2025 BlackStar Film Festival Program Guide

PROGRAM GUIDE

CINEMA FOR LIBERATION

THE OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATIONS ARE A PROUD SPONSOR OF THE 2025 BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL

TICKETS & ADMISSION

All passes and tickets can be purchased at blackstarfest.org/tickets.

Passes

$350 All-access pass

• Admission to all in-person and virtual screenings

• Admission to all in-person events, including First Friday! at the Barnes Foundation

$150 Virtual pass

• Admission to all virtual screenings

$500 Industry pass

• Admission to all in-person screenings and extended access to virtual screenings

• Admission to all in-person events, including First Friday! at the Barnes Foundation

• Access to Industry Lounge and other networking opportunities

Tickets

$7.50 Individual tickets for virtual screenings

$18 Individual tickets for in-person screenings

$80 In-person Ticket Bundle* Five in-person tickets

$30 Virtual Ticket Bundle* Five virtual tickets

$25 Award Winner Bundle* Virtual tickets for all award-winning films on the streaming platform. This bundle is activated after the award winners are announced on August 4, and grants access through August 7.

*Bundles are added to the individual ticket buyer’s account and are not meant for shared use.

All festival venues are wheelchair accessible. If you need accommodation or have any questions about accessibility, please contact: Akili Davis at akili@blackstarfest.org.

Virtual Film Screenings COVID-19 Safety Protocols

• Virtual screenings for pass holders and individual ticket holders will be released and available on a timed schedule. You can unlock the film screening within 48 hours of its release, and you have 24 hours from the moment you unlock it to finish watching the film.

• All films and virtual events can be viewed at watch.blackstarfest.org.

• If you have any trouble using the ticketing system or technical issues with your screenings, please visit watch.blackstarfest.org/help.

ACCESS cardholders

BlackStar is offering Pennsylvania and Art-Reach ACCESS cardholders individual tickets to virtual and in-person screenings for $2.00. To receive the discount, use the code “ACCAR25” at checkout when purchasing an individual ticket. When arriving at an in-person event, you may be asked to present your ACCESS card at entry.

We would all like to do our part to keep our community safe and healthy. Wearing masks is mandatory at all indoor venues, except briefly when eating and drinking; please be mindful of others and keep a distance. Mask wearing during outdoor events is optional but encouraged.

Photos by Daniel Jackson

JULY 31ST AUGUST 1ST

AUGUST 2ND AUGUST 3RD

SPECIAL EVENTS & PARTIES

Thursday, July 31 Friday, August 1

Saturday, August 2 & Sunday, August 3 Sunday, August 3

Kick off the festival in style with music, dancing and more! The party will feature mixes by Rebel Foster and Matthew Law. Free event but RSVP requested.

Registration does not guarantee entrance. Enjoy an evening of art,

cocktails and light fare at this First Friday mixer.

Use code “BLACKSTAR25” at checkout for $10 tickets. All-access and Industry pass holders can attend for free.

Co-presented by

Our annual bazaar offers a curated shopping experience that celebrates community by supporting local creators. Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to find one-of-a-kind treasures from talented artisans based right here in Philly.

Co-presented by Visit Philly

DIRECTOR’S WELCOME

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal. I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.

— Toni Morrison

In our case, we do language, we do cinema and we commune gloriously. This is our 14th BlackStar Film Festival, and we are ecstatic to be here this year with you all, gathered in Philadelphia in 2025. Welcome. We are showing up this year — imperfect, trepidatious yet obstinate — carrying the weight of our responsibility towards ourselves, each other and you, our community. We are here this year to hold a lot of space, to be present, to double down and affirm our values and commitments. We are here with you this year, as every

year, to celebrate and grieve together, to reevaluate and shift strategy, to be active and engaging together throughout our modest four days, and then to carry that energy away with us wherever we go next through the rest of the year.

With an energy similar to last year’s, we are gathered once again, enraged yet committed, hardened by the persistence of grief yet stubbornly hopeful, prone to being lost in confusion yet steadfast in our refusal. Once again we are holding

multitudes of realities, emotions and possibilities, and our goal, as the BlackStar team, is to show up for you — our community — as we always wish to show up: in the service of action, co-learning and unlearning, to expand your joy a little and share in your sadness. To remind you and to remind ourselves that power is in community, and none of us do this alone. We stand shoulder to shoulder, bolstered by the power of the ancestors, creating possibilities for our descendants. As ancestors Baldwin and Morrison remind us from the other realm: There is no space, time or possibility for despair. Yes, I say this even in the midst of genocide. I say this even as we stand on the precipice of uncharted technological developments and climate disaster, and even as the masks of the ruling class are falling away. We all have each other, and that makes a world of a difference.

