2024 BlackStar Film Festival Program Guide

BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL

PROGRAM GUIDE

DISCOVER INDIE FILM FROM THE GLOBAL MAJORITY

DIRECTOR’S WELCOME

Grandma Dorothy, in an effort to encourage our minds to leap, would tell us, “Of course we know how to walk on the water, of course we know how to fly; fear of sinking, though, sometimes keeps us from the crucial first move, then too, the terrible educations you liable to get is designed to make you destruct the journey entire. So send your minds on home to the motherland and just tell the tale, you little honeys.” And my mama — not one to traffic in metaphors usually, being a very scientific woman — would add, “Yeah, speak your speak, ’cause every silence you maintain is liable to become first a lump in your throat, then a lump in your lymphatic system.”

— Toni Cade Bambara

Welcome, BlackStar family, to the 13th annual BlackStar Film Festival. We’re officially a teenager, and like any teenager, for us too 13 is the number of change, evolution, growth — a harbinger of both good and bad luck. In the lead-up to the festival, we’ve been holding this duality, functioning within its dissonance day in and day out. We expect that the festival will bring this interior cacophony front and center. But we know that our gathering in August is an opportunity for us to seek comfort and good vibes in each other’s presence. It will be a time to reflect, critique, grieve, celebrate, learn and build together. Our teenager, the BlackStar Film Festival, will reflect back to us all of our confusion and all of our power, inshallah.

We’ve all been stretched thin this year. As the festival director, I am approaching this year’s film festival with desire and trepidation. These days, I’m feeling a deeper need than usual for the community and high vibes that BlackStar, in all of its many forms, provides. I’m also enraged by the world we live in, and have bottomless questions about our roles as

artists and cultural workers in the time of genocide. I seek solace in the works of the elders and ancestors who have thought through these issues over the many decades before my existence. The internationalist Toni Cade Bambara posthumously continues to expand my artistic literacy and helps me focus on what my purpose should be. Audre Lorde, who would have turned 90 this year, provides a guide for my anger and helps me channel it into productive energy. My north star Toni Morrison reminds me that a clear voice and vision, and a commitment to craft and politics, are the recipes for a meaningful and lasting career in the arts. James Baldwin’s voice rings eternally to advise us to distinguish between rage and despair, and always to resist falling into defeatism. Ghassan Kanafani is a beacon for writing the revolution to an audience of your own people, and showing that the artist’s honest self is the only self that can keep your work relevant for multiple generations beyond your own. I honor these cultural workers and the many others who led us here. Quite literally they paved the tradition in which BlackStar operates.

Unsurprisingly, BlackStar’s programmers were carrying the weight of the past few months within all of us throughout our programming process. As a global network of Black, Indigenous and Brown cultural workers who aim to curate from a place of care (after all, the root of the word curate comes from taking care), we were very much grounded in our peoples’ realities. We interrogated, shared and examined these realities. We were moved by the gravity of our anger to create a space where we can pose these questions and feelings in a forum among our people, and to also create a space where we can rejuvenate, laugh and sharpen our tools. We tried as much as we could to hold the duality of the healing and mobilizing power of this gathering, while also recognizing that the world is not well, and that people around the world are at the mercy of the merciless. We held tightly to our feelings of solidarity with each other and with our siblings everywhere as we held on to our rage as a launching pad for action and co-creation. We hope you can feel, heal and mobilize with us during this 2024 festival.

To my co-programmers, I thank you for your commitment to an arduous process and I hope that you all felt as nourished through each other’s presence as I was by yours. On experimental: Alia Ayman (chair), Wally Fall and Willi White; on feature documentary: Jamal Batts, Janaína Oliveira (chair) and Melissa Bisagni; on short documentary: asinnajaq, Chloe Walters-Wallace, Nyambura Waruingi (chair) and Tzutzumatzin Soto; on feature narrative: Jemma Desai (chair), Kate Gondwe and Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva; and on short narrative: Kartik Nair, Lauren Gee, Marcellus Armstrong and Séverine Catelion (chair). Hugs and kisses to all of you, a most beautiful team.

Of course, BlackStar would not be possible without my co-conspirators: the BlackStar staff. You all are the most hardworking yet jubilant group of people to work with. Thank you for carrying me and each other, and thank you for allowing yourself to be carried when it was necessary. We go to work and we give it more than we give practically anything else, and it’s an honor to wake up every morning

to co-learn, co-create, disagree, fight, resolve, and rinse and repeat with you all. Team festival for life: Akili “Put Akili on It” Davis, your attention and focus is a daily lifesaver. Nyla Daniel, so thorough and detail-oriented, we all feel we’re in good hands with you. Amber Hunnicutt, operations wiz, with the agendas and the spreadsheets, nobody can defeat us. Sydney Alicia Rodriguez, who has been doing this with me for years now and brings the voice of challenge and pushback, thank you, comrade. And special thanks goes to the full festival team, the folks whose year-round hard work on our finances and operations makes everything we do possible. Akua Maat, unmatched operations associate extraordinaire; Autumn Faith Valdez, the money woman who means business; Nile Shareef-Trudeau, who keeps the office together while keeping calm; and Zoë Greggs, who always wants to roll up their sleeves and support the team. Special shout goes to Terri Hall, our People and Culture Director who sets the tone. Major appreciation for our development and sponsorship team, without whom literally this couldn’t happen because we would be broke!

Catherine Lee, who stepped into her position in January and soared; Jess Garz, who creates works of financial speculative fiction and helps us bring them to fruition; and Michele Pierson, who alley-oops all the plays — thank you all for trusting the vision.

To the cult that is the BlackStar communications and marketing team, you all are MVPs to our organization. Amina, Digital Content Assistant who just joined us months ago; fearless leader, brilliant human, and Chief Communications Officer Imran Siddiquee; Creative Director Leo Brooks; Marketing Manager Mariam Dembele, the royalty of social media; Design Manager Pablo Alarcon Jr., who designed the festival merch, the festival theme and this program guide that you’re reading now; Swabreen Bakr, Marketing and Engagement Director; and Xenia Matthews, Communications Coordinator and phenomenal filmmaker in her own right. And our co-conspirators on the programs team: Program Director Heidi Saman, who joined the team recently to head Seen, the filmmaker lab and the Greaves Seminar; and Mari Ingram, Program Associate and this year’s pitch producer.

A special solo thank-you goes to Lendl Tellington, BlackStar’s technical producer, who technically makes all the films happen on-screen, on the virtual platform and in their accessibility capabilities, while also dealing with the program team’s many competing requests. And always my loving-est, boundless-est, profoundest admiration and gratitude to my beloved friend Maori Karmael Holmes, with whom I’ve been doing this for 10 whole years now. You are a true mentor, visionary and leader, and you are also a true human.

Big appreciation and love to the BlackStar 2024 festival staff, all returning from last year to bring you a smooth and gentle festival again: Animah Danquah, Social Media Coordinator; Antoinette Stewart, Box Office Coordinator; Antonio Wooten, Merchandise Manager; Cobbina Frempong, Lead Videographer; Daniel Jackson, Lead Photographer; Erieon Dominick, Childcare Provider; Eugene Haynes, Industry Liaison; Katy Bagli, Parties Coordinator; Kerrin Lyons, Volunteer Coordinator; Lo Lloyd, Onsite Technical Production Coordinator; Matisyn Darby, Childcare Provider; Meredith Finch, Virtual Festival Coordinator; Michael Moody, House Manager; Mochi Robinson, Photographer; Oliver Spencer, Onsite Technical Production Coordinator; Rachel Hampton, House Manager; Renée Colbert, Web Manager; Shaakira DeLoatch, Press Coordinator; Shak Lawrence, Print Traffic Manager; Shanti Mayers, Festival Bazaar Curator; Shaquan Battle, Videographer; Shauna Swartz, Program Guide Copy Editor; Takia Gibbs, Box Office Coordinator; and Tomarra Sankara-Kilombo, Merchandise Coordinator. And great love to the volunteers, whose energy and commitment to our work is palpable in every aspect of the space. I started at BlackStar as a volunteer myself in 2012.

I do not wish to end on a heavy note, but please bear with me as I make this incantation for our people who are feeling the violence of empire and capitalism so severely right now that we cannot help but turn our attention to them. Allow me this prayer, as the ethos of BlackStar is to build the liberatory world we want to see. As I write this, I am thinking about my people and loved ones in Palestine. Liberation has never felt so near, and simultaneously so elusive. May the pull of powerlessness persistently be overcome by the push of powerfulness, and may we not stop struggling with you until this hellscape,

directly created by the U.S. government, is over. Āmeen, ashé. I am thinking about my beloved sisters and brothers in Sudan, for whom tumult has been the defining characteristic of this decade, with one violent power grab after another. May the full force of our solidarity always reach you, and may we all conjure the strength to maintain this fight until freedom. Āmeen, ashé. Writing on my computer, I am always thinking about the communities and hands that are forced into dangerous labor conditions and threatened by militias in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the sake of the tech industry and our own consumption patterns. May we all correct our own patterns and adopt solidarity, may we understand the power within us to make the necessary changes to our behaviors, and may we learn and understand the interconnectedness of the peoples’ plights and our roles in them, so that we can tear down the powers that be. Āmeen, ashé. To the Kanak people on Kanaky, and all the Indigenous people the world over resisting and demanding the right to determine their own futures in their own liberated lands, may your determination and persistence withstand the entire history of colonial and settler-colonial violence. Āmeen, ashé. Our sincerest forms of mobilization go to those who are suffering from the human-made catastrophes of famine from Tigray to Northern Gaza to the Sudanese refugee camps, Yemen and everywhere the weaponization of food becomes a tactic of subduing resistance and collective punishment. Āmeen, ashé. May we always be guided to be stronger supporters, and to hold solidarity as our defining 21st-century duty. May this 13th year be an auspicious one for us, for you and for all of our loved ones everywhere, inshallah.

NEHAD KHADER

Festival Director

June 2024

— BlackStar Founder, Chief Executive & Artistic Officer Maori Karmael Holmes

2024 FESTIVAL SPONSORS

Brass

BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL

BlackStar Film Festival is an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of Black, Brown and Indigenous people from around the world.

Since 2012, the festival has brought together filmmakers, supporters and enthusiasts through screenings, panels, workshops and conversations. This yearly gathering creates space for dialogue and opens the opportunity for greater understanding within and across our communities. The films presented by BlackStar constitute a dynamic and important collection — one that is unlike any other — because they highlight both independent filmmakers and cultural communities.

Through the festival and our other projects, BlackStar is building a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences are irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.

#BYINDIEMEANSNECESSARY

Lights, Camera, Culture!

It’s more than just the big screen—it’s a celebration where diverse stories and untapped brilliance in our community take center stage. Just say ‘Black Experience’ into your Xfinity Voice Remote and embark through a curated content collection of movies, TV shows, original documentaries and much more that pays homage to Black culture, amplifies our narratives, and illuminates our imagination.

We applaud the BlackStar Film Festival for its years of honoring African American creativity.

Learn more at xfinity.com/blackexperience

The Black Experience on Xfinity can also be watched on the Xumo Play app and Xfinity Stream.

BLACKSTAR PROJECTS

Mission

BlackStar creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. We do this by producing year-round programs including film screenings, exhibitions, an annual film festival, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of visual culture. These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors.

We prioritize visionary work that is experimental in its aesthetics, content and form and builds on the work of elders and ancestors to imagine a new world. We elevate artists who are overlooked, invisibilized or misunderstood and celebrate the wide spectrum of aesthetics, storytelling and experiences they bring. We bring that work to new audiences and place it in dialogue with other past and contemporary work. And we curate every aspect of our events to be intentional community-building efforts, connecting diverse audiences in a Black-led space centered on joy and thriving.

Vision

BlackStar is building a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences are irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture. We create fertile spaces for ongoing imagination, learning and community building for Black, Brown and Indigenous artists to have the resources, support and shine to create visionary work.

We are building solidarity among Black, Brown and Indigenous artists globally to create this world and thrive together.

Learn more at blackstarfest.org/about.

Values

Building Community

Bringing people together is the fundamental base building needed to build movements for social change, strengthen the webs of connections between different individuals and organizations, and together rectify the inequities caused by systems of oppression. By building community, we are building new means of reclaiming power and mobilizing the resources artists need to thrive.

Care

We create spaces in which we are all kindred and cared for. Our care manifests in forms such as ensuring fair work practices for our staff, providing childcare for filmmakers and devoting resources to language translation.

Intersectionality

We bring an analysis of race, gender and power to everything we do. We recognize that there is no singular Black, Brown or Indigenous experience. We uplift work that embodies these intersections, continually widening the global cultural frames we use to understand power and how we relate to one another.

Liberation

Diversity and representation are not guiding us; liberation is. Our work is centered on shifting power and defying the perceived limits of imagination. We need artists to be the architects of a world we’re trying to make through these experiments of narration.

