The Music Box Theatre invites everyone to “Life Within the Lens”, a celebration of Black Chicago filmmakers. This short film screening will feature some of the city’s most talented creators, showcasing their visions and interpretations of life’s nuances, struggles and humor through cinema. It will feature stories told by the likes of Kimberly Michelle Vaughn, Shiloh Tumo Washington, Jean Williams, Cantbuydeem and Music Box Theatre’s own, Camryn Lewis. We look forward to having everyone come see the Music Box screen illuminated by filmmakers of the Black/African diaspora from the city we all love: Chicago

SHORTS FEATURED IN THIS PROGRAM

Reality Raps (Written & Directed By Cantbuydeem & E.C. Love 2023) – 18 min

Reality raps is a 17 track album about real life as an independent artist. It's a glimpse into the emotional roller coaster that is life as a black man, artist, and entrepreneur. The film brings the album to life and follows the main character through a collage of pivotal moments, nightmares, and therapy sessions as he struggles with his current behavior. Shot & Edited by Brizzy Danks.

Hindsight (Kimberly Michelle Vaughn, 2022) – 14 min

HINDSIGHT is a satirical Award-winning short that comically mocks the events that took place in 2020. When racial unrest plagues America, four strangers with opposing political views and cultural ideologies agree to participate in a social experiment that inevitably goes haywire.

Baracked (dir. Jean Williams, 2017)

A newly married young white man battles sexual impotence with his wife and feelings of social impotence in his encounters with black males in the wake of the Barack Obama presidency.

One for My Baby (dir. Shiloh Tumo Washington, 2023) – 19 min

The story of Roy and Jasmine plays out in a series of memories, brought on by improvisational jazz music. Shot on location on Chicago’s South and East side, One for My Baby draws on the real people from the writer/director’s own life: his own parents. Inspired by films such as Love Jones and Mississippi Masala, this short film is an impressionistic haze of a faded romance.

3 Really Short Films About Love (dir. Camryn Lewis, 2023)

A dark comedy short film, a dramatic short film and a romantic comedy short film -- each of them (almost!) silent films -- about love and the fights some will endure to sustain it.