When Karen Toering started a local film festival, she never expected it to be as successful as it is now.
“It just blew us away,” said Toering, founder and director of the Gary International Black Festival. “The first year, and almost every year since, there’s a filmmaker that comes to the festival and ends up doing great things.
The Gary International Black Film Festival returns to Indiana University Northwest Thursday through Sunday and features more than 50 films. The festival celebrates Black filmmakers and aims to enhance Gary’s cultural community, Toering said.
People can watch films in-person or online. Tickets are available on the festival’s website, garyblackfilmfest.org.
Although Toering lives in Seattle, she’s from Gary and believes it’s important to give the art community a home within the city.
“We’ve come to understand that our little contribution is making life better in Gary, and it’s a tiny thing,” Toering said. “Sometimes it’s just the little things, especially within the arts and cultural community. Those are little things that make life better for us, and sometimes we don’t know that.”
In the festival’s first year, Toering said they had to ask filmmakers to present their work, but now, the crew looks at hundreds of projects for the festival weekend.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Toering said the festival had about 1,700 films submitted.
“The decision-making now is really, really hard,” she added. “We work with a group of people across the country who review these films and rate them. And for each filmmaker that submits a film, we offer feedback.”
Mike Dennis is one filmmaker who was accepted into the festival. He restored “Riverbend,” a 1989 action film. His project, “Riverbend Restored,” will be shown at 4 p.m. Saturday.
This is Dennis’ fourth year at the Gary International Black Film Festival. Working with Toering and the rest of the crew keeps him coming back.
“It’s a smaller festival,” Dennis said, “but it’s very consistent, and I think it’s one of the best.”
“Riverbend Restored” is only shown at Black festivals nationwide, Dennis said.“It’s a Black film,” he said. “We wanted to showcase it in front of Black audiences because that’s our core market, followed by 80’s action film fans.”
Restoring the film has been an adventure, Dennis said, and he’s enjoyed sharing it with audiences. To restore “Riverbend,” Dennis and his team had to digitize and scan previous work, update the sound and the artwork.
He acquired the film more than four years ago, but his team has done about six months of restoration work.
“I think people are going to have a good time with it,” Dennis said. “It’s a cheesy 80s action flick, but it also has some really relevant topics to today. It deals with police brutality and justice.”
This year, the Gary International Black Film Festival is recognizing Fred “The Hammer” Williamson, an actor, filmmaker and Gary native. Williamson will receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in the industry.
Williamson has made films worldwide, and he said his work is most popular in France, Germany and Sweden.
Receiving an award from the festival in his hometown is very special, Williamson said.
“It’s nice to know that people know what you’re doing, especially from your hometown,” he said. “The Lifetime Achievement Award, that’s final, but my career is far from over.”
Film festivals are about more than recognizing filmmakers, Williamson said, and he enjoys the Gary festival because it recognizes the whole city. He believes people nationwide know more about Gary because filmmakers participate in the festival.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Williamson said. “Maybe the fact that I came out of Gary makes me appreciate coming back to Gary more.”