Reparative

We build on the collective legacies of our elders and ancestors and carry their visions forward while building anew. Through our programs, we are understanding the experiences of those before us, healing ourselves and our trauma, and creating a different world for future generations.

Rigor

We are committed to uplifting work that is outside the confines of genre, creating new definitions of aesthetics, storytelling and craft. Audiences engage with our programs knowing there will be a consistent level of rigor in our curatorial practices.

Solidarity

We build solidarity among Black, Brown and Indigenous artists to create mutual support and work to center our voices — together. We are challenging a history of divide-and-conquer, instead coming together and building solidarity among Black, Brown and Indigenous creators.

BLACKSTAR PROJECTS

As a part of our mission, BlackStar develops and produces programs year-round to provide Black, Brown and Indigenous artists opportunities to showcase work, learn, gain support and collaborate with each other. Read about our core programs below.

Exhibitions and Curatorial Projects

Since 2016, BlackStar has curated exhibitions produced in partnership with a number of institutions including the Institute for Contemporary Art, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, and Drexel University’s Pearlstein Gallery. Last year’s exhibition, Terence Nance: Swarm (2023), curated by Maori Karmael Holmes, was the first solo show of filmmaker, writer, actor and musician Terence Nance. Next up is Venus Fly Trap, a performance series conceived of with Joiri Minaya, curated by Dessane Lopez Cassell.

Seen

BlackStar’s journal of film, art and visual culture, Seen presents critical cultural discourse from Black, Brown and Indigenous perspectives to a wider audience of tastemakers, academics, funders, critics and film enthusiasts.

Seminar

The William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar is an annual three-day gathering for filmmakers of color working in cinematic realms. At the 2024 seminar, over 130 participants from all over the country gathered at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, to explore the technical and creative aspects of media-making while having honest conversations about the successes and pitfalls of their work.

Lab

The Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab supports four Philly-based filmmakers of color by providing them with mentorship, project funding and critical feedback over the course of a yearlong program. The fellowship supports short narrative, experimental or hybrid film projects.

Year-Round Programs

In 2023 and 2024, we hosted and co-hosted additional screenings, events, talks and other programming throughout the year. Highlights include BlackStar Selects at Colgate University and Swarthmore College, One Take Grace screening hosted by the Barnes Foundation, two teachins on Palestine, a screening and performance program as part of the Dakar #OFFisON, a collaboration with the Portland Art Museum, a partnership with the Academy of Natural Sciences during Earth Week, and more.

Sponsored Projects

BlackStar provides fiscal sponsorship for artist-led projects that align with BlackStar’s mission, vision and values, working at the intersection of art and social justice.

Learn more at blackstarfest.org/ sponsored-projects/

STAFF

BlackStar Projects Staff

Akili Z. Davis Program Associate

Akua Maat Operations Associate

Amber Hunnicutt Program Manager

Autumn Faith Valdez Business Director

Catherine Lee Senior Director, Development & Operations

Heidi Saman Program Director

Imran Siddiquee Chief Communications Officer

Jess Garz Development Consultant

Lendl Tellington Technical Producer

Leo Brooks Creative Director

Maori Karmael Holmes Chief Executive & Artistic Officer

Mariam Dembele Marketing Manager

Marielle Ingram Program Associate

Michele Pierson Development Manager

Nehad Khader Festival Director

Nile Shareef-Trudeau Administrative Coordinator

BlackStar Board of Directors

Denise C. Beek

VP of Original Storytelling, Represent Justice Co-Chair

Sekou Campbell Partner, Culhane Meadows PLLC Co-Chair

Amanda Branson Gill

Co-Founder, Kilo Films Treasurer

Tayyib Smith

Principal, Little Giant, Smith & Roller, Pipeline Philly Secretary

Eric Bai

Strategic Partnerships Manager, Airwallex

Jamila Farwell

Director of Documentary Series, Netflix

Nyla Daniel Program Manager

Pablo Alarcon Jr. Design Manager

Swabreen Bakr Marketing & Engagement Director

Sydney Alicia Rodriguez Program Manager

Terri Hall People & Culture Director

Xenia Matthews Communications Coordinator

Zoë Greggs Executive Associate

Judilee Reed Chief Executive Officer, United States Artists

Maori Karmael Holmes Chief Executive & Artistic Officer, BlackStar

Sunanda Ghosh

Associate Executive Director, Forman Arts Initiative

Ted Passon President, All Ages Productions

Festival Staff

Amina Ibrahim Digital Content Assistant

Animah Danquah Social Media Coordinator

Antoinette Stewart Box Office Coordinator

Antonio Wooten Merchandise Manager

cobbina Frempong Lead Videographer

Daniel Jackson Lead Photographer

Erieon Dominick Childcare Provider

Eugene Haynes Industry Liaison

Katy Bagli Parties Coordinator

Kerrin Lyons Volunteer Coordinator

Lo Lloyd Onsite Technical Production Coordinator

Matisyn Darby Childcare Provider

Meredith Finch Virtual Festival Coordinator

Michael Moody House Manager

Mochi Robinson Photographer

Oliver Spencer Onsite Technical Production Coordinator

Rachel Hampton House Manager

Andraéa LaVant LaVant Consulting Accessibility Consultant

Sutro Li Accounting Services Firm ALMA Media Relations Business Team

Renée Colbert Web Manager

Shaakira DeLoatch Press Coordinator

Shak Lawrence Print Traffic Manager

Shanti Mayers Festival Bazaar Curator

Shaquan Battle Videographer

Shauna Swartz Program Guide Copy Editor

Takia Gibbs Box Office Coordinator

Tomarra Sankara-Kilombo Merchandise Coordinator

JURIED AWARD NOMINEES

Other awards presented include Center for Cultural Power Climate Justice Award, Philadelphia Filmmaker Award and Shine Award for First-Time Filmmakers.

Best Experimental Film

A Stone’s Throw dir. Razan AlSalah barrunto dir. Emilia Beatriz

Bisagras dir. Luis Arnías

Best Feature Documentary

A Mother Apart dir. Laurie Townshend

Songs From the Hole dir. Contessa Gayles Twice Into Oblivion dir. Pierre Michel Jean

Best Feature Narrative

After the Long Rains dir. Damien Hauser The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire dir. Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich

Mambar Pierrette dir. Rosine Mbakam

Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?)

dir. Suneil Sanzgiri

Best Short Documentary

And Still, It Remains

dir. Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah

What Channel Is Love?

dir. Michael Donte

The Archive: Queer Nigerians

dir. Simisolaoluwa Akande

Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way

dir. Hao Zhou

Best Short Narrative

Bloomed in the Water

dir. Joanne Mony Park

The Flacalta Effect

dir. Rochée Jeffrey

Boat People dir. Al’Ikens Plancher

The People Could Fly

dir. Imani Dennison

So That Tonight We Might See

dir. Bea Hesselbart

The Dawn Alicia Mendy

Enmity Djinn

dir. Mohamed Echkouna

JURORS

Experimental

Awa Konaté Founder & Artistic Director, Culture Art Society

Darol Olu Kae Filmmaker

Feature Documentary

Asad Muhammad VP, Impact & Engagement Strategy, American Documentary Inc. | POV

Tracy Rector

Executive Producer, Producer and Programmer

Feature Narrative

Aseye Tamakloe Filmmaker & Lecturer, National Film and Television Institute in Accra

David Hartt Artist

Ursula Liang Director & Producer

Jason Reynolds Author Tayarisha Poe Artist

Short Documentary

Nell Augustin

Director, Original Voices Documentary Films, NBC Universal

Short Narrative

Reveca Torres Artist & Filmmaker

Zaina Bseiso Film Programmer

Dagmawi Woubshet Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Guetty Felin

Writer, Director, & Producer

Lynnée Denise Artist

THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS ARE A PROUD SPONSOR OF THE 2024 BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL

PROGRAM COMMITTEES

Alia Ayman, Chair

Alia Ayman is a film curator and doctoral candidate in anthropology at New York University. She is the co-founder of Zawya Cinema in Cairo and has contributed to the programs of Berlinale Forum, IDFA, BlackStar Film Festival, Flaherty NYC, Images Festival and the Arab Women Film Festival in Brazil, among others.

Wally Fall

Wally Fall is a Martinican-Senegalese director who grew up in Martinique. His films confront the notions of identity, history and belonging from a Caribbean perspective. He is one of the founders of the Cinemawon film collective (established in 2016), which works to give more visibility to films from Africa and Afro-descendant diasporas of the Americas in particular that often go unnoticed on commercial circuits or at festivals. He lives in Guadeloupe and shares his time between his filmmaking projects and curating films with Cinemawon. Dancing the Stumble (Mantjé tonbé sé viv), which premiered at BlackStar in 2023, is his fourth film.

Willi White

Willi White is a tribal citizen of the Oglala Sioux Tribe located in South Dakota and is executive producer and head of content and production for NDN Collective. Prior to producing his first feature, War Pony, Willi started out producing and directing music videos for local Indigenous artists before working crew on films such as Winter in the Blood (2013), directed by Alex and Andrew Smith; American Honey (2016), directed by Andrea Arnold; and Woman Walks Ahead (2017), directed by Susanna White. In 2016, Willi was awarded a fellowship with Sundance Institute’s Native and Indigenous Program, then in 2019 was awarded an inaugural Ascend Summit Grant from Array Alliance. Willi also served as associate producer on Lakota Nation vs. United States (2022), co-directed by Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Currently Willi is producing a documentary series on the American Indian Movement.

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Jamal Batts

Jamal Batts is an assistant professor of Black studies at Swarthmore College. As a writer, curator and scholar, his work reflects on the relationship between Black queer contemporary visual art and the intricacies of sexual risk. He previously served as a University of Pennsylvania curator-in-residence, a 2020 Robert Rauschenberg Foundation scholar-in-residence, a Center for Curatorial Leadership Mellon Seminar member, a 2020 Ford Foundation dissertation fellow and a ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives LGBTQ research fellow. Jamal is a member of the curatorial collective The Black Aesthetic, which has organized four seasons of Black experimental film screenings and published three edited collections.

Janaína Oliveira, Chair

Janaína Oliveira is a film scholar and independent curator. A professor at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro and consultant for JustFilms/Ford Foundation, Janaína has a PhD in history and was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Center for African Studies at Howard University. Since 2009, she has researched and organized film programs mainly focusing on Black and African cinemas. She has also worked as a consultant, juror and panelist in several film festivals and institutions in Brazil and abroad. She is the founder of the Black Cinema Itinerant Forum and was the programmer for the Flaherty Film Seminar (New York) in 2021 and the Zózimo Bulbul Black Film Festival (Rio de Janeiro) from 2017 to 2021. Janaína is currently a postdoctoral researcher in cinema studies at NYU. Samples of her work can be seen at https://linktr.ee/jana_oliveiraa.

Melissa Bisagni

Melissa Bisagni is a film curator, consultant and programmer specializing in Indigenous and Asian American film. She is currently the festival director for the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, a member of the Four Quarters Collective and a contributing partner in the Asian American Pacific Islander Film Festival Organizers Collaborative. She served for 15 years as the film and video program manager at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, where she continues to work in Museum Learning and Programs.

PROGRAM COMMITTEES

FEATURE NARRATIVE

Jemma Desai, Chair

Jemma Desai is a cultural worker and somatic facilitator whose work spans artistic, administrative practice, writing, curation, performance and other forms of articulation that re/search new ways to make and circulate outside and inside cultural production, with and against institutions. Through her work she questions the role of testimony, desire and political commitment in the social relations that make cultural work. She has previously worked with the BFI, British Council, LUX, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and will curate the 2025 edition of The Flaherty Seminar.

Kate Gondwe

Kate Gondwe is the manager of acquisitions, development and production at the award-winning independent studio Neon, with an extensive background in supporting diverse voices through audience campaign strategies. In addition, Kate was named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine and has participated in the Sundance Catalyst Program, Locarno Industry Academy, Tribeca Through Her Lens, IFP Week and Berlinale Talents.

Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva

Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva is a film curator and photographer based in Belgium. In 2016 she founded Recognition, a Brussels-based community film screening program that focuses on work for and by people of African descent. Lyse currently works at the International Film Festival Rotterdam as a programmer for the feature, short and mid-length sections. Previously, she was a film consultant for the Berlinale Forum.

SHORT DOCUMENTARY

asinnajaq

asinnajaq is from Inukjuak, Nunavik, and lives in Tiohtià:ke. Their work includes photography, filmmaking, writing and curating. She co-created Tillitarniit, a three-day festival celebrating Inuit art and artists. asinnajaq wrote and directed Three Thousand (2017), a short sci-fi documentary. She co-curated Isuma’s show in the Canadian pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. In 2020 they were long-listed for the Sobey Art Award. They programmed the Flaherty NYC 2022 fall program, “Let’s All Be Lichen.” In their work, asinnajaq is interested in sharing tools for navigating life’s journey.

