The March on Washington Film Festival is returning to the District with its ninth edition from Thursday, September 30 to Monday, October 4.
The annual event first started in 2013 in DC to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963.
On Thursday, there will be an Opening Night Gala at Union Market Dock 5 at 7:30 pm EST that will start with a cocktail reception at 6:30 pm EST.
Jonathan Capehart will host the gala and Rep. James Clyburn will be presented with the John Lewis Lifetime Legacy Award. Filmmaker Sam Pollard and the Donors of Color Network will receive March On Awards.
Musical performances will feature Frédéric Yonnet and The Band With No Name and The Shiloh Baptist Church Gospel Choir.
Thank you to our generous sponsors for helping make MOWFF 2021 possible. Your support helps give a platform to the untold stories from the civil rights movement.
The pay-what-you-can option is still available! Register today.#MarchOn #EnvironmentalJustice #CivilRights
— March on Washington Film Festival (@MoWFilmFest) September 29, 2021
It “serves as a national platform to tell, celebrate, and increase awareness of the untold events, icons and foot soldiers, known and unsung, of the Civil Rights Movement,” says the festival’s website, adding that it “uses film screenings as a platform for panel discussions featuring filmmakers, academics, and activists and brings together an audience that is diverse in age, class, and ethnicity.”
Among the sponsors of this year’s festival are Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Variety, Albertsons Companies, The Ford Foundation, AARP, Amazon Web Services, CityBridge Foundation, Discovery, EDENS, Facebook, Google, J.P. Morgan & Chase, Kellogg, Mastercard, T-Mobile, Walmart, Twitter, Verizon, AirBNB, and more.