SouthSide Film Festival Begins Tuesday

This year’s SouthSide Film Festival features an African theme, with a generous helping of folklore. 

This is the eighth straight year that the independent, non-competitive, not-for-profit film festival will be held in Bethlehem. This year’s festival, organized by a group of local film lovers called the SouthSide Film Institute, runs from June 14-18.

Each year, festival organizers choose one culture and one genre on which to focus. This year the culture is African, while the genre is folklore.

An opening night reception, free and open to the public, will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14, at Home & Planet, on East Third Street. It will feature Kenyan food and music from the Lehigh Valley Drum Circle, featuring Moe Jerant.

That’s just the beginning. Following the reception, the City of Bethlehem Bagpipe Band will lead a procession to the opening night screening, of the film “Africa United,” at Broughal Middle School on Morton Street, at 8 p.m.

From Wednesday through Saturday, dozens of films---some shorts, some feature-length---will be shown at three sites: Broughal Middle School, Sinclair Lab Auditorium at Lehigh UIniversity, and Victory Firehouse, at 205 Webster St.

Here is the schedule of films for the festival: http://is.gd/XwfN3m

For more information on the featured films and the festival: http://is.gd/YT7lf5