When Tyler Balentine was hired at the Music Box Theatre in 2023 as a concessionaire to serve popcorn and check tickets, he was informed that he could have a hand in programming too. From that seed sprouted a short film series that Balentine created, dedicated to local filmmakers of color called “Life Within the Lens.”
Born from the Rogers Park resident’s desire to see more such representation on screen, the series is back for another Black History Month. This month, the series has extended to another iconic film venue, Facets, with the series “Sunday’s Best.”
Balentine, an Alton native, curated both series as a celebration of local Black filmmakers who have contributed to Chicago’s cinematic landscape.
“With this current administration, it’s more important to celebrate Black stories, Latino stories, Asian stories, trans stories, queer stories, understanding disabilities, and to move away from the marginalization and to use film as a way of informing, and giving that perspective of somebody else that might not live the same way that you live,” he said.
Filmmaker George Ellzey Jr. was invited to screen his 2023 MFA thesis film, “Cottage Grove,” at the Music Box for “Life Within the Lens” last year. This time around, five short films and two new projects of his can be seen at Facets, work that spans narrative, experimental, and hybrid forms and explores Black interiority, intimacy and communication. One of the films is “Division,” an anti-“La La Land” story set in Chicago.
“It was an exploration of what it’s like to live in a big city, and you find someone that you connect with, but then the city provides obstacles to you. I can’t wait to watch it again with an audience,” Ellzey said. “These two new works in progress that I’m showing are called ‘Closed Mouths’ and ‘Accessories.’ I love slice-of-life stories, which you get with ‘Closed Mouths,’ with a little bit of fantasy. ‘Accessories’ shows my comical side — very zany and bombastic, but still deals with hard-hitting issues of identity and appropriation in our culture.”
All of Ellzey’s films have strong Midwest sensibilities; the Bronzeville resident takes pride in how the South Side molded who he is, as a person and a creative. He likes making simple but complex stories that show our humanity on screen.
“I want to make ordinary lives look extraordinary on screen,” he said. “‘Accessories’ shows the real tension that we feel as Black artists, feeling tokenized on screen and with ‘Closed Mouths,’ it’s an exploration of how Black men are dealing with societal pressures and depression.”
Filmmaker Eve Wright, a Hyde Park resident, will showcase her first film, an 11-minute short called “The Scorekeeper,” at “Life Within the Lens.” It’s the world premiere of the project.
“‘The Scorekeeper’ is an intense psychological thriller that explores what it is when trauma lingers, when it haunts, and it follows that through a young woman who, on the eve of a first date, is stalked by a supernatural audiovisual cart-hauling interloper that wants her to reckon with this traumatic past,” Wright said. “It’s exploring the intimacies of the inner human psyche, but through an accessible, interesting way, and following it through are two leads who are mirror reflections of each other.”
Wright is looking forward to submitting her film to other film festivals after being a part of Balentine’s local series. Knowing there’s always been a thriving Black independent film scene, she’s happy to see more of that being celebrated in her hometown.
“I think it’s really important that we reflect the entirety of human experiences,” Wright said. “It’s about sharing my voice, my artistic vision with other individuals, hoping it connects with people, and continuing to build that community of filmmakers who are excited about the idea of showing complex Black women in anti-hero roles or vulnerable roles that we typically would only associate with white characters.”
Sandrel “Sanicole” Young will have her 20-minute film “The Bet” featured at the Music Box. The work is about a young boy and a disillusioned spirit guide who doesn’t believe humanity is worth saving. A bet is made between the two to see if humanity is kind.
Inspired by the deaths of three close friends in fast succession, Sanicole wrote, directed and produced the 2024 film as a way to grapple with the loss.
“I wondered if my friends became spirit guides and they were watching my steps every day, would they be proud of me? Am I living the life I’m supposed to be living? Am I treating people the way they should be treated? And is my spirit team supporting my work? That’s the mind frame that I was in when I was creating ‘The Bet.’”
The Ashburn resident filmed “The Bet” on the city’s South and West sides. Young only shoots her projects in Chicago because she loves Chicago. She said her stories are always in the wheelhouse of family, love and community.
“I’m thankful to Tyler for creating things like this, so the younger filmmakers that are still climbing the ladder can have an audience to reach out to, and someone to support them,” Young said.
“You have to appreciate filmmaking, especially in the current day and what it still represents — film is there to teach people, to give a new perspective,” Balentine said. “There’s so many great directors out there making great work. But there are always those outside of the festival circuit, still looking for ways to show their work.”
Having provided an outlet for those filmmakers at the Music Box and now Facets, he wants to keep the relationships and momentum of the film festivals growing in the future.
“I’d like to have ‘Life Within the Lens’ every month at the Music Box, that’s a goal of mine,” Balentine said. “I would love to take Chicago’s short films on the road, not just in the United States but Canada, Mexico, Africa somehow.”