Last week was the 3rd annual Oakland Underground Film Festival. Other commitments kept me from seeing as much of it as I would have liked, but what I saw, I loved. The Oakland UFF is a showcase for independent film, with a special emphasis on social justice, urban life, and the environment.

Tina Mabry never set out to become your conventional Hollywood blockbuster director – nor is she trying to be.

Yet, with her nationally acclaimed feature film Mississippi Damned – a true-to-life drama about a black family struggling with poverty, alcoholism, homophobia and racism in the rural south – the filmmaker is making huge strides in bringing independent black queer cinema to the masses.