Nicki Micheaux to make directorial debut at the American Black Film Festival

Nicki Micheaux is a director and actress best known for her role as Jennifer Sutton in “Lincoln Heights,” for which she received two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series. On June 14-18, 2023, in Miami Beach, Micheaux will make her directorial debut with her film Summer of Violence which was selected for the American Black Film Festival.

Micheaux shared the inspiration for the film and what ABFF means to her personally.

What is the plot of your film, Summer of Violence?

It’s about a young woman who graduated college and she decides to tell her father she’s going to pursue her poetry dreams. Her father had a completely other plan for her going to law school and he’s very controlling, and when she does not do what he wants to do and is doing something as frivolous as poetry, he decides like, “All right, do it on your own.” He disowns her financially and so she moves out with her friend to Denver, trying to make it as a poet, and trying to figure out how to become a poet.

It’s about when you’re in a situation and there’s violence all around you and how difficult it is to keep going forward. I wanted to tell this story because I feel like we live in a world where there’s so much random violence, at the grocery store or a Walmart shooting, there are shootings in parking lots, movie theaters and churches. It’s just insane how we have to live. I want to talk about what it does to you and what it does to your soul. How do you do something as simple as pursue a dream when you’re living in a culture that is so unaware of things so tenuous? I just want to talk about that.

What does the American Black Film Festival mean to you personally?

It’s so funny because just the other day, I was going through my phone and I keep lists of goals or things I wanted to achieve. One of the things was having a film at ABFF. I wrote it so long ago, I had forgotten I had written it. It is really important to me. It’s such a large film festival. So many celebrities are going to be there and so many major studios like Netflix and HBO. I mean, it’s been a big thing since when I first got here. I remember way back when … sitting back and watching, thinking, “Wow, one day, I’d like to do something like that.” I didn’t think it would take this long but I am just really glad that it’s here and I finally get to be able to be a part of it.