Chloë Walters-Wallace

Chloë Walters-Wallace is the director of regional initiatives at Firelight Media. She is the creator and executive producer of the award-winning nonfiction anthology series Homegrown, currently in its third season, and the Groundwork Regional Lab, supporting emerging filmmakers of color based outside of New York and Los Angeles. She co-created the Caribbean Film Academy 2.0 at Third Horizon Film Festival in 2020 and has programmed for BlackStar Film Festival’s documentary shorts committee for the past four years. Chloë is a 2021 DOC NYC Documentary New Leaders fellow, 2021 Rockwood JustFilms Fellow, a 2015 Ortique Institute Fellow and a 2007 Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. She is a proud board member of Third Horizon and a former board member of the Color Congress and Femme Frontera.

Nyambura M. Waruingi, Chair

Nyambura M. Waruingi is a writer, producer and curator working at the intersection of art, culture and immersive technology. Committed to imagining new worlds through filmmaking, immersive storytelling and gaming, she launched Akoia & Company in Nairobi and La Perle Noire Immersive in Montréal to center African and BIPOC storytelling and interactive art. She has programmed for BlackStar Film Festival, Film Africa and British Film Institute, among many more. At the heart of her art praxis and curatorial approach is this quote by bell hooks: “The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is — it’s to imagine what is possible.”

Tzutzumatzin Soto

Tzutzumatzin Soto is a passionate activist for alternative exhibition and public access to audiovisual archives in Mexico. Since 2018, she has been a part of the programming team at the Festival Ambulante. She also co-edited the latest issue of Canyon Cinemazine’s “Cine-Espacios” (2023), focusing on independent exhibition experiences in Mexico.

PROGRAM COMMITTEES

SHORT NARRATIVE

Kartik Nair

Kartik Nair is an assistant professor of film and media arts at Temple University. His first book, Seeing Things, examines horror films made in the 1980s Bombay film industry and will be published by University of California Press in 2024.

Lauren Gee

Lauren Gee is a public program and artist moving image producer from London. She is passionate about platforming the creativity of the global majority through supporting independent artists and curating inclusive public programming. Lauren is a lover of the cinematic. Alongside her role on the Program Committee at BlackStar, she is supporting London Short Film Festival’s outreach and engagement and working with Film London on a project that engages the diverse communities of her home city, London, with national screen archives.

Marcellus Armstrong

Marcellus is an artist, media programmer and educator. He is invested in archives of Blackness, queerness and their relationship to materials. He received his MFA in fiber and material studies from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2017. Marcellus is originally from the suburbs of Baltimore and currently resides in Philadelphia..

Séverine Catelion, Chair

Born in Martinique and living in Paris, Séverine Catelion is a film professional with activities spanning from production to distribution and marketing. As a producer, she has a keen interest in developing projects from the African diasporas and continent and focuses on international co-productions. A multifaceted professional, Séverine also works in film marketing and curating. Whether she’s involved in the making, programming or promoting of a film, her sole focus is to make that film meet its audience. She has co-founded Cinemawon, a nonprofit aiming to shed light on Black cinemas by building bridges between audiences and professionals.

RECORD YOUR STORY AT BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL

We invite you to tell your story during this year’s BlackStar Film Festival at StoryCorps’ MobileBooth in front of the Kimmel Center from 11a–6p.

We’ll record an audio interview of your narrative journey answering the questions:

How do you see Black storytelling as a source of joy and inspiration in your life and in the broader community?

What is the greatest Black story never told?

Define your story in your words and on your own terms, while sharing your aspirations and accomplishments.

Brightness in Black (BiB) collaborates with communities to collect and share joyous, ambitious and cultural stories, while countering harmful narratives about the Black experience in America. Powered by StoryCorps, BiB weaves together interview collection and story sharing with opportunities for community conversations, gaming and the sharing of tools and training with partners to sustain our collective narrative change work.

LEARN MORE & SIGN UP

JEMMA DESAI

Chair, Feature Narrative Program Committee

Every year at BlackStar, our committee convenes around the gifts we receive from those that enter their films to the festival. Part of the conversational process is honoring the extent of the physical, mental and spiritual labor — the grit and the determination that goes into making a narrative feature in the funding, development and circulation structures we have. Also part of the process is grieving the ways these structures mimic the same colonial acts of bordering that have rained down violence on our global communities and apportioned visibility asymmetrically to connect and disconnect us, our languages and our specificities. This year as we gathered around the work we were offered, we chose, as we always do, work testifying to the existence of heterogeneous filmmaking that can be a catalyst for gathering, care, learning and reflection. Even as we knew we must choose and we chose the work that we did, we imagined what it would look like to resist the colonial politics

CURATORIAL NOTES FILMEXISTSNOTINWAVESBUT

of recognition. In our conversations, we pushed against the bordering of genre, of form, of length. We asked where the films we could not find were, considering what were the conditions that led to their absence. We pushed against the formal divisions of organizing a program for consumption and we wished for unrulier ways to program — we wished to collapse false divisions across categories of filmmaking and sensemaking. If our industries tell us that fiction is here only to entertain, then our own lineages of storytelling keep us committed to the transformational potential of imagination that fictional narratives can take us on with and beyond consumption. Through our choosing and questioning, we wished, in short, for more choice for all of us.

As programmers we hold in mind determination and the rupture of it at the same time as we hold in mind time — the time that filmmaking takes, the ways that filmmaking becomes urgent beyond its original intention and the ways that this work can be both mobilized and instrumentalized. As I was writing this note, a dear friend pointed out to me that film is often thought of as existing in waves, but at this moment it is becoming clear to him that film

exists not in waves but is formed by undercurrents, underlying surges that change what appears to us. These undercurrents do not only form the content of the work, but also the ways that the work is seen. This year the undercurrent changing the surface of every film we saw was a global awakening to the realities of decolonization, of political resistance and the integrity of solidarity. In our wider ecology as we witnessed legacy film festivals fail to honor the commitments of the artists and content they programmed, we felt in real time the humility of our work as cultural workers, its possibilities and its insufficiencies. Committed as we are to reaching beyond simple diversity and representation and towards liberation means beyond acknowledging the work of those working against systems designed without them in mind, we must also acknowledge how so much of what is made every year and that is offered to us is inevitably shaped with these systems, and is changed by them.

Alongside all of these contradictions, we held and continue to hold a desire that the lineage that BlackStar situates itself in — founded in Philadelphia, in a lineage of global anticolonial struggle, on land that has been stewarded by the Lenni Lenape

people for centuries — can guide us as we search for narrative subjects, structures and formations that center sovereignty and liberated futures. As a programmer, I want to always feel moments where a filmmaker reaches beyond the desire to sell their work for their career or for sustenance, where a portal opens up towards something else.

This selection of narrative features we offer you is an invitation to gather around these desires, towards a place where filmmakers and filmmaking no longer need to change the world, because the world has already transmuted towards freedom. In this gathering, may we hold these wishes together; inshallah, may we make them a reality in our lifetime.

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CURATORIAL NOTES

JANAÍNA OLIVEIRA

Chair, Feature Documentary Program Committee

What can films do in a world on the brink of collapse? What can films do in a world that, while producing and reproducing an infinite number of moving images, increases people’s apathy toward these very images? What can films do in a world where broadcasting a genocide in real time cannot stop the killing of the innocent? Indeed, can films do anything?

Times of crisis generate questions like these, which are nothing new in the arts in general, and even less so in cinema. Throughout the history of cinema, films have often been seen as tools or calls to action, a notion that becomes even stronger when we explore the universe of documentary films.

As I looked at the 20 films in the program of the BlackStar 2024 feature documentary session, guided by the anguish that motivated the questions

posed above, I was immediately reminded of the restorative and regenerative power of documentary cinema. This force benefits not only the audience, but also the filmmakers and everyone involved in the audiovisual production process. I was also reminded of a recent speech by the poet and essayist Dionne Brand, delivered last April at a literary festival in Trinidad and Tobago.1 When asked about the role of poetry in dialogue with the current moment, the ongoing war, and the ongoing genocide, Brand said that poetry, like other art forms, is a “way of producing new meaning through language and breaking the very language that constricts us constantly.” Poetry is a way of breaking the language of war and killing, producing new meanings for the world.

Taking Brand’s vision into the documentary field, I would like to think that in the different territories we will see on-screen — from the Philippines to Congo, from Kenya to Brazil, from Hawaii to Cape Verde, from the Dominican Republic to its border with Haiti, and reaching Palestine while passing through the USA — we will encounter films that shape and produce other possibilities for the world, both aesthetic and political, for (re)existence.

1 NGC Bocas Lit Fest 2024, “One on One with Dionne Brand,” available at https://www.youtube.com/live/0n_ zBZVW1j4?si=iide0jSUf2puMq7n

They are films that heal, document, denounce, educate and liberate. Films that remember and restore forgotten memories. Films that blur and surpass colonial borders, reclaiming original territories. Films that seek contemporary ways of surviving the evils of capitalism, climate change and its diseases. Films that depict the everyday lives of people and cultures ignored or made invisible by hegemonic cinemas. Films that portray our ordinary experiences, from daily life to struggle, confronting and breaking the images that restrict us when they don’t aim to eliminate us.

Yet, if questions about what films can do in these hard times persist, let us invoke the powerful words of Audre Lorde, a poet who would have turned 90 in 2024 and whose legacy will be honored in one of the films in the program: “so it is better to speak / remembering / we were never meant to survive.”2

A

FILMS THATHEAL, DOCUMENT, DENOUNCE, EDUCATE,& LIBERATE.

luta continua. From the river to the sea.

2 “A Litany for Survival” (1978), by Audre Lorde, from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde

CURATORIAL NOTES

ALIA AYMAN

Chair, Experimental Program Committee

To watch films, to celebrate filmmakers, to be moved by their work, to write about this year’s program, to be with our audiences, to build community, to be captivated by what cinema is and what cinema does, to marvel at the magic of the moving image, to look at screens glaring with images of death, to witness a genocide, to be complicit in a genocide, to hear the screams of bereaved mothers, children, fathers, and elders, to think about films, to celebrate filmmakers, to be moved by their work, to be in community, to be in solidarity, to hold one another, to organize, to protest, to boycott, to grieve, to resist, to listen to Hind, calling for help before the Israeli military kills her.

To remember.

To remember.

To promise to never give up on the struggle for liberation.

To promise to never give up before we live to see a free Palestine.*

*The above text references Etel Adnan’s poem, “To Be in a Time of War.”

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NYAMBURA M. WARUINGI

Chair, Short Documentary Program Committee

A tapestry is woven from evocative perspectives, shifting the gaze inward, on ourselves. A reclaiming of space for ourselves. Joyous, heart-wrenching, uncomfortable, sublime. These are our epistles of revolution and liberation, re-imagining and re-awakening our connection with lineage, land, ancestry. We are witnessing new visual vocabularies emerge, refining the artistry of the short documentary. Because truly “the function of art is to do more than tell it like it is — it’s to imagine what is possible” – bell hooks.

SÉVERINE CATELION

Chair, Short Narrative Program Committee

Stories and tales have long had a special place in my life thanks to my Caribbean heritage. I grew up reading, watching, listening, even dancing vibrant stories and I just love how they have the power to bring people together.

That’s what all the films we get to watch for BlackStar do: They bring us, a few people from around the world, in the same virtual room to confront our views, express emotions and tell each other how every single story teaches us about the differences and similarities between our Black and Indigenous cultures from places afar.

Short narratives in particular do that; they make you travel through the filmmaker’s lens and dive into their imaginary world, all to get hit by a raw, strong and deep message. That really fueled our discussions, and it was such a gratifying experience!

We aimed at crafting a selection that will lead the audience to have that experience too, in a more condensed way. From Haiti to Mauritania, from Palestine to Madagascar, we hope you laugh, cry, reflect, revolt, contemplate and dream as much as we did!

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2024 FEATURE FILMS

After the Long Rains

Baada Ya Masika

Feature Narrative | Tanzania, 2023, 90 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Swahili (macrolanguage) with English subtitles

Ten-year-old Aisha wants to become a fisher, but her mother thinks that fishing should be left to men. However, one day Aisha meets a fisherman named Hassan who decides to teach her how to fish.

Directed by: Damien Hauser

The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire

Feature Narrative | USA, 2024, 75 min.

North America Premiere

English and French with English subtitles

An actress three months postpartum attempts to find meaning in the writings of Martinique’s lost literary figure Suzanne Césaire.

Directed by: Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich

barrunto

Experimental Feature | Scotland, Puerto Rico, 2024, 70 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English, Caribe Spanish and Scots Gaelic with English subtitles

From its deep vibration tracks to the nonlinear narrative, barrunto is a film that attempts to activate sensations and modes of being with the world and in connection beyond Western frameworks of knowledge, a sensorial translation meant to be felt more than understood.

barrunto is a speculative narrative informed by poetry and theories of quantum entanglement across diasporic distance. An intimate exploration of grief and resistance in shifting landscapes of loss, from the streets to the bedin sites of displacement, nuclear contamination and military occupation from Scotland to Puerto Rico.

