The 9^th annual Charlotte Black Film Festival took place April 11-14 in the Queen City. Over the course of four days attendees were treated to viewings of independent films, workshops and panel discussions, master classes, local vendors and more – all with African-American cinema and culture at its core.

via Charlotte Black Film Festival Facebook

The event culminated with the Red Carpet Vision Awards which recognized achievements in acting, directing, screenwriting, composing and more.  Several of this year’s awards went to the film, Marvelous, directed by Khaeem Yisrael.

Marvelous follows the story of three African-American boys growing up in the 1960s and 70s as they purse their dream of being an R&B music group. They go through several ups and down, both personally and professionally, on their quest to fame.

 Marvelous won big, taking home four awards from CBFF including Best Feature Film, Best Sound, Best Director and Best Actor for Bryan Earl’s performance as lead character “Alex.” The awards were well deserved given how much work went into making the film.

In a Q&A session following the film’s showing, Yisrael explained that a lot of attention was paid to things such as costumes and set design to ensure that the movie had an authentic 60s/70s look. Additionally, Yisrael discussed the film’s outstanding soundtrack and collaborating with the likes of Keisha Jackson, daughter of famed singer Mille Jackson, North Carolina native, J-Harris, and others.

“The story is about a music group, so it was important to have good music in the film,” said Yisrael.

Probably the most obvious factor to Marvelous’ success was the chemistry between the cast and crew. During the Q&A session it was clear that they were all a tight knit group.

Yisrael couldn’t say enough about how the cast a crew had become a “family” during production. Thankfully, that comradery showed through on screen and it won the film Best Picture.

Find out more about Marvelous at marvelousfilm.org