Cleveland resident Madison Ledyard-King started his college career at Kent State University as a business major. Exploring new interests led him to audition for a play, and he was offered the role. From the acting world, he would eventually find his passion for filmmaking.

Ledyard-King’s latest film, ‘Black Boys Don’t Cry,’ is showing April 4, 5, 9-12 at the Cleveland International Film Festival as part of FilmSlam, a mini-festival designed for school students in grades 5-12 that teaches media literacy and critical thinking about films and their messages.

We sat down with the filmmaker to hear more about the story and what he hopes the audience learns from his film. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Harding-Gosnell: The film website IMDB has a synopsis for “Black Boys Don’t Cry” that says, “A young Black man attempts to repress his feelings in order to navigate the challenges of his life.” Can you expand on that and explain to us what the film is about? 

Ledyard-King: The film explores toxic masculinity in black culture from a young person’s perspective. He said he was raised on the idea that, as a Black man, he can’t express himself, can’t share his feelings, can’t openly talk about certain things. I intended to leave the question of what it is specifically that he’s going through open-ended, so that anyone watching the film could put themselves in his shoes and relate to him. If this happened to him, maybe someone who is going through something else might not be able to relate. 

Harding-Gosnell:What is the main thing you’d like the audience to take away from this film? 

Ledyard-King: The fact that, like, it’s OK to not be OK. We’re all human, we all go through things. I think being Black, especially growing up in this generation, the people who raised us had to go to something completely different. And the people who raised [us] had a way different outlook and experience in life. I think now is the time for us to start accepting that it’s OK to talk about how you feel. It’s OK to let people in on where you’re at mentally.

Specifically for this film, a huge detail that I wanted to add in, a lot of the conversation so far has been around mental health and depression, but anxiety definitely can be a big factor into that. It affects a lot of the way we look at the world and feel. Sometimes the pressure of days can be very heavy. 

Harding-Gosnell: The last four years have been among the most challenging in American history. The pandemic, Black Lives Matter and the fight against racism, our political divides, how has this changed, or inspired, your work? 

Ledyard-King:Recent events in life have definitely made me more aware that now is the time for me to start telling these stories. I think art is a huge thing, and culture, to help people understand things a bit better. It’s easy as an artist to get bogged down by,  especially film, like, is this the right film to make? Do I have the right resources to make this film? Is this the appropriate time to tell this story? I think recent events have taught me that now is the best time to do anything because we don’t know what the future holds.

In my personal experience, I mean, I have had to make certain decisions and sacrifices, like what kind of lifestyle I want to lead to be able to be an artist. And it’s not always going to be very clear, like, the journey, but as long as you have the destination in mind, that’s really the most important thing.

The 48th Cleveland International Film Festival runs April 3-13 at Playhouse Square. For more information, including tickets, film guides, and where to park, visit their website at clevelandfilm.org. The festival is partially paid for by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture (CAC), a county agency that uses money from cigarette taxes to fund local arts nonprofits and initiatives.

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