Kyi Wins Top Black Filmmakers Grant

Deresha Kyi took the top prize of $3,000 in the ninth annual Black Filmmakers’ Grants Program with her “Lands Where My Fathers Died,” a brief, beautifully acted vignette in which a young, ambitious couple are awkwardly confronted with a heritage of defeat during a family reunion.

Second prize of $2,000 went to Ronald Armstrong for “Cuny Island,” a sly, witty allegory on racism, and Richard C. Jones came in third, winning $1,000 for “A View From Here,” a strikingly visual account of a disabled youth’s striving for acceptance.

Three honorable mentions, each worth $250, were won by Karen Hayes for “How It Is,” about a troubled youth drifting into a gang; Iverson White for “Magic Love,” an ambitious, elegant feature-length film in which a motif of reincarnation raises questions of racial identity, and Eric Daniel for his darkly amusing Hitchcockian “Occupational Hazard.”

The grants were awarded last week by the Black American Cinema Society, an affiliate of the Western States Black Research Center, and will be presented April 7 at the Pacific Design Center following a 5 p.m. program of entertainment as part of the society’s annual awards ceremonies honoring African-American actors and filmmakers.

The prize-winning films, plus a selection of the 26 entries in the competition, will be screened at 1 p.m. April 20 at the Four Star Theater as part of the 13th annual “Black Talkies on Parade” festival (April 19-25), which is sponsored by the cinema society. For further information on these events: (213) 737-3292, 733-9511.

A number of previous winners and entries in the Black Filmmakers’ Grants Program will be screened April 8, at 7:30 p.m., as part of “Retrospective: From the ‘70s to the ‘90s,” the first presentation of films made by UCLA African-American students and alumni. Seven films will be screened, including Charles Burnett’s 1973 “Horse.” Co-sponsoring the evening are the UCLA Center for Afro-American Studies and the UCLA African American Filmmakers’ Assn. For more information: (213) 206-8013, 206-FILM.