Made in collaboration with Shanti LaLita, Claude Nouk, Alicia Matthews, Harry Josephine Giles, Nicole Cecilia Delgado, Sharif Elsabagh y muchxs más.

Directed by: Emilia Beatriz

Black Girls

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 76 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

There are films that expand our emotional capacity and then there are some that move us from bystanders toward action. Black Girls aims to do both. Never Whisper Justice’s sophomore film arrives as a visual anthology on the expansiveness of Black womanhood and how the corners of intersectionality can bring us all closer to the edge of a new beginning.

Directed by: B. Monét

Bring Them Home

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 86 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

Bring Them Home tells the story of a small group of Blackfoot people and their mission to establish the first wild buffalo herd on their ancestral territory since the species’ nearextinction a century ago, an act that would restore the land, re-enliven traditional culture and bring much-needed healing to their community.

Directed by: Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick

Bye Bye Tiberias

Feature Documentary | France, Palestine, Belgium, Qatar, 2023, 82 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

French and Palestinian Arabic with English subtitles

Years after leaving her Palestinian village to pursue an acting career in France, Emmynominated Hiam Abbass (Succession, Ramy, Blade Runner 2049) returns home with her daughter in this intimate documentary about four generations of women and their shared legacy of separation.

Directed by: Lina Soualem

Dallas, 2019

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 155 min.

World Premiere English

Dallas, 2019 is an intimate, experiential and observational five-part series that studies and reveals how citizens are socialized, shaped and formed within a society. Filmed in prepandemic Dallas, Texas, the series follows the lives of public representatives — a Dallas County Court Commissioner, the Dallas City Manager, the DISD Superintendent and Dallas County Sheriff, the Chief Medical Examiner, the Dallas County District Attorney and the Dallas County Director of Health and Human Services, among others — and the varied constituents they represent. This screening will feature episodes two, three and four of the series, with a short intermission after episode three.

Directed by: Darius Clark Monroe

Dis-Ease

Feature Documentary | USA, United Kingdom, 2024, 120 min.

World Premiere English

Dis-Ease is about how we imagine disease and how that affects what we do when we encounter illness, outbreaks, doctors, treatments and disability in real life. It dives deep into the weird, wild archives of medical imaging, public health messaging and popculture outbreak narratives to understand how ideas have moved between science, science fiction and political ideology over the past century. Ultimately, Dis-Ease is a provocation to re-think how we define both the “public” and “health” in public health — who is included, what counts as care and what it means to be sick or well.

Directed by: Mariam Ghani

Dreams in Nightmares

Feature Narrative | USA, Taiwan, United Kingdom, 2024, 120 min.

World Premiere

English

Three Black femmes take a road trip through the Midwest in search of their missing friend.

Directed by: Shatara Michelle Ford

Family Tree

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 97 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Family Tree explores sustainable forestry in North Carolina through the stories of two Black families fighting to preserve their land and legacy. Family Tree’s cinéma vérité approach reveals the vast task of maintaining the land while navigating challenging family dynamics, unscrupulous developers and changing environmental needs. The forest itself and the beauty of its changing seasons become a primary character in this family drama.

Directed by: Jennifer MacArthur

I Do Not Come to You by Chance

Feature Narrative | Nigeria, 2023, 105 min.

United States Premiere

English and Igbo with English subtitles

Kingsley has the smarts but no prospects for a job after university. Burdened with family responsibilities, he turns to his charismatic uncle, who lures him into a web of deceit — a decision that will change the course of his life.

Directed by: Ishaya Bako

Inky Pinky Ponky –the Odd One Out

Feature Narrative | New Zealand, 2023, 61 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

It’s ball season, and hormones are on the rise at St. Valentines High. The new arrival of the fabulous fakaleiti Lisa causes a stir, and particularly with First XV Captain Mose. A web of entanglements are woven, and Lisa soon realizes that behind every Prince Charming is a hater in the midst.

Directed by: Damon Fepule'ai and Ramon Te Wake

It Was All a Dream

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 83 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

A visual memoir from director dream hampton’s personal archives about the dawn of the golden era of hip hop.

Directed by: dream hampton

Life Is Beautiful

Feature Documentary | Norway, Palestine, Qatar, 2023, 93 min.

United States Premiere

English, Arabic and Norwegian with English subtitles

Life Is Beautiful tells the story of how director Mohamed Jabaly fought for his rights as a Palestinian and a filmmaker when stranded in Norway due to circumstances beyond his control. Through his personal archive and video calls, he shares his love and longing for his hometown, friends and family as he tries to make a new life for himself in the Arctic. The film is a love letter to Gaza, to his adopted hometown in Tromsø and to the empowering force of storytelling.

Directed by: Mohamed Jabaly

A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde

Feature Documentary | USA, 1996, 90 min.

Retrospective Screening

English

An epic portrait of the eloquent, awardwinning Black lesbian poet, mother, teacher and activist Audre Lorde, whose writings — spanning five decades — articulated some of the most important social and political visions of the century. From Lorde’s childhood roots in Harlem to her battle with breast cancer, this moving film explores a life and a body of work that embodied the connections between the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the struggle for lesbian and gay rights.

Directed by: Ada Gay Griffin and Michelle Parkerson

Mambar Pierrette

Feature Narrative | Belgium, Cameroon, 2023, 93 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

French, Bamileke and Cameroon Pidgin with English subtitles

Over the past decade, Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mbakam (Chez Jolie Coiffure, Delphine’s Prayers) has distinguished herself for her quietly observational documentary portraits of African women. With Mambar Pierrette, her feature narrative debut, Mbakam turns her documentarian’s eye to the eponymous Pierrette, a gifted seamstress who works to support her young children and her mother.

Directed by: Rosine Mbakam

A Mother Apart

Feature Documentary | Canada, 2024, 89 min.

United States Premiere

English and German with English subtitles

How do you raise a child when your own mother abandoned you? In a remarkable story of healing and forgiveness, Jamaican American poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin, renowned for performances in Def Poetry Slam and hit solo shows like MotherStruck!, radically re-imagines the essential art of mothering. In seeking her elusive mother — a trail that leads to Brooklyn, Montreal, Cologne and, finally, Jamaica — Staceyann and her daughter forge a new sense of home.

Directed by: Laurie Townshend

The New Man

Omi Nobu

Feature Documentary | Cape Verde, Belgium, Germany, Sudan, 2023, 64 min.

United States Premiere

Cape Verdean Creole with English subtitles

Quirino, 77, has lived for more than 30 years in an abandoned village in Cape Verde at the bottom of a deep valley, between the sea and the mountains.

Directed by: Carlos Yuri Ceuninck

Nowhere Near

Feature Documentary | USA, Philippines, 2023, 96 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Tagalog with English subtitles

A poetic memoir through the lens of a stateless person returning to an estranged homeland.

Directed by: Miko Revereza

Othelo, the Great

Othelo, o Grande

Feature Documentary | Brazil, 2023, 83 min.

North America Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

Sebastião Bernardes de Souza Prata, Grande Otelo, was one of Brazil’s greatest actors and comedians, using the spotlight to shape his own narrative and discuss the institutional racism that haunted him for eight decades, two dictatorships and over a hundred films.

Directed by: Lucas H. Rossi dos Santos

Our Land, Our Freedom

Feature Documentary | Kenya, USA, Portugal, Germany, 2023, 96 min.

North America Premiere

English, Swahili and Kikuyu with English subtitles

Our Land, Our Freedom tells the story of two extraordinary Kenyan women — a mother and daughter, Mukami and Wanjugu Kimathi. Mukami was a freedom fighter in Kenya’s 1950s independence movement and was married to its iconic leader, Dedan Kimathi. He was hanged by the British in 1957, his body disposed of anonymously. Since then, Mukami has been searching for Kimathi’s remains and is joined by her daughter Wanjugu. Along her journey, Wanjugu learns of a buried history of colonial brutality, including concentration camps and the vast theft of land that left hundreds of thousands of Kenyans destitute.

Directed by: Meena Nanji and Zippy Kimundu

The Queen of My Dreams

Feature Narrative | Canada, Pakistan, 2023, 95 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English, Urdu with English subtitles

Queer grad student Azra is worlds apart from her conservative Muslim mother. When her father suddenly dies on a trip home to Pakistan, Azra finds herself on a Bollywood-inspired journey through memories, both real and imagined: from her mother’s youth in Karachi to her own coming-of-age in rural Canada.

Directed by: Fawzia Mirza

Rising Up at Night

Tongo Saa

Feature Documentary | Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, Germany, Burkina Faso, Qatar, 2024, 96 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Lingala with English subtitles

Kinshasa and its inhabitants are in darkness. They wait and struggle to get access to light. Between hope, disappointment and religious faith, Rising Up at Night is a subtle and fragmented portrait of a population that, despite the challenges, is sublimated by the beauty of Kinshasa’s nights.

Directed by: Nelson Makengo

Seeking Mavis Beacon

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 103 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

The most recognizable woman in technology lives in our collective imagination. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the software’s Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Seeking Mavis Beacon follows two DIY detectives as they search for the model while posing questions about identity and artificial intelligence.

Directed by: Jazmin Renée Jones

Songs From the Hole

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 106 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

At 15, he took a life. Three days later, his brother’s life was taken. A documentary visual album, Songs From the Hole follows James “JJ ’88” Jacobs through a musical opus of hip hop and soul, inspired by his innermost struggles as a person who has both committed and experienced violent harm, as he serves a double-life prison sentence. The film interweaves the collective storytelling of its nonfiction participants with imagined representations of memories, dreams and spiritual dialogues set to its protagonist/cocreator’s original music.

Directed by: Contessa Gayles

Standing Above the Clouds

Feature Documentary | Hawaiian Kingdom, 2024, 83 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

When the massive Thirty Meter Telescope is proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, an uprising of kia'i (protectors) in Hawai'i and around the world dedicate their lives to protecting the sacred mountain from destruction. Through the lens of mothers and daughters in three Native Hawai'ian families, Standing Above the Clouds explores intergenerational healing and the impacts of safeguarding cultural traditions.

Directed by: Jalena Keane-Lee

The Strike

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 86 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

The Strike is a feature documentary that tells the story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.

Directed by: JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey

Twice Into Oblivion

L’oubli tue deux fois

Feature Documentary | France, Haïti, Dominican Republic, 2023, 100 min.

World Premiere

French, Creole, English and Spanish with English subtitles

In 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the massacre of over 20,000 Haitian immigrants living in the Dominican Republic. Daphné Ménard, a Haitian theater director, brought together actors from both parts of the island to work on the event depicted in this film.

Directed by: Pierre Michel Jean

You Don’t Have to Go Home, but . . .

Feature Documentary | USA, 2024, 80 min.

World Premiere

English

You Don’t Have to Go Home, but . . . is an ode to dancing bodies, a grimy love letter to Philadelphia, a story about what to do when the DJ has played the last song, the club’s lights have come on and you gotta go . . . somewhere. Following three dancers at different stages of their lives, with legendary Philly dance party Second Sundae as backdrop, this documentary film examines the possibility of spiritual fulfillment in a socioeconomic configuration that ultimately doesn’t value the practices that make us free.

Directed by: Aidan Un

2024 SHORT FILMS

Áhkuin

Short Documentary | Finland, 2024, 20 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Northern Sámi with English subtitles

Program: Concatenate

A transcendent and playful documentary journey following three generations of a Sámi family united across time via joik — a distinct Sámi oral tradition that combines song, storytelling and reciprocity.

Directed by: Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi and Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen

Albina Dream Survey

Experimental | USA, 2024, 3 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

Program: Extrasensory

A mystical being receives the dreams of Black children via a mysterious phone number. The Dream Collector, the dashing “Honk-Shoo Hero,” does what he can to protect them from the forces that seek to destroy them.

If you have a dream worth sharing, please call the Dream Collector’s hotline at 971-266-0341 to share it anonymously.

Directed by: Spencer Garland

Amma’s Pride

Short Documentary | India, 2024, 20 min.

United States Premiere

Tamil with English subtitles

Program: Indomitable

Amma’s Pride chronicles Valli’s trials and tribulations as she watches her trans daughter, Srija, fall in love, marry and fight for state recognition of her marriage in a traditional small town in South India. When societal pressures push Srija’s marriage to the edge, Valli clings to the hope of a miracle.

Directed by: Shiva Krish

And Still, It Remains

L’oubli tue deux fois

Short Documentary | Algeria, United Kingdom, 2023, 28 min.