It is fitting, then, that we open this 14th festival with the World Premiere of Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez’s TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing. I was introduced to Bambara in college through Gorilla, My Love — a book that made me think, imagine and, most importantly, laugh. I wanted more and devoured The Seabirds Are Still Alive, an equally brilliant work that highlighted the range of this writer, being quite different from Gorilla in structure and style. Seabirds became a significant education for me as a young organizer in the possibilities of global south-to-south solidarity. Later, as I entrenched myself in the world of culture making, Bambara’s philosophy on cultural work would become my theoretical and practical grounding. It is a gift to open in the spirit of Bambara (thank you, Louis), and we hope that this opening film will set the tone for the remainder of the festival days.

We committed to centering joy, resistance, humor and cinema for liberation.

It has never been more difficult to program this festival. We committed to centering joy, resistance, humor and cinema for liberation in this year’s program, and we went to work hoping to create the kind of festival we wanted to attend. Fourteen years of doing this work has taught us the necessity of balancing emergent and established voices, alumni and new community, polished and gritty films in order to catalyze conversations that might be messy and unfinished but are important by their very existence. We thank you for joining us because of these difficulties and in spite of them.

Unbounded gratitude to our festival programmers, with whom I have the distinct honor of co-creating the lineup you’re enjoying this year. Each programmer is a passionate thought leader who brings care, respect and heart into this practice. You break open my world and fill it with new knowledge. Your personhood shows up as profoundly as your professionalism, which makes your unique perspectives shine, and that’s a blessing to your coprogrammers, to the process and to BlackStar. We are lucky to have you all as colleagues, and I feel better about the world because you exist in it. On experimental: Alia Ayman (chair) and Wally Fall; on feature documentary: Jamal Batts, Janaína Oliveira (chair) and Melissa Bisagni;

Photo by Daniel Jackson

on short documentary: asinnajaq, Chloë Walters-Wallace, Nyambura Waruingi (chair) and Tzutzu Matzin; on feature narrative: Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva, Matazi Weathers and Samia Labidi; and on short narrative: Kartik Nair, Marcellus Armstrong, Séverine Catelion (chair) and Umulkhayr Mohamed. And, of course, Sydney Alicia Rodriguez, my companion in shaping this slate and schedule. Hugs to all of you.

This is true solidarity, true community building.

Thank you to the BlackStar team and board, about whom I can never say enough. More than ever before, I feel blessed for the gift of working with people in an environment that shares my values, especially as a Palestinian person in the United States in 2025. I deeply moved by the care I am receiving and witnessing between you all throughout 20 months (as of this writing) of livestreamed genocide in Palestine. I am especially grateful that my colleagues stepped in as I took family leave this year. This is true solidarity, true community building. Big love to Alia Ayman, who stepped in to carry my work through while I was away.

Deep love and appreciation to the BlackStar programs crew: Akili Z. Davis, mixtress of gettin’ shit done; Amber Hunnicutt, whose relentless attention to detail is evident in every centimeter of this festival; Heidi Saman, camarada; Nile Shareef-Trudeau, always ready and willing to step in; Nyla “I got it handled” Daniel; and Sydney Alicia Rodriguez, my coconspirator and challenger and this year’s

Pitch producer. Respect and admiration to the operations team: Akua Maat, the quiet storm; Autumn Faith Valdez, who always means business; Terri Hall, a heartfelt human who makes everything OK; and Zendra Shareef who keeps it all together. Shout-out to the development team, who help us materialize our artful dreams: Catherine Lee, Jess Garz, Michelle Pierson and Zoë Greggs. A salute to the BlackStar communications team that never stops working: the brilliant Imran Siddiquee; Leo Brooks; Mariam Dembele; Pablo Alarcon Jr., who designed this guide and much of the festival material; and Xenia Matthews. Lendl Tellington, our wonderful technical producer, an artist and a scholar. And finally, to my sister, my friend, my boss, my mentor, Maori Karmael Holmes — tough yet soft, firm yet flexible, demanding yet empowering. Thank you for being you, thank you for leading and thank you for the trust.

I also want to thank our interns, whose time with us is brief but whose impact is huge: Anya Tang, Chloe To, Jourdan Wright, Marley Ewell and Xihluke Marhule. Our consultants, whose insight and work are invaluable: ALMA on public relations and the radiant Andraéa LaVant on accessibility and disability justice. And respect and appreciation to BlackStar’s Board of Directors: Denise Beek (co-chair), Sekou Campbell (co-chair), Amanda Branson Gill (treasurer), Tayyib Smith (secretary), André Robert Lee, Eric Bai, Jamila Farwell, Judilee Reed, Sunanda Ghosh and Ted Passon.

