2nd Annual #BlackMuslimGirlFly Film Festival Set

Featuring a Special Performance by International Hip Hop Artist Sa-Roc and More TBA

Writer, director, producer and founder of Audaz Entertainment, LLC & #BlackMuslimGirlFly, Nia Malika Dixon announces the 2^ndAnnual #BlackMuslimGirlFly Film Festival “Our Stories. Our Way”, hosted by Alia Sharrief, Founder of Hijabi Chronicles. The event will be held Sunday, December 15, 2019 at the Regency West Theater located at 3339 W. 43^rdStreet, Los Angeles, CA  90008. (Leimert Park) from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available now at https://filmfreeway.com/BMGFlyFest.

The festival was created to raise awareness for the growing numbers of skilled and talented Black Muslim Women in entertainment. BMFF2019 will also honor accomplished filmmaker and founder of Women of Color Unite (WOCU) and the JTC List, Cheryl L.Bedford. Bedford will receive the Harmon-Dixon Trailblazer Award, named after Dixon’s mother and grandfather who are both trailblazers in their respective fields. Bedford will receive the award for her huge contributions in raising awareness, breaking the glass ceiling, and providing work and opportunities for Women of Color in the entertainment industry. 

The festival will showcase short films, experimental projects, and webisodes written, directed, produced by and/or featuring Black Muslims behind and in front of the camera. There will be a total of 5 film projects featured throughout the day, which will be announced in the coming weeks.

"As a story lover, I did not see movies, television or any content that told stories from my perspective. As a storyteller, my perspective being Black in America and a Muslim woman are just as compelling and entertaining as anything else on screens out there. We are an audience that deserves to be heard. We deserve to see our stories told, and what better way to share our culture than on the big screen,” says Nia Malika Dixon.

The much-anticipated event will start at 9am with an intimate breakfast chat with Black Muslim filmmaker Malikah A. Shabazz, at Harun Café, located at 4336 Degnan Blvd, Los Angeles,  just steps away from the main event.

Guests will have the opportunity to view short films, and listen in on a panel discussion and Q&A, featuring comedian/actor and founder of Halalywood, Omar Regan, and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of MuslimARC, (Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative), Margari Hill. There will also be a live performance by well known, internationally recognized, DC-based, conscious rapper “Sa-Roc” The MC. Over the years Sa-Roc the Goddess MC performed alongside the likes of Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, and Atmosphere, and she is one of few MC’s to perform regularly as a featured artist with The Roots. Her single, “Forever” quickly racked up more than 400k streams on Spotify and over 1M views on YouTube. Her song “I Am Her,” is the official anthem of BMFF2019. Sa-Roc also appeared William Feagins Jr.’s film, The Possibility Of Her, a feature-length documentary that highlights 12 women of color who are actively involved in non-traditional careers or passions, echoing many of the same obstacles overcome by Sa-Roc in her own career.

About NIA MALIKA DIXON

Born and raised to be a Black, Muslim woman in Baltimore, Nia has been a writer since the day her mother first put a pencil in her hand. Although writing has been Nia’s passion, her mother’s emphasis on education led Nia to become a schoolteacher. She taught children for more than 20 years and raised her own two children along the way, including a son with Autism. However, Nia’s passion for storytelling cannot be quenched. She made the bold move to Los Angeles in 2005, to pursue the dream of reaching global audiences with her writing.

Since her arrival to Los Angeles, Nia studied directing under the tutelage of famed director Lilyan Chauvin, until the time of Lilyan’s death in 2008. Her first award, and her first short film, “Temporary Loss of Power,” was an audience favorite at the Baltimore Women’s Film Festival in 2007. Shortly thereafter, Nia began studying acting with Tony Award-winning actor and teacher, Kent Klineman. She is currently mentored by director Catherine Hardwicke, (Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown and Twilight) and has also completed several writing assignments for Morgan Freeman at his production company, Revelations Entertainment.

For the past fifteen years, Nia Malika Dixon has evolved from learning, by working on other filmmakers' sets, (having worked in almost every position, from P.A. on an indie comedy, to 2nd AD on Ryan Coogler's thesis film, “Fig") to launching her own independent film production company. Writing, directing, and producing projects for herself, and for others, via her production company, Audaz Entertainment, Inc. Nia has won several awards, including Best Urban Web Series and Best TV/Web Series in several festivals, for “The Trap Web Series,” (aka Chrysalis the web series,) and recognition for her screenplays, including “Vengeful,” an original pilot for a police detective drama, starring a Black woman; the first since 1974's “Get Christie Love.” Nia currently has a short film, “Shattered Lenses,” touring festivals, and she is in preproduction on her next film, a supernatural thriller.