North America Premiere

Arabic with English subtitles

Program: Anthropogenic

And Still, It Remains is a meditation on the afterlife of French nuclear toxicity in Algeria through a community shaped but not circumscribed by its history. In Mertoutek, a village nestled in the Hoggar Mountains of Algeria’s Southern Sahara, we spend time with the Escamaran community as they narrate their accounts and understanding of time, toxic colonialism and how to survive the end of your world. Summoning the landscape as a witness, the film also affords the residents some distance from colonial forms of visual capture and challenges visibility as the currency for political redress.

Directed by: Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah

Angular Phoenix

Latitude Fénix

Short Narrative | São Tomé & Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, 2024, 15 min.

North America Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

Program: Envisages

Reanimating a baron and the Black princess, this speculative film summons figures from the past through bodies of the present in a visceral call for reconciliation.

Directed by: Welket Bungué

The Archive: Queer Nigerians

Short Documentary | United Kingdom, 2023, 25 min.

United States Premiere

English Program: Bilocation

“When will you come home?” Timinepre’s mother asks. Little does she know that Timinepre fled Nigeria to seek asylum in the U.K. They cannot return home for another five years. To explain the series of events that led them here would mean coming out to their mother as a lesbian and admitting that they left the country for fear of persecution. With Nigerian queer history erased from the national narrative of Nigeria, queer Nigerians in the U.K. gather to tell their stories, documenting their experiences so they can never be erased again.

Directed by: Simisolaoluwa Akande

Ardida

Experimental | USA, Mexico, 2023, 3 min.

North America Premiere

English and Spanish with English subtitles

Program: Anthropogenic

Ardida is an experimental animation that combines 2D, 3D and rotoscopy from a satiric lens to critique neocolonialism, gender violence and the extractivist structure within capitalism from an antiracist perspective.

Directed by: Mir Morales Rosales

Auspicious Return

Short Narrative | USA, 2023, 3 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

Program: Concatenate

Auspicious Return is a film that follows our main character Sayeed and his yearning for answers about himself and his family’s past. Sayeed is a 13-year-old boy on his annual vacation on Martha’s Vineyard with his family. He has recently taken up the teenage habit of perpetually wearing earphones and wandering off to nearby bodies of water. His connection to, and obsession with, open waters has been concerning and perplexing to his family, except his grandmother, who holds a secret only Sayeed can access. While navigating a confusing time in his life, Sayeed begins to ask questions about his maternal ancestors. Through his dreams, we get closer to the answers about his lineage and name.

Directed by: Mahsati Fidel Moorhead

The Battle of Empty Stomachs

Experimental | Netherlands, 2024, 23 min.

North America Premiere

English and Arabic with English subtitles

Program: Statism

Based on research and interviews with both Palestinian hunger strikers and asylum seekers, this absurdist yet realist film stages a dialogue between the director and her mother tongue that centers on a single question: What do we know about hunger?

This film is a poetic and musical tribute to those who suffered the aftermath of famine and migration, and to Palestinian hunger strikers whose resistance outlives the deafening silence of the colonial world.

Directed by: Diana Al-Halabi

Beyond the Door Embrasure

Short Narrative | France, 2023, 9 min.

North America Premiere

French with English subtitles

Program: Discompose

Rushing from the chaos of her student job, up the never-ending staircase of her apartment building, Danielle, a West African-French student, calculates that she has enough time to change from her work clothes before her final sociology exam in 20 minutes. Her undermaintained shoebox apartment has other plans. Yanis, a young concierge, comes to help and tries to fix the ancient door lock that has trapped her. As time trickles past, the two strangers find an unexpected solidarity, with only a door to separate them.

Directed by: Victoria Neto

Bisagras

Black Ag

Experimental | USA, Senegal, Brazil, 2024, 16 min.

Philadelphia Premiere Program: Bilocation

Bisagras is a film that triangulates the journey of African slaves to America and draws a line that goes through my brown skin.

Directed by: Luis Arnías

Short Documentary | USA, 2023, 8 min.

East Coast Premiere

English Program: Anima

A Black scientist brings together local Black farmers to combat the effects of climate change and create opportunities in Black agriculture for new generations in the Arkansas Delta. Produced with Reel South and the National Multicultural Alliance.

Directed by: Andy Sarjahani

Bloomed in the Water

Boat People

Short Narrative | USA, 2024, 14 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Korean with English subtitles

Program: Propitiate

Bloomed in the Water portrays a Korean immigrant single mother who misinterprets school picture day, resulting in surprise when her son’s appearance differs from his classmates’. With her sisters by her side, Min navigates the aftermath, exploring themes of making mistakes and self-acceptance.

Directed by: Joanne Mony Park

Short Narrative | USA, 2024, 10 min.

East Coast Premiere

Haitian Creole and English with English subtitles

Program: Statism

Inspired by true events, a Haitian refugee fights to survive the inhuman conditions at Guantánamo Bay.

Directed by: Al'Ikens Plancher

Bring Your Name –the Sean Bell All-Stars

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 8 min.

World Premiere

English Program: Embodied

This film profiles Rah Wiggins, coach of New York City’s most prolific street basketball team, the Sean Bell All-Stars, who’ve dominated the summer tournament scene for more than 20 years. After the NYPD’s infamous killing of Sean Bell in 2006, Coach Wiggins renamed the team after his fallen friend. In this short documentary, Coach Wiggins visits his former neighborhood in Queens, where his friendship with Sean Bell once blossomed. We also get a coach’s view inside a tournament game at Gersh Park in Brooklyn.

Directed by: Raafi Rivero

Broken Flight

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 18 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

Program: Anthropogenic

Migration season is when Annette Prince and the other Chicago Collision Bird Monitors are the busiest, as Mother Nature literally slams into the urban environment. Annette assembles volunteers as they arrive downtown before sunrise, looking for birds that have flown into skyscrapers, before heading to their day jobs. The birds that survive are sent away for a stay at the Willowbrook Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Broken Flight introduces us to the volunteers, scientists and veterinarians who rescue, study and catalog these amazing avian species.

Directed by: Erika Valenciana and Mitchell Wenkus

Burnt Milk

Short Narrative | Jamaica, USA, 2023, 9 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Patois and English with English subtitles

Program: Bilocation

Una, an isolated Jamaican woman living in 1985 suburban London, works as a nurse on a maternity ward. As she takes a moment of solace to make her traditional condensed milk pudding, burnt milk, she is flooded with visions that take her home.

Directed by: Joseph Douglas Elmhirst

City of Dreamz

Short Narrative | USA, 2023, 12 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Spillikin

City of Dreamz follows four Black art students telling stories of community, divine intervention and the artistry that led them to this very moment . . . smoking weed in a cramped NYC apartment, trying not to get caught.

Directed by: Imani Celeste

Criminal

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 19 min.

United States Premiere

English Program: Statism

Criminal is an animated musical documentary short film that confronts the injustice of people held at the Harris County Jail in Houston, Texas. The vast majority are there because they don’t have enough cash to pay their way out before trial. Because they are poor, thousands are held for months or even shipped to jails out of state when they are supposed to be presumed innocent.

Directed by: Robe Imbriano

Dancing Palestine

Short Documentary | United Kingdom, 2024, 37 min.

North America Premiere

Arabic and English with English subtitles

Program: Bilocation

To dance is to remember, to dance is to remind. As the Palestinian identity continues to be threatened with erasure, Palestinians turn to their folk dance, the dabke, as an homage to their history and culture and to assert their existence. Dancing Palestine documents this embodiment of collective memory, as those who piece together a dabke choreography piece together their identities too. Together with the film, the dabke is a testament to Palestinians’ deep love of life, and thus their need to contribute to the archive of Palestine, so that it continues to live on in the present.

Directed by: Lamees Almakkawy

The Dawn

Beutset

Short Narrative | Switzerland, Senegal, 2023, 29 min.

North America Premiere

Wolof with English subtitles

Program: Extrasensory

When a parasite contaminates all the drinking water of Dakar, pills are created to neutralize it. Alioune, a young man, can no longer afford them and is exposed to the symptoms of the parasite: madness and dementia. As the days go by, he realizes that he has never been so lucid, and he begins a journey of political and spiritual awakening.

Directed by: Alicia Mendy

Do You See Me

Short Narrative | USA, 2023, 6 min.

North America Premiere

English

Program: Propitiate

A love story about loss and never letting go. While wrestling with trauma, a boy finds solace in waking dreams.

Directed by: Walé Oyéjidé

Domino Days

Short Documentary | USA, 2023, 10 min.

World Premiere

English and Spanish with English subtitles

Program: Embodied

Dominoes is a game that can be played in different ways. With different rules for different cultures. Solo and teams. Tournaments. For money on the table. Six dots, nine dots. But what is consistent is the loud trash talking across the tables, the slamming down of “bones,” the strategy of predicting what the next player has in their hand. Throwing Bones. Caribbean Chess.

In an ever-changing digital world, where unscripted human interaction can feel limited, dominoes brings people together for games that take all night with friendships that last a lifetime.

Directed by: Ché Williams

Empty Your Pockets

Short Narrative | Canada, UK, 2024, 20 min.

World Premiere

Persian with English subtitles

Program: Discompose

Hassan is an airport customs officer who needs a salary advance to buy his mother’s medication. While dealing with various passengers, the dark side of his job becomes clear. Ultimately Hassan must decide what matters to him the most, and at what cost.

Directed by: Tara Aghdashloo

Enchunkunoto

The Return

Short Documentary | Kenya, 2024, 16 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Maasai, Samburu and English with English subtitles

Program: Concatenate

Laissa Malih — a renown Maasai filmmaker — returns to the community her parents left behind in this deeply personal look at how the lands of her forefathers are being reshaped by climate change.

Directed by: Laissa Malih

Enmity Djinn

Short Narrative | Mauritania, 2023, 19 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Hassaniya Arabic with English subtitles

Program: Extrasensory

A matriarch is forced to confront a malevolent djinn that once haunted her past. A djinn folktale reimagined.

Directed by: Mohamed Echkouna

Expanding Sanctuary

Short Documentary | USA, 2023, 21 min.

East Coast Premiere

Spanish and English with English subtitles

Program: Statism

An immigrant mother emerges as a community leader during the historic campaign to end the sharing of the Philadelphia police database with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Expanding Sanctuary tells a rarely told story about a Latinx immigrant community’s successful journey to change legislation and protect families.

Directed by: Kristal Sotomayor

Farmers of the Sea

Agricultores del mar

Short Documentary | Puerto Rico, 2024, 19 min.

World Premiere

Spanish with English subtitles

Program: Anthropogenic

In the Caribbean island of Vieques, climate change is making fishing more difficult. Farmers of the Sea follows the daily life of artisanal and recreational fishermen as they adapt to new challenges to get their catch and notice a decline in fish populations. Pedro and his crew need to go further into the sea to find the lobsters they catch to make a living, and Cecilia, along with her partner, needs to wait longer hours at the pier to barely catch any fish. Meanwhile, younger generations of Viequenses dream of becoming fishermen.

Directed by: Juan C. Dávila Santiago

The Flacalta Effect

Footwork

Short Narrative | USA, 2023, 8 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Discompose

Keesha and Toya are Black sisters whose house is being infiltrated by the undead. Keesha and Toya couldn’t be more different. Keesha’s hardened to the world because of everything she’s experienced as a Black woman in America and has no desire to fight to escape. Toya, an open-hearted optimist, believes that if they survive this zombie attack, maybe they can live to see a better world. All they have to do is kill a couple of zombies, not murder each other in the process, and maybe they’ll survive. . . . Maybe.

Directed by: Rochée Jeffrey

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 16 min.

Philadelphia Premiere Louisiana French and English with English

subtitles

Program: Embodied

An abstract portrait of Black and Creole cowboys in Louisiana and their connection to horses, both horse and rider dancing their way to cultural preservation.

Directed by: Drake LeBlanc

Forbidden City

Experimental | USA, 2024, 13 min.

World Premiere

English Program: Spillikin

Depicting the last days of Detroit’s Chinatown, 16-mm outtakes reverberate across a history of forced displacement and violence present in the broader Chinatown project. Emerging from these outtakes is the unelaborated story of the filmmaker’s grandmother, a former Detroit Chinatown restaurant worker.

Directed by: Devin Jie Allen

Fractal

Short Narrative | USA, 2023, 17 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English Program: Extrasensory

A Deaf boy calls upon a mysterious creature to find solace from tragedy.

Directed by: Anslem Richardson

God is Grey

Short Narrative | Germany, 2024, 24 min.

United States Premiere

English

Program: Discompose

Having been raised in a Christian household, Chris (30) faces the challenge of finding his place in the world, particularly due to his two mothers, who chose to keep their relationship hidden. When one of his mothers, Paddy (58), passes away, Chris returns home to a familiar yet unchanged environment. In a heartfelt effort to honor Paddy’s memory, Chris impulsively makes a decision that jeopardizes his relationship with his remaining family, his other mother, Mami Tess (59).

