Roxbury International Film Festival features jazz film on Thelonius Monk

In My Mind

The 12th annual Roxbury International Film Festival gets underway in Boston this week, featuring a full slate of films, documentaries and workshops celebrating people of color in cinema.

One of the films featured this year is In My Mind, a documentary by jazz pianist Jason Moran that pays tribute to legendary jazz artist Theolonius Monk and his historic concert at New York's town hall in 1959. Combining rare audio and photos of Monk with Moran's own live performace in the same venue 50 years later, In My Mind has been described by Slant Magazine as "a vital document of jazz as a combined cultural heritage...(that) sets a new standard for jazz on film."

In My Mind is being shown at Mass College of Art on Saturday, July 31, at 6:00 p.m.

Presented by the Color of Film Collaborative and ACT Roxbury, the four-day festival embraces "a global community of filmmakers celebrating people of color," says Lisa Simmons, co-producer of the festival.

Screenings take place in venues throughout Boston, including the Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall, Museum of Fine Arts, Mass College of Art, Wentworth College and the Haley House Bakery Cafe.

Full line-up of the RIFF film schedule.

Full list of RIFF workshops and panel discussions.

For year round jazz in Massachusetts, visit MassJazz.com.