By Janice Malone
Photos by Earl Flippen
The second annual Salute to Black Film Makers and Reception took place last Saturday night during the Nashville Film Festival at the Regal Green Hills Cinemas. The star-studded night has become one of the festival’s most well-attended events by attendees of all ethnicities. The now annual Salute to Black Film Makers Screenings and VIP Reception is a preview event for the Rosetta Miller Perry Award, given in honor of Tennessee Tribune Publisher/Editor-in- Chief. The award was presented to the documentary The Black List as the recipient of the 2008 Rosetta Miller Perry Award for Best Black Film Maker during the closing of this year’s Nashville Film Festival.

Superstar actress Nicole Kidman, who now lives in Nashville with her husband, country music star Keith Urban, also attended the showing of awardwinning critically acclaimed documentary The Black List. A very pregnant Ms. Kidman kept a low profile and was quite incognito but as she exited the theater with her bodyguard, she was over heard saying how much she enjoyed The Black List documentary. The film, created by photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and noted film critic and former New York Times reporter Elvis Mitchell, features 22 prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines, and backgrounds who share personal and heart warming stories on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in America. The film was a huge hit at the Sundance Film Festival, as it offers thought provoking ways to re-define “blacklist” and strengthen the African-American community for the new century.

Included are Toni Morrison, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Vernon Jordan, Chris Rock, Richard D. Parsons, Zane, Rev. Al Sharpton, and many more.