Directed by: Jennifer Drake

Grace

Short Narrative | USA, 2023, 14 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Screens with: Inky Pinky Ponky — the Odd One Out

Sixteen-year-old Grace prepares for her baptism in the rural 1950s South. When she learns she must repent before the ritual, Grace contemplates her romantic feelings toward her best friend, Louise.

Directed by: Natalie Jasmine Harris

Happy Thanksgiving

Short Narrative | USA, 2024, 8 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Discompose

An Indigenous man takes a “Happy Thanksgiving” wish very, very personally.

Directed by: ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby

How to Sue the Klan

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 35 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Indomitable

How to Sue the Klan is the story of how five Black women from Chattanooga used legal ingenuity to take on the Ku Klux Klan in a historic 1982 civil case, fighting to hold them accountable for their crimes and bring justice to their community. Their victory set a legal precedent that continues to inspire the ongoing fight against organized hate.

Directed by: John Beder

Indai Apai Darah

Mother, Father, Blood

Short Documentary | Indonesia, 2024, 15 min.

East Coast Premiere

Iban with English subtitles

Program: Anthropogenic

A young girl growing up in the Indigenousheld forests of central Borneo follows ancient connections to earn the gift of a story, her people’s 1973 fight to preserve their lands amid rampant deforestation.

Directed by: Kynan Tegar

Kano 4 4

Short Narrative | Spain, 2024, 5 min.

World Premiere

Arabic with English subtitles

Program: Extant

In war-torn Syria, a 23-year-old fine arts student fights for her life to witness her graduation day after she is severely injured by a missile that hits her house in Damascus only four days before her graduation date.

Ashtar’s indomitable spirit amid the chaos ignites a journey of survival and hope. As she navigates the challenges of her new reality, she finds solace in her studies, drawing strength from the dreams she refuses to relinquish. Kano 4 is a testament to the enduring hope that we all have the superpower to heal, even in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Directed by: Ashtar Alahmad

Katele

Mudskipper

Short Narrative | Australia, 2022, 13 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Extrasensory

Martha, an Indigenous woman, works tirelessly in a laundromat loading machines and folding wash. When a mysterious visitor arrives, Martha is reminded of the life she has left behind.

Directed by: John Harvey

Mahdi Amel in Gaza

Experimental | USA, 2024, 15 min.

North America Premiere

Arabic with English subtitles

Program: Envisages

Assassinated Lebanese intellectual Mahdi Amel — often dubbed “the Arab Gramsci” — famously said: “He who resists is never defeated.” What use is his thought to us today, and what is our responsibility as image makers to Gaza?

Directed by: Mary Jirmanus Saba and Tareq Rantisi

Mend

Remendo

Short Narrative | Brazil, 2023, 20 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

Program: Discompose

Zé carries a burden. Why keep on mending all these things that are not worth it anymore?

Directed by: GG Fákòlàdé

The People Could Fly

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 21 min.

World Premiere

English

Program: Embodied

The People Could Fly is a poetic documentary about the history of Black gathering spaces in Louisville, Kentucky, from the 1960s to mid 2000s. In this intimate video portrait, we delve into the ritual of roller skating and how roller rinks emerged as sanctuaries for Black culture. Through a charged combination of archival footage, still photos, newly shot material and newsreel footage, we explore the history of a segregated Louisville and the magic that its Black community has conjured as an act of resistance.

Directed by: Imani Dennison

Pimpi

Short Documentary | Colombia, 2023, 20 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Spanish with English subtitles Program: Extant

Pimpi’s life experiences conclude in a tragic experience for his relatives. The story takes place in a small town in the middle of the Colombian Pacific jungle. Past and present mix to form a story where the town and its inhabitants are witnesses to the struggle of Black people.

Directed by: Andrés Mosquera

Post Trauma

Short Documentary | Palestine, 2024, 15 min.

United States Premiere

Arabic with English subtitles Program: Statism

Death, funerals and loss are scenes that have accompanied us since childhood, returning to our memory whenever the monster of fear looms before us. Between the Aqsa uprising of 2000, the Dignity uprising of 2021 and the war on Gaza in 2023, the monster of fear roams through Palestine, deeply ingrained in the psyche and spirit, leaving unforgettable scenes. This film addresses the theme of fear and horror in a land known for venerating heroism.

Directed by: Nidal Badarny

A Race in the Sun

Short Documentary | USA, 2023, 20 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

Program: Anima

An exploration of cycling culture through the eyes of Ayesha McGowan, who rose through the ranks of the New York City underground cycling world to break barriers as the world’s first African American woman to become a professional cyclist.

Directed by: K. Nicole Mills

A Radical Duet

Experimental | United Kingdom, 2023, 28 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Envisages

In 1947, London was a hub of radical anticolonial activity. International intellectuals, artists and activists like Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Sylvia Wynter, C.L.R. James, Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore were all in London at the eve of the end of British colonialism. Individually, they were agitating for their respective countries’ national independence, but did they meet? And if they all did, what did they discuss? What did they conjure?

Directed by: Onyeka Igwe

Run Like We

Short Narrative | United Kingdom, 2024, 13 min.

World Premiere

English Program: Propitiate

It’s the 2012 London Olympics, and the whole world is going crazy for the most famous athlete in the world: Usain Bolt. Everyone apart from Alvin, an awkward 14-year-old who hates running and constantly disappoints his Jamaican father, Lester, a former sprinter who can’t understand why his son is “so soft.” So, when Alvin is unexpectedly nominated to represent his class in the upcoming school sports day, it could be his last chance to make his dad proud and prove that he can be just like Bolt.

Directed by: Rhys Aaron Lewis

Saturn Risin9

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 11 min.

East Coast Premiere

English Program: Anima

In a poetic mix of dance, visual narrative and documentary, Saturn Risin9 follows queer performance artist Saturn on their return home to the Bay Area. We follow their journey of perseverance centering self-discovery, affirmation, healing and creative expansion, poetically told through fantastical imagery and nonlinear narrative.

Directed by: Tiare Ribeaux and Jody Stillwater

Scapegoat

Kabri i manz salad

Short Narrative | France, 2023, 20 min.

United States Premiere

French and Reunionese Creole with English subtitles

Program: Concatenate

In a Reunion Island housing project, as the time of the sacrifice for the Aïd el-Kebir approaches, Ibrahim, 12 years old and of Comoran descent, is bullied by Evan, a neighbor of the same age, who accuses him of being an animal killer. When Ibrahim learns that a goat is about to be delivered to his building he decides to save it . . . but Evan is watching.

Directed by: Nicolas Séry

Ship of Fools

Short Documentary | Lebanon, Germany, USA, 2023, 29 min.

World Premiere

English and Arabic with English subtitles

Program: Spillikin

This animated documentary stitches together colorful and ragged fragments of the personal life of Alia, a Lebanese woman. Growing up facing war and displacement, searching and not finding freedom, she forms a friendship with a would-be superhero on the shore of Beirut called Abu Samra. She trains with him, and their monsters meet. Together, Alia and Abu Samra survive by finding comfort in the insanity that the city has sown in them. When the Lebanese revolution starts on October 17, 2019, they realize they are not alone.

Directed by: Alia Haju

So That Tonight We Might See

Short Documentary | USA, 2023, 15 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English Program: Propitiate

With gaps in her personal history, a filmmaker assembles fragments of her family’s archive in an attempt to see more clearly.

Directed by: Bea Hesselbart

Son of Samoa

Short Documentary | New Zealand, 2023, 10 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Samoan with English subtitles Program: Envisages

Through Tatau, Laman explores his disconnection from family and community while learning the importance of belonging and how to navigate that through cultural traditions.

Directed by: Laman Time

A Stone’s Throw

Experimental | Palestine, Lebanon, Canada, 2024, 40 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Arabic with English subtitles

Program: Indomitable

Amine, a Palestinian elder, is exiled twice from both land and labor, from Haifa to Beirut to a Gulf offshore oil platform. A Stone’s Throw rehearses a history of the Palestinian resistance when in 1936 the oil laborers of Haifa blew up a BP pipeline.

Directed by: Razan AlSalah

A Symphony of Tiny Lights

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 31 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English Program: Anima

After witnessing the 1971 oil spill in San Francisco Bay, John Francis is determined to travel across America on foot — and in silence.

Directed by: Dominic Gill and Nadia Gill

Syppyt Suruktar

Lost Letters

Short Narrative | Sakha Sire, Netherlands, 2024, 12 min.

North America Premiere

Sakha with English subtitles

Screens with: The New Man

Syppyt Suruktar tells a story about several friends who fell into a hole and found themselves in another realm, where capitalist and exploitative powers destroyed many forms of life. Wandering through these ruins, each of them remembers, learns, dreams, shares stories of longing and finds hope in the words of their ancestors. Maybe the ending of worlds makes space for the birthing of other worlds that will not be separated from nature and her heartbeat.

Directed by: Kyhynngy Oyuur

Tentsítewahkwe

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 17 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Kanienkéha (Mohawk) with English subtitles

Program: Concatenate

Embodying the Mohawk value of Tentsítewahkwe, Jessica Shenandoah goes on a knowledge-gathering journey across all four seasons to reinvigorate the healing, landbased practices of her ancestral grandmothers — knowledge that boarding schools, forced religion and land theft may have suppressed but could not destroy.

Directed by: Katsitsionni Fox

Through the Storm

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 23 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

Program: Embodied

Through the Storm follows the 2023 season of the Red Lake Nation (Ojibwe) high school football team. Despite dwindling interest and a two-decades-long losing record, a determined coach and group of young athletes fight to keep their football program alive. An exploration on overcoming loss, the film follows the personal triumphs and hardships of the players and their families and examines how football serves as a symbol of hope, unity and resilience for the people of Red Lake.

Directed by: Fritz Bitsoie and Charles Frank

To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion

Short Narrative | France, 2024, 14 min.

North America Premiere

French with English subtitles

Program: Envisages

Claire (Kayije Kagame), a businesswoman promoting a new skyscraper office in La Défense, faces increasing scrutiny and isolation. The cold, gray offices amplify her loneliness, driving vivid dreams of setting the tower ablaze.

Directed by: Valentin Noujaïm

Two Refusals

(Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?)

Experimental | USA, India, 2024, 35 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Konkani with English subtitles

Program: Extant

Glimpses and hallucinations of solidarity and possibility through generations. A woman’s dreams become haunted by a mythological titan from Portuguese mythology that sought to prevent Vasco de Gama from ever reaching India. Questions of what could have been emerge across ends to colonial occupations in India and Africa.

Directed by: Suneil Sanzgiri

Two Sun

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 5 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

Program: Anima

At once a fiction and of reality, Two Sun explores the relationship to the self. Our truths, the stories we live, and the inevitable cycle of losing and finding ourselves once more. Who do we put it on for? What context is valuable? Hinging on a single conversation between selves, and a monologue addressing them both, the film embarks on the journey of return.

Directed by: Blair Barnes

What Channel Is Love?

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 12 min.

World Premiere

English

Program: Concatenate

After a breakup, filmmaker Michael navigates the intricate landscape of Black queer love in the experimental short film What Channel Is Love? Unraveling conventional beliefs, the film explores the dynamics of an elder Black lesbian couple, challenging notions of unconditional love. Through a captivating blend of footage and interviews, Michael’s journey becomes a poignant exploration of love’s multifaceted nature.

Directed by: Michael Donte

The Whites of Our Eyes

Short Documentary | Ghana, 2024, 25 min.

World Premiere

English

Program: Spillikin

The Whites of Our Eyes is a short documentary film that follows Dr. Yaba Blay as she returns to her familial homeland of Ghana to explore the relationships between beauty, bodies and b/Blackness. In addition to recreating the groundbreaking Clark Doll Test among schoolchildren, the film follows a young hustler as he prepares for his community’s annual harvest festival by bleaching his skin. Amid the ghosts of colonialism and the gods of whiteness, The Whites of Our Eyes questions ideas and ideals of beauty in contemporary Ghana.

Directed by: Yaba Blay and Maame Adjei

The Wind Telephone

Short Narrative | USA, 2016, 7 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Embodied

The Wind Telephone is a journey into the fantastic world of a child and the profound longing and love she has for her mother.

Directed by: Jody Stillwater

Winding Path

Short Documentary | USA, 2024, 10 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Program: Anima

Jenna Murray is an Eastern Shoshone MD/ PhD student at the University of Utah. Her most formative childhood experiences were spent on her family’s Wind River Indian Reservation ranch, where she loved nothing more than helping her grandfather. When her active, 70-year-old “Papa” suddenly dies of a preventable health issue, Jenna grapples with her dream of a career in tribal health while facing her own mental health crisis.

Directed by: Alexandra Lazarowich and Ross Kauffman

The Witness Tree

Short Narrative | Nepal, 2023, 14 min.

