New Film Festival Hopes To Highlight Local Filmmakers In West Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- To take advantage of the cooler temperatures at night and the darkness, many outdoor movies have sprung up across the city.

But now as Mike Schuh reports, there is a new one on the west side of downtown with a local twist.

You know about Little Italy's film night. But now, you're invited a few blocks west at Park and W. Lexington -- at the headquarters for Catholic Relief Services.

The Bromo District is an interesting neighborhood, where luxury apartments overlook vacant buildings. Just north of the arena, more luxury conversions try to put parts of the neighborhood's criminal past behind it.

But to build a new community, people have to interact.

"It's so important because it helps bring more pedestrians to the street. it gives people a reason to come to the neighborhood," Priya Bhayana said.

Bhayana started the film fest.

"The point is to showcase local filmmakers and to showcase local films that  you can't find everywhere and to actually give -- maybe he can give a little bit more to this -- but to give local filmmakers more and more opportunities and venues to showcase their work," she added.

The "he" is filmmaker Theo Anthony.

Anthony looks at the week after the Freddie Gray riots --beginning with the free BSO concert and working toward how the world came to put its take on what happened here.

"It was my most meaningful way to contribute to the conversation and I saw that there was a huge gaping hole of you know these very biased news sources coming out," he said.

It will be nice he says to see his work in the town where he lives.

"I've traveled a lot and it's really strange to have the story come to you're own backyard," Anthony added.

A huge backyard screen burning bright at night.

The showing of Anthony's film is Tuesday night, then on August 18 and Sept. 15.