I want to shout thank you from the rooftops to the BlackStar 2025 festival staff, family for life: Aidan Un, Antoinette Stewart, Antonio Wooten, Caroline Strange, Cobbina Frempong, Daniel Jackson, E. Morales Williams (my beloved sibling), Erieon Dominick, Eugene Haynes, Gabe Bryant, Julian Turner, Katy Bagli, Kerrin Lyons, Kimberly Hunter-Bryant,

Lo Lloyd, Marla Harris, Michael Moody, Mochi Robinson, Oliver Spencer, Rachel Hampton, Renée Colbert, Sabrina Paulino, Sam Plakun, Shaakira DeLoatch, Shak Lawrence, Shanti Mayers, Shauna Swartz, Sydnie Schwarz, Takia Gibbs, Tomarra Sankara-Kilombo and Zoë Hodge. Most are returning, some are new, and all are committed to making your festival experience smooth and memorable. And finally, big appreciation from all of us to our BlackStar volunteers.

If this gathering can do one meaningful thing for our ailing world, it might connect us to one another in the ways of our elders and ancestors, in the way of Black internationalism and global solidarity. We are keenly interested in the power of the global majority as a concept and a way of life. Vietnam figures prominently in this year’s program, as it’s been 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War. Brazilian films will leave their mark — both Black and Indigenous filmmakers telling unexpected, even humorous stories about land, community care and technology. South African stories from across the expansive, multilingual country include drama, comedy and documentary. Caribbean work highlights the vastness of the Diaspora, the frontlines of climate change, and the legacies of colonization. And Palestine shows up to tell of a ruthless 21st

century settler-colonial genocide, with a stunning, landmark film from Gaza among other Palestinian films. The word, the image is power. Our colleagues in Palestine — journalists, writers and filmmakers — work relentlessly with a target on their backs, caught in the literal crosshairs of snipers and weaponized drones.

We are all called today to recognize the undeniable truth that states and international bodies have failed us, and that our power is people-to-people solidarity.

The films in this year’s program are meant to galvanize and connect us. We want them to mobilize our creativity for defiance, community building and world making. This is our offering as a team, with a hope that we, in the words of Morrison, “refuse to succumb to [the world’s] malevolence.”

June 2025

Nehad Khader Festival Director

Photos by Daniel Jackson

FESTIVAL SPONSORS

State Representative Rick Krajewski, 188th District

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 of the global majority and cinema as a tool for our collective liberation.

Photos by Daniel Jackson

BLACKSTAR PROJECTS

Mission Vision Values

BlackStar creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside of 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 that they bring. We bring that work to new audiences as well as 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.

BlackStar is building a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is 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 we need 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

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 from fair work practices for our staff to providing childcare for filmmakers to 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 to follow in.

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 and instead come together, building solidarity among Black, Brown and Indigenous creators.

Photos by Daniel Jackson

FESTIVAL ACCESSIBILITY

A core element of the liberatory world we envision at BlackStar is ensuring that all members of our community can safely and easily access it.

In pursuit of that vision, BlackStar is actively working to increase the accessibility of our spaces in order to right the ignorances of our past and create an environment that is different from the one offered to us by greater society. In the wake of the many overlapping and converging public health crises, this work takes on even greater significance because we know that we keep us safe.

We are far from perfect stewards of accessibility and disability justice. As such, we welcome you to make known to us any access needs or considerations not covered here.

Please email us at access@blackstarfest.org if you have any questions or concerns.

For more information on accessibility at BlackStar Film Festival, please visit blackstarfest.org/festival/accessibility.

Accomodations COVID-19 Guidelines

• Wheelchair and stair-free accessibility at all venues

• Open captions or subtitles at all inperson film screenings

• Audio description for designated inperson and virtual film screenings (see audio-described films below)

• ASL interpretation at all panels and post-screening Q&As

• A quiet space, located in the Rendell Room in the Kimmel Center (open 11 AM - 8 PM)

• Accessible seating options

• Designated parent rooms (also known as lactation rooms)

• Gender-neutral restrooms at all venues

• Complimentary tickets for personal care attendants (PCAs). Contact access@ blackstarfest.org with your order number at least two hours before the screening. We recognize that the risks of COVID-19 and other viruses are still current, and we are committed to protecting all of our community members. These guidelines are meant to sustain an environment where all participants are able to joyfully participate.

Masks are required at all indoor events, except when actively eating or drinking. Please plan to bring your own mask to the festival; we will have limited masks available onsite.

