By Darlene Donloe
Contributing Writer
BEVERLY HILLS — The Writers Guild Theater on Doheny Drive will go dark at 10 a.m. Aug. 22 and not light up again until 8 p.m.
In between: 26 short films, all directed by Black women, will be shown.
This is “Sistas Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” the short film festival run by Sandra Evers Manly’s Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center.
It is 33 years old. It has no red carpet. It has, however, an uncanny record of picking directors before the industry does. Gina Prince-Bythewood (“The Woman King,” “Love & Basketball,” “Old Guard”) screened here. Ryan Coogler (“Sinners,” “Black Panther,” “Fruitvale Station”) got two BHERC grants.
“I never thought about how many years it would go,” Evers Manly said recently. “I thought about — are we making a difference?”
By the numbers, yes. By the lobby conversations, absolutely.
This year’s 26 films span drama, comedy, horror, and inspiration. The mandate was that there was no mandate. Still, patterns emerge. Social justice, unassigned, shows up anyway. So does Black maternal health, gentrification, environmental threat and the knotty physics of relationships.
“We have incredible filmmakers,” Evers Manly said. “An incredible class. We selected 26 films with issues that impact our community. This class has covered an incredible amount of stories. Stories that matter.”
Among them: Jahmil Eady, who landed two films in the lineup — “Hatchlings” and “Haint.”
The first is a child’s-eye metaphor for Black maternal mortality. The second is a Gullah Geechee horror film about land and erasure.
“I lost two cousins during childbirth,” Eady said. “They passed away due to preeclampsia, which is usually missed in Black women. It was about 10 years apart.”
She started developing “Hatchlings” in 2019, shot it in 2024, and released it in 2025.
“It’s my way of using metaphor,” Eady said. “Haint” is literal and spectral. My family is Gullah Geechee. If people don’t know that Gullah exists, they will now. There are 70 islands along the coast of the Carolinas that Black people have been living on for generations. That culture is rapidly disappearing.”
Eady, who studied at Pomona College and earned a masters in fine arts in directing at UCLA, is now developing “Haint” as a feature.
“Finding a production company to support that feature would be the next step,” she said.
Evers Manly, a Directors Guild of America member, started Black Hollywood Education and Resource Center after a childhood that taught her the stakes of images.
“I was born with a heart defect,” she said. “I asked my mom why there weren’t people like you and me on TV. She said, change it. These images go worldwide. They paint images about us that are one-sided or not even correct.”
Thirty-three years later, the barriers have shifted but not vanished.
“The one thing we still have not figured out or been successful in is distribution,” Evers Manly said. “Distribution still plagues our filmmakers. And finding an agent. There are still a lot of barriers. We’re still figuring it out.”
What has changed is now the phone is ringing from abroad.
“We are starting to see more international organizations reach out to say, ‘What can we do to help?’” Evers-Manly said.
And the urgency of the stories hasn’t cooled.
“Black maternal health is something we need to do more stories about,” Evers Manly said. “We want to do a story with a purpose.”
The festival is also a laboratory for what’s next.
“Let’s talk about A.I.,” she said. “We have to have the conversation. What does it mean for our community? What’s going to be our position?”
Ask Evers Manly why she keeps doing it — what she gets that no one claps for — and she doesn’t hesitate.
“The great applause is if we can get these directors to tell our stories and filmmakers doing their films,” she said. “Nothing is cookie-cutter filmmaking. That makes me proud.
“It’s not about applause for me, it’s about the impact,” she continued. “Little did we know when we met Gina Prince, that she’d have the success she’s had. We provided two grants to Ryan Coogler. Look where he is today. The selfish is making sure we tell our story.”
That ethic trickles down.
Eady first screened at Sistas in 2022 and never left.
“I’ve been supporting BHERC since I screened in 2022,” she said. “I support with programming. I find films and reach out to filmmakers and encourage them to submit. I want to help Black women and men.”
Eady believes Sandra Evers Manly “Is an angel on earth.”
“Sandra is an incredible human being who has devoted her life to building pathways,” Eady said. “Having an affirmation from her means a lot. I can’t say enough good things about Sandra or BHERC. She’s a gift.”
Festivals are judged by deals. “Sistas Are Doin’ It for Themselves” is judged by talk. Evers Manly remembers a line from an L.A. Times piece a few years back: “It said L.A. can be toxic for Black women and this festival is the antidote.”
Eady knows what she wants from this year’s festival.
“The most exciting thing is community,” she said. “To share a film with community members and people who are supportive of emerging writers and directors. It would also be fantastic to meet other filmmakers who are also coming up alongside me. There might be someone there who wants to help me with my film.”
She looks to Hanelle M. Culpepper — the first woman and person of color to direct a Star Trek pilot, the first to work in both Star Trek and Star Wars live-action TV, and only the second Black woman ever nominated for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Emmy — as proof of what’s possible.
“I really admire her,” Eady said. “There’s a lot to learn.”
Evers Manly has learned from her filmmakers, too.
“If we want the kinds of movies we want to see, we have to make it happen,” she said. “We have to be there for opening weekends when they open.”
It’s education, both ways. That’s the other ‘E’ in BHERC.
So on Aug. 22, 26 films will roll. Some directors are from USC, some from UCLA. Some are from Los Angeles. Some have screened before. None, Evers Manly insists, are making anything cookie-cutter.
“The great applause,” she said again, “is them doing their films.”
Darlene Donloe is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers who covers South Los Angeles. She can be reached at ddonloe@gmail.com.