North America Premiere

Nepali with English subtitles

Program: Propitiate

Sabitri takes her son Sridhar, who is questioning his own identity after the discovery of his father’s suicide, on a comingof-age ritual. However, Sridhar runs away and demands that his mother reveal the secret of his origin. She wants to protect her son from the painful truth but also wants to be honest with him. However, the tree where her husband hanged himself still stands, reminding her of the past and her father-in-law, who holds the secret and poses a threat.

Directed by: Niranjan Raj Bhetwal

Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way

Short Documentary | USA, Guam, 2024, 21 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

Program: Propitiate

Having built a colorful queer life in Iowa, an aspiring costume designer visits their homeland of Guam to make costumes for a children’s theater and reconnect with distanced parents.

Directed by: Hao Zhou

Zanatany, When Soulless Shrouds Whisper

Zanatany, l’empreinte des linceuls esseulés

Short Narrative | Belgium, France, Qatar, 2024, 27 min.

North America Premiere

Malagasy, Comorian and French with English subtitles

Program: Extant

Majunga, Madagascar, December 1976. A wind of revolt sweeps through the city. Ali, a secondin-command in a bookbinding workshop, is raising his two daughters alone. One morning, before going to work, he witnesses what seems to be a simple neighborhood quarrel.

Directed by: Hachimiya Ahamada

SHORTS PROGRAMS

SHORTS PROGRAMS Anima

Personal profiles that take us through the inner lives of remarkable people. Scientists, artists and athletes reveal their goals and aspirations in layers on camera.

Two Sun

Short Documentary

USA, 2024, 5 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Blair Barnes

Saturn Risin9

Short Documentary

USA, 2024, 11 min.

East Coast Premiere

dirs. Tiare Ribeaux and Jody Stillwater

Black Ag

Short Documentary

USA, 2023, 8 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Andy Sarjahani

A Race in the Sun

Short Documentary

USA, 2023, 20 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. K. Nicole Mills

Winding Path

Short Documentary

USA, 2024, 10 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dirs. Alexandra Lazarowich and Ross Kauffman

A Symphony of Tiny Lights

Short Documentary

USA, 2024, 31 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dirs. Dominic Gill and Nadia Gill

Anthropogenic

Journeys through various human-made climate disasters, and a profile of the communities at the center who are left to live with it.

Ardida

Experimental

USA, Mexico, 2023, 3 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Mir Morales Rosales

Broken Flight

Short Documentary

USA, 2024, 18 min.

East Coast Premiere

dirs. Erika Valenciana and Mitchell Wenkus

Indai Apai Darah (Mother, Father, Blood)

Short Documentary

Indonesia, 2024, 15 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Kynan Tegar

And Still, It Remains

Short Documentary

Algeria, United Kingdom, 2023, 28 min.

North America Premiere

dirs. Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah

Farmers of the Sea

Short Documentary

Puerto Rico, 2024, 19 min.

World Premiere

dir. Juan C. Dávila Santiago

SHORTS PROGRAMS Bilocation

Both here and there. Diasporic narratives of people who have the ability to exist in two places at the same time.

Burnt Milk

Short Narrative

Jamaica, USA, 2023, 9 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Joseph Douglas Elmhirst

Dancing Palestine

Short Documentary

United Kingdom, 2024, 37 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Lamees Almakkawy

Bisagras

Experimental

USA, Senegal, Brazil, 2024, 16 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Luis Arnías

The Archive: Queer Nigerians

Short Documentary

United Kingdom, 2023, 25 min.

United States Premiere

dir. Simisolaoluwa Akande

Concatenate

Vertical connections, with our elders and ancestors, and horizontal connections, with our peers and friends, shape who we are and who we can become.

Auspicious Return

Short Narrative

USA, 2023, 3 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Mahsati Fidel Moorhead

Áhkuin

Short Documentary

Finland, 2024, 20 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dirs. Radio-JusSunná / Sunná

Nousuniemi and Guhtur

Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas

Kumpulainen

Enchunkunoto (The Return)

Short Documentary

Kenya, 2024, 16 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Laissa Malih

What Channel Is Love?

Short Documentary

USA, 2024, 12 min.

World Premiere

dir. Michael Donte

Tentsítewahkwe

Short Documentary

USA, 2024, 17 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Katsitsionni Fox

Scapegoat

Short Narrative

France, 2023, 20 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Nicolas Séry

SHORTS PROGRAMS Discompose

Faced with unimaginable circumstances, the characters at the heart of these stories confront the internal dilemmas that are activated by external demons. A blend of drama and comedy.

Beyond the Door

Short Narrative France, 2023, 9 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Victoria Neto

Mend

Short Narrative Brazil, 2023, 20 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. GG Fákòlàdé

God Is Grey

Short Narrative Germany, 2024, 24 min.

United States Premiere

dir. Jennifer Drake

Happy Thanksgiving

Short Narrative USA, 2024, 8 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby

Empty Your Pockets

Short Narrative Canada, UK, 2024, 20 min.

World Premiere

dir. Tara Aghdashloo

The Flacalta Effect

Short Narrative USA, 2023, 8 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Rochée Jeffrey

Embodied

Dancing, riding, skating, playing. Activated bodies generate activated communities moving through this shorts program.

The Wind Telephone

Short Narrative USA, 2016, 7 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Jody Stillwater

Bring Your Name –the Sean Bell All-Stars

Short Documentary USA, 2024, 8 min.

World Premiere

dir. Raafi Rivero

Footwork

Short Documentary USA, 2024, 16 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Drake LeBlanc

Through the Storm

Short Documentary USA, 2024, 23 min.

East Coast Premiere

dirs. Fritz Bitsoie and Charles Frank

Domino Days

Short Documentary USA, 2023, 10 min.

World Premiere

dir. Ché Williams

The People Could Fly

Short Documentary USA, 2024, 21 min.

World Premiere

dir. Imani Dennison

SHORTS PROGRAMS Envisages

Imagining otherwise. Fantasies about destroying capitalist edifices, rectifying past harm and the tenacity of resistance take front and center.

To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion

Short Narrative France, 2024, 14 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Valentin Noujaïm

Mahdi Amel in Gaza

Experimental USA, 2024, 15 min.

North America Premiere

dirs. Mary Jirmanus Saba and Tareq Rantisi

Angular Phoenix

Short Narrative

São Tomé & Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, 2024, 15 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Welket Bungué

A Radical Duet

Experimental

United Kingdom, 2023, 28 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Onyeka Igwe

Son of Samoa

Short Documentary

New Zealand, 2023, 10 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Laman Time

Extant

Suffering through the worst of the violence, and surviving to tell the tale. Memorializing the people and circumstances that brought us into our present.

Kano 4

Short Narrative Spain, 2024, 5 min.

World Premiere dir. Ashtar Alahmad

Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?)

Experimental USA, India, 2024, 35 min.

Philadelphia Premiere dir. Suneil Sanzgiri

Pimpi

Short Documentary

Colombia, 2023, 20 min.

Philadelphia Premiere dir. Andrés Mosquera

Zanatany, When Soulless Shrouds Whisper

Short Narrative Belgium, France, Qatar, 2024, 27 min.

North America Premiere dir. Hachimiya Ahamada

SHORTS PROGRAMS

Extrasensory

Sixth senses abound. Dreams and paranormal creatures — both harmful and good — blur the distinction between reality and imagination and test the limits of the self.

Albina Dream Survey

Experimental USA, 2024, 3 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Spencer Garland

The Dawn

Short Narrative Switzerland, Senegal, 2023, 29 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Alicia Mendy

Fractal

Short Narrative

USA, 2023, 17 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Anslem Richardson

Katele

Short Narrative

Australia, 2022, 13 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. John Harvey

Enmity Djinn

Short Narrative

Mauritania, 2023, 19 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Mohamed Echkouna

Indomitable

Communities whose resistance cannot and will not be subdued by the forces that are determined to break them. Perseverance in action.

Amma's Pride

Short Documentary India, 2024, 20 min.

United States Premiere dir. Shiva Krish

How to Sue the Klan

Short Documentary USA, 2024, 35 min.

Philadelphia Premiere dir. John Beder

A Stone’s Throw Experimental Palestine, Lebanon, Canada, 2024, 40 min.

Philadelphia Premiere dir. Razan AlSalah

SHORTS PROGRAMS

Propitiate

Parenting, reparenting, being parented and the transitions that take place when we leave (behind) our parents’ ideals and make sense of the world on our own terms.

Do You See Me

Short Narrative

USA, 2023, 6 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Walé Oyéjidé

So That Tonight We Might See

Short Documentary

USA, 2023, 15 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Bea Hesselbart

The Witness Tree

Short Narrative Nepal, 2023, 14 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Niranjan Raj Bhetwal

Wouldn’t Make It

Any Other Way

Short Documentary

USA, Guam, 2024, 21 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Hao Zhou

Bloomed in the Water

Short Narrative USA, 2024, 14 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Joanne Mony Park

Run Like We

Short Narrative

United Kingdom, 2024, 13 min.

World Premiere

dir. Rhys Aaron Lewis

Spillikin

Tiny, intimate splinter stories from major metropolises, set against their local cityscapes. A timeout from the buzz of the big cities to sit with their inhabitants.

City of Dreamz

Short Narrative USA, 2023, 12 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

dir. Imani Celeste

Ship of Fools

Short Documentary

Lebanon, Germany, USA, 2023, 29 min.

World Premiere

dir. Alia Haju

Forbidden City

Experimental USA, 2024, 13 min.

World Premiere

dir. Devin Jie Allen

The Whites of Our Eyes

Short Documentary Ghana, 2024, 25 min.

World Premiere

dirs. Yaba Blay and Maame Adjei

SHORTS PROGRAMS

Statism

Going head to head with repressive state apparatuses, and who we become in the process of doing so. Creative, embodied, stubborn and emergent.

Post Trauma

Short Documentary Palestine, 2024, 15 min.

United States Premiere

dir. Nidal Badarny

Criminal

Short Documentary USA, 2024, 19 min.

United States Premiere

dir. Robe Imbriano

Boat People

Short Narrative USA, 2024, 10 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Al'Ikens Plancher

The Battle of Empty Stomachs

Experimental Netherlands, 2024, 23 min.

North America Premiere

dir. Diana Al-Halabi

Expanding Sanctuary

Short Documentary USA, 2023, 21 min.

East Coast Premiere

dir. Kristal Sotomayor

PROUD SUPPORTER OF THE BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL

The American Friends Service Committee works with people of all faiths and backgrounds to challenge injustice and build peace around the globe.

Join the global IDA community today—wherever you are, you belong!

Who?

We’re the global IDA community united by our passion and love for all things documentary.

Where?

We are a growing international community with members in 80 countries: there’s a place for you no matter where you are.

What?

We are nonfiction thinkers, filmmakers, journalists, academics, industry professionals, and field practitioners— whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting, there’s room for you at IDA.

documentary.org/membership

Become a member today and enjoy*:

• Complimentary subscription to the Documentary Magazine

• 80+ free film screenings annually in Los Angeles and virtually worldwide

• Monthly member gatherings + member-only workshops and talks

• Access to the IDA Membership Directory

• Voting rights at the IDA Documentary Awards

• Fundraising through the IDA Fiscal Sponsorship Program

• Discounts for the Getting Real conference, IDA Documentary Awards, and more!

*Benefits might differ for different membership levels.

HELP BLACKSTAR SHINE

BlackStar is able to mobilize the resources Black, Brown and Indigenous artists need to thrive because of the financial support of our community. Every time we create something, we’re not solely event-producing or project-managing; we’re weaving together connections between individuals and organizations and building the more liberatory world we envision. Co-create that vision with us by making a gift today.

BlackStar’s supporters receive exclusive perks throughout the year, such as waived festival submission fees; discounts on merchandise; early access to events and more. Scan the QR code or visit: blackstarfest.org/support and join us today!

For More Information

If you are interested in discussing a significant and/or multi-year gift, please contact Catherine Lee, Senior Director of Development & Operations at catherine@blackstarfest.org

SAVE THE DATES

Seen Issue 007 Fall 2024

Seen is a journal of film, art and visual culture dedicated to nuanced and rigorous writing by and about Black, Brown and Indigenous communities globally.

Issue 007 highlights include:

• Ja’Tovia Gary in dialogue with Joy James

• A history of intimacy coordinators by Dr. LaMonda H. Stallings

• Bridgett M. Davis on the restoration of her 1996 film, Naked Acts

• Editors Terilyn A. Shropshire (The Woman King, Love & Basketball, Eve’s Bayou) and Shannon Baker Davis (The Photograph, American Crime Story) take us inside the editing room

• Jomo Fray shares his references and mood boards for shooting All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

BlackStar Luminary Gala December 3, 2024

The Switch House Philadephia

BlackStar Projects is excited to host the second annual Luminary Gala, an unforgettable evening celebrating the luminaries shaping and shifting the arts, culture, and media landscape. First held in 2023, the Gala has already become a can’t miss date on Philadelphia’s social calendar with artists, philanthropists, and BlackStar’s community of friends and supporters coming together to shine a light on our work and raise funds to sustain it.