Note: Venues outside of the main festival campus may not require masks. While we cannot control their policies, we still request that festival attendees continue masking as part of our community agreement. We thank you for your dedication to protecting our entire community.

Photos by Daniel Jackson & Mochi Robinson

FILM ACCESSIBILITY

Audio Description

These films feature audio description (AD) for blind and low-vision audience members.

To access the AD at these screenings, please stop by the info desk at least 15 minutes before the screening to check out an AD listening device.

Film Title

16½

Abolish! (shorts program)

Antecessor (shorts program)

Compensation

The Great North

Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab Films (shorts program)

Remaining Native

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing

Date, Time, Location

Saturday, August 2, 4:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Friday, August 1, 3 PM

Kimmel Center

Thursday, July 31, 5 PM, Kimmel Center

Friday, August 1, 2 PM Wilma Theater

Sunday, August 3, 8:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Sunday, August 3, 5:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Saturday, August 2, 1:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Thursday, July 31, 8 PM

Kimmel Center

Content Warnings

Film Title

16½ All That’s Left of You

Date, Time, Location

Saturday, August 2 4:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Friday, August 1 5:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Correct Me if I’m Wrong (in Wellspring)

Hatchlings (in Jamaa)

Listen to Me

One Day This Kid (in Jamaa)

Remaining Native The Devil Is Busy (in Galvanize)

White House

Sunday, August 3 6:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Thursday, July 31 4 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Sunday, August 3 4:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Thursday, July 31 4 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Saturday, August 2 1:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Sunday, August 3 7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Saturday, August 2 10 AM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Warning

Discussion of murder, physical violence

Colonial violence

Homophobia

Maternal death

Maternal death

Sexuality, may not be appropriate for children

Colonial violence and child abuse

Abortion, gender-based violence

Sexuality, may not be appropriate for children

Flashing Lights

Date, Time, Location

16½ Adamstown (in Lab Films)

Another Other (in Framed)

Black Glass (in Framed)

Highway to the Moon (in In Memoriam)

Saturday, August 2 4:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Sunday, August 3 5:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Thursday, July 31 7:30 PM Wilma Theater

Thursday, July 31 7:30 PM Wilma Theater

Thursday, July 31 2 PM

Kimmel Center

Las Cosas Que Brillan (in Lab Films)

Spaces as Traces (in Terrain)

Sunday, August 3 5:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Sunday, August 3 11 AM

Kimmel Center

Twenty Three (in Orison)

Why the Sun & Moon Live in the Sky (in Ebullience)

Saturday, August 2 9:30 PM

Kimmel Center

Friday, August 1 8:30 PM Wilma Theater

Time Codes 49:31-50:09 06:08 09:30 00:41-02:20 05:10-05:45 01:00:11-01:00:41 01:10:29-01:10:46 01:15:47-01:16:52 05:12-05:19 01:35, 01:38 02:44 04:35 0:43-0:46 1:57-1:59 08:46-09:03

For the most up-to-date and detailed information, please visit the Accessibility page on our website. blackstarfest.org/festival/accessibility

BLACKSTAR PROGRAMS

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.

Curatorial Projects

Since 2016, BlackStar has curated exhibitions produced in partnership with a number of institutions including the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Fabric Workshop and Museum, and Drexel University’s Pearlstein Gallery. Most recently, Joiri Minaya: Venus Flytrap (2025), was a site-specific, four-day performance series and monthlong installation by Joiri Minaya that took place at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. Curated by writer and editor Dessane Lopez Cassell, the commissioned works reflected on the intertwined legacies of freedom, extraction and ecology in North America’s oldest surviving botanical garden.

Seen

A 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.

Coming Fall 2025: Seen Issue 009

Greaves 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’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts to explore the technical and creative aspects of media making while having honest conversations about the successes and pitfalls of their work

Philadelphia Filmmaker 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.

Year-Round Programs Sponsored Projects

BlackStar costs and co-hosts additional screenings, events, talks and other programming throughout the year.

