Race."
"It focuses on NASA's role in bringing in Black and other groups as astronauts and it goes back to amazingly, John Kennedy's presidency," Simms said. "There was actually a concerted effort to bring in Black astronauts, usually it was coming out of the military anyway."
Other films on the schedule include "The League" about the history of Black baseball players. Simms said all the films will be playing at least twice.
"We've been doing this now for 13 years and people are really responding well to the films," she said.
This story aired on The Conversation on Jan. 31, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