Venus Fly Trap Spring 2025

Bartram’s Garden Philadelphia

BlackStar Projects in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Joiri Minaya and writer/curator Dessane Lopez Cassell present Venus Fly Trap, a live performance that disrupts colonial narratives while centering Black and Indigenous perspectives through custom, ethnobotanical designs and movement.

Major support provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

BLACKSTAR PITCH 2024

The BlackStar Pitch is designed to connect industry professionals with new voices in the independent film community.

Six filmmakers will pitch their short nonfiction projects in front of a panel of judges to receive feedback and have an opportunity to win a grand prize of $75,000 in production funds, mentorship from Multitude Films, feedback from BlackStar Projects programs staff and two passes to the 2024 Camden Film Festival.

A second-place winner will receive a $25,000 prize for production funds as well as feedback from BlackStar Projects programs staff and two passes to the 2024 Camden Film Festival.

All finalists will receive coaching and an opportunity to pitch their works-in-progress to a distinguished panel of judges including funders, executives, distributors and producers.

The judges will choose the best pitch, to be announced publicly on Monday, August 5, 2024.

Judges

Erika Dilday

Executive Director, American Documentary Inc; Executive Producer of POV

Jihan Robinson

Vice President, Documentary Film & Series, Onyx Collective at Disney Entertainment

Jess Devaney Founder & President, Multitude Films

Jon-Sesrie Goff

Program Officer, JustFilms, Ford Foundation

Review Committee

Arjun Shankar

Assistant Professor, Research and Faculty Director, Georgetown University

Ted Passon

Co-Founder, All Ages Productions

Eddie Hemphill

Creative Executive, Field/ House Productions

Jess Kwan

Vice President, The Concordia Fellowship at Concordia Studios

Mervyn Marcano Founder, Field/House Productions

Sweta Vohra Producer, Multitude Films

Tina Morton

Associate Professor of Media Journalism & Film, Howard University

Monika Navarro Firelight Media Coaches

Anuradha Rana

A-DOC; Documentary Program, DePaul University

Filmmaker index

A

Ada Gay Griffin — 45

Aidan Un — 52

Al'Ikens Plancher 21, 102

Alexandra Lazarowich — 85, 90

Alia Haju — 78, 101

Alicia Mendy — 21, 98

Andrés Mosquera — 75, 97

Andy Sarjahani — 59, 90

Anslem Richardson — 69, 98

Arwa Aburawa — 21, 55, 91

Ashtar Alahmad — 72, 97

B

B. Monét — 39

Bea Hesselbart — 21, 79, 100

Blair Barnes — 83, 90

C

Carlos Yuri Ceuninck — 46

Charles Frank — 82, 95

Ché Williams — 65, 95

Contessa Gayles — 20, 50

D

Damien Hauser — 20, 38

Damon Fepule'ai — 43

Daniel Glick — 40

Darius Clark Monroe — 41

Devin Jie Allen — 69, 101

Diana Al-Halabi — 58, 102

Dominic Gill — 80, 90

Drake LeBlanc — 68, 95

dream hampton — 44

E

Emilia Beatriz — 20, 39

Erika Valenciana — 61, 91

F

Fawzia Mirza — 48

Fritz Bitsoie — 82, 95

G

GG Fákòlàdé — 74, 94

Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen — 54, 93

H

Hachimiya Ahamada — 87, 97

Hao Zhou — 21, 86, 100

I

Imani Celeste — 62, 101

Imani Dennison — 21, 74, 95

Ishaya Bako — 43

ishkwaazhe Shane McSauby — 71, 94

Ivan MacDonald — 40

Ivy MacDonald — 40

J

Jalena Keane-Lee — 50

Jazmin Renée Jones — 49

Jennifer Drake — 70, 94

Jennifer MacArthur — 42

Joanne Mony Park 21, 60, 100

Jody Stillwater — 77, 85, 90, 95

JoeBill Muñoz — 51

John Beder — 71, 99

John Harvey — 73, 98

Joseph Douglas Elmhirst 62, 92

Juan C. Dávila Santiago — 67, 91

K

K. Nicole Mills — 76, 90

Katsitsionni Fox — 81, 93

Kristal Sotomayor — 67, 102

Kyhynngy Oyuur — 81

Kynan Tegar — 72, 91

LLaissa Malih — 66, 93

Laman Time — 79, 96

Lamees Almakkawy — 63, 92

Laurie Townshend — 20, 46

Lina Soualem — 40

Lucas Guilkey — 51

Lucas H. Rossi dos Santos — 47

Luis Arnías — 20, 59, 92

MMaame Adjei — 84, 101

Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich — 20, 38

Mahsati Fidel Moorhead — 57, 93

Mariam Ghani — 41

Mary Jirmanus Saba — 73, 96

Meena Nanji — 48

Michael Donte — 21, 84, 93

Michelle Parkerson — 45

Miko Revereza — 47

Mir Morales Rosales — 57, 91

Mitchell Wenkus — 61, 91

Mohamed Echkouna — 21, 66, 98

Mohamed Jabaly — 44

N

Nadia Gill — 80, 90

Natalie Jasmine Harris — 70

Nelson Makengo — 49

Nicolas Séry — 78, 93

Nidal Badarny — 75, 102

Niranjan Raj Bhetwal — 86, 100 O

Onyeka Igwe — 76, 96

PPierre Michel Jean — 20, 51

Filmmaker index

R

Raafi Rivero — 61, 95

Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi — 54, 93

Ramon Te Wake — 43

Razan AlSalah — 20, 80, 99

Rhys Aaron Lewis — 77, 100

Robe Imbriano — 63, 102

Rochée Jeffrey — 21, 68, 94

Rosine Mbakam — 20, 45

Ross Kauffman — 85, 90

S

Shatara Michelle Ford — 42

Shiva Krish — 55, 99

Simisolaoluwa Akande — 21, 56, 92

Spencer Garland — 54, 98

Suneil Sanzgiri — 20, 83, 97

T

Tara Aghdashloo — 65, 94

Tareq Rantisi — 73, 96

Tiare Ribeaux — 77, 90

Turab Shah — 21, 55, 91

V

Valentin Noujaïm— 82, 96

Victoria Neto — 94, 58

W

Walé Oyéjidé — 64, 100

Welket Bungué — 56, 96

Y

Yaba Blay — 84, 101

Z

Zippy Kimundu — 48

Country index

Algeria

And Still, It Remains — 21, 55, 91

Australia

Katele (Mudskipper) — 73, 98

Belgium

Bye Bye Tiberias — 40

Mambar Pierrette — 20, 45

The New Man — 46, 81

Rising Up at Night — 49

Zanatany, When Soulless Shrouds Whisper — 87, 97

Brazil

Bisagras — 20, 59, 92

Mend — 74, 94

Othelo, the Great — 47

Burkina Faso

Rising Up at Night — 49

Cameroon

Mambar Pierrette 20, 45

Canada

Empty Your Pockets — 65, 94

A Mother Apart — 20, 46

The Queen of My Dreams — 48

A Stone’s Throw — 20, 80, 99

Cape Verde

The New Man — 46, 81

Colombia

Pimpi — 75, 97

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rising Up at Night — 49

Dominican Republic

Twice Into Oblivion — 20, 87

Finland

Áhkuin — 54, 93

France

Beyond the Door — 94, 58

Bye Bye Tiberias — 40

To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion — 82, 96

Scapegoat — 78, 93

Twice Into Oblivion — 20, 87

Zanatany, When Soulless Shrouds

Whisper — 87, 97

Germany

God Is Grey — 70, 94

The New Man — 46, 81

Our Land, Our Freedom — 48

Rising Up at Night — 49

Ship of Fools — 78, 101

Ghana

The Whites of Our Eyes — 84, 101

Guam

Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way — 21, 86, 100

Guinea-Bissau

Angular Phoenix — 56, 96

Haiti

Twice Into Oblivion — 20, 87

Hawaiian Kingdom

Standing Above the Clouds — 50

India

Amma’s Pride — 55, 99

Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) — 20, 83, 97

Indonesia

Indai Apai Darah (Mother, Father, Blood) — 72, 91

Jamaica

Burnt Milk — 62, 92

Kenya

Enchunkunoto (The Return) — 66, 93

Our Land, Our Freedom — 48

Lebanon

Ship of Fools — 78, 101

A Stone’s Throw — 20, 80, 99

Mauritania

Enmity Djinn — 21, 66, 98

Mexico

Ardida — 57, 91

Nepal

The Witness Tree — 86, 100

Netherlands

The Battle of Empty Stomachs — 58, 102

Syppyt Suruktar (Lost Letters) — 81

New Zealand

Inky Pinky Ponky the Odd One Out — 43

Son of Samoa — 79, 96

Nigeria

I Do Not Come to You by Chance — 43

Country index

Norway

Life Is Beautiful — 44

Pakistan

The Queen of My Dreams — 48

Palestine

Bye Bye Tiberias — 40

Life Is Beautiful — 44

Post Trauma — 75, 102

A Stone’s Throw — 20, 80, 99

Philippines

Nowhere Near — 47

Portugal

Angular Phoenix — 56, 96

Our Land, Our Freedom — 48

Puerto Rico

barrunto — 20, 39

Farmers of the Sea — 67, 91

Qatar

Bye Bye Tiberias — 40

Life Is Beautiful — 44

Rising Up at Night — 49

Zanatany, When Soulless Shrouds Whisper — 87, 97

Sakha Sire

Syppyt Suruktar (Lost Letters) — 81

São Tomé and Príncipe

Angular Phoenix — 56, 96

Scotland

barrunto — 20, 39

Senegal

Bisagras — 20, 59, 92

The Dawn — 21, 64, 98

Spain

Kano 4 — 72, 97

Sudan

The New Man — 46, 81

Switzerland

The Dawn — 21, 64, 98

Taiwan

Dreams in Nightmares — 20, 42

Tanzania

After the Long Rains — 20, 38

United Kingdom

The Archive: Queer Nigerians — 21, 56, 92

Dancing Palestine — 63, 92

Dis-Ease — 41

Dreams in Nightmares — 20, 42

Empty Your Pockets — 65, 94

A Radical Duet — 76, 96

Run Like We — 77, 100

And Still, It Remains — 21, 55, 91

USA

Albina Dream Survey — 54, 98

Ardida — 57, 91

Auspicious Return — 57, 93

The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire — 20, 38

Bisagras 20, 59, 92

Black Ag — 59, 90

Black Girls 39

Bloomed in the Water 21, 60, 100

Boat People 21, 60, 102

Bring Them Home — 40

Bring Your Name — the Sean Bell AllStars — 61, 95

Broken Flight — 61, 91

Burnt Milk 62, 92

City of Dreamz — 62, 101

Criminal — 63, 102

Dallas, 2019 — 41

Dis-Ease — 41

Do You See Me — 64, 100

Domino Days — 65, 95

Dreams in Nightmares — 20, 42

Expanding Sanctuary — 67, 102

Family Tree — 42

The Flacalta Effect — 21, 68, 94

Footwork — 68, 95

Forbidden City — 69, 101

Fractal — 69, 98

Grace — 70

Happy Thanksgiving — 71, 94

How to Sue the Klan — 71, 99

It Was All a Dream — 44

A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde — 45

Mahdi Amel in Gaza — 73, 96

Nowhere Near — 47

Our Land, Our Freedom — 48

The People Could Fly — 21, 74, 95

A Race in the Sun — 76, 90

Saturn Risin9 — 77, 90

Seeking Mavis Beacon — 49

Ship of Fools — 78, 101

So That Tonight We Might See — 21, 79, 100

Songs From the Hole — 20, 50

The Strike — 51

A Symphony of Tiny Lights — 80, 90 Tentsítewahkwe — 81, 93

Through the Storm — 82, 95

Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) — 20, 83, 97

Two Sun — 83, 90

What Channel Is Love? — 21, 84, 93

The Wind Telephone — 85, 95

Winding Path — 85, 90

Wouldn’t Make It Any Other Way — 21, 86, 100

You Don't Have to Go Home, but . . . — 52

BlackStar Projects Year Round Funders

Support for BlackStar is provided in part by Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, Critical Minded, Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, McLean Contributionship, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Perspective Fund, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures, Philadelphia Foundation, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation.

Credits

Copy Editor: Shauna Swartz

Festival Identity & Layout: Pablo Alarcon Jr. Festival Poster: Leo Brooks & Pablo Alarcon Jr. Printing: Point B Solutions Printed in Minneapolis

© BlackStar Projects, Philadelphia 1901 South 9th Street, Suite 414 Philadelphia, PA 19148

267.603.2755

star@blackstarfest.org www.blackstarfest.org

BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL 2024