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

Photos by Daniel Jackson, Leo Brooks, Lendl Tellington and Naomieh Jovin

STAFF

BlackStar Projects Staff Festival Staff

Akili Z. Davis Senior Program Associate

Akua Maat Operations Manager

Amber Hunnicutt Program Manager

Anya Tang BlackStar Summer Fellow, Seen

Autumn Faith Valdez Business Director

Catherine Lee Chief Operations Officer

Chloe To Impact Analyst

Heidi Saman Program Director

Imran Siddiquee Chief Communications Officer

Jess Garz Development Consultant

Jourdan Wright Digital Content Assistant

Lendl Tellington Technical Producer

Leo Brooks Creative Director

Maori Karmael Holmes Chief Executive & Artistic Officer

Mariam Dembele Marketing Manager

Marley Ewell BlackStar Summer Fellow, Communications

Michele Pierson Development Manager

Nehad Khader Festival Director

Nile Shareef-Trudeau Program Coordinator

Nyla Daniel Program Manager

Pablo Alarcon Jr. Design Manager

Sydney Alicia Rodriguez Program Manager

Terri Hall People & Culture Director

Xenia Matthews Communications Coordinator

Xihluke Marhule BlackStar Summer Fellow, Festival

Zendra Shareef Administrative Coordinator

Zoë Greggs Development Manager Aidan Un Videographer

Public Relations Andraéa LaVant, LaVant Consulting Accessibility & Disability Justice Strategy Sutro Li

Cloud-based Bookkeeping & CFO Services

Antoinette Stewart Box Office Manager

Antonio Wooten Merchandise Manager

Caroline Strange Childcare Provider

Cobbina Frempong Videographer

Daniel Jackson Photographer

E. Morales Williams Safety Team Member

Erieon Dominick Childcare Provider

Eugene Haynes Industry Liaison

Gabriel Bryant Safety Team Member

Julian Turner Video Editor

Katy Bagli Parties Coordinator

Kerrin Lyons Volunteer Coordinator

Kimberly Hunter-Bryant Wellness Coach

Lo Lloyd Technical Production Coordinator

Marla Harris Festival Support Specialist

Michael Moody House Manager

Mochi Robinson Photographer

Oliver Spencer Technical Production Coordinator

Rachel Hampton House Manager

Renée Colbert Web Manager

Sabrina Paulino Social Media Coordinator

Sam Plakun Virtual Festival Coordinator

Shaakira DeLoatch Press Coordinator

Shak Lawrence Print Traffic Manager

Shanti Mayers Festival Bazaar Curator

Shauna Swartz Program Guide Copy Editor

Sydnie Schwarz Festival Support Specialist

Takia Michael Box Office Manager

Tomarra Sankara-Kilombo Merchandise Coordinator

Zoë Hodge House Manager

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

BlackStar Board of Directors

Amanda Branson Gill

Co-Founder, Kilo Films

Treasurer

André Robert Lee

President & Founder, Many Things Productions

Denise C. Beek

VP of Original Storytelling, Represent Justice

Co-Chair

Eric Bai

Strategic Partnerships Manager, Airwallex

Jamila Farwell

Judilee Reed

Chief Executive Officer, United States Artists

Maori Karmael Holmes

Chief Executive & Artistic Officer, BlackStar

Sekou Campbell Partner, Pierson Ferdinand LLP Co-Chair

Sunanda Ghosh

Associate Executive Director, Forman Arts Initiative

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

Ted Passon President, All Ages Productions

Support BlackStar

A world where Black, Brown and Indigenous artists are irresistibly celebrated, centered and cared for is not a passing dream but a promise. BlackStar’s ecosystem of visionaries, made up of artists, staff and donors, recognize that bringing this liberatory world into being requires dedication, rigor and an investment in reciprocity.

As you enjoy this year’s festivities, consider how you can help sustain our work ahead of the 15th anniversary of BlackStar Film Festival in 2026 — which promises to be our most exciting and vital edition yet. Be a part of this historic year by becoming a member or making a gift today.

In the face of attacks on our communities and increasing uncertainty, your support is what allows us to continue to celebrate cinema for liberation.

Visit blackstarfest.org/support to learn more about all the ways you can join us today!

For More Information

If you are interested in discussing a significant and/or multiyear gift, please email Catherine Lee, Chief Operations Officer, at catherine@blackstarfest.org

JURIED AWARD NOMINEES

JURIED AWARD NOMINEES

JURIED AWARD NOMINEES

JURIED AWARD NOMINEES

JURORS

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

Bao Nguyen Filmmaker

Tracy Rector Executive Producer, Producer and Programmer

Aseye Tamakloe Founder/Director, Ndiva Women’s Film Festival

Jason Reynolds Author

Nell Augustin Deputy Director, Explore Minnesota Film

Sonya Childress Co-Executive Director, Color Congress

Lindsay Monture Artistic Director, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

Dagmawi Woubshet Professor, University of Pennsylvania

Fariha Róisín Writer, Culture Worker and Educator

Zaina Bseiso Cofounder, Bahia Collective; Senior Programmer, Points North Institute

Awa Konaté Founder and Artistic Director, Culture Art Society

Emily Jacir Artist, Filmmaker, Educator and Founding Director, Dar Jacir for Art and Research

Lynnée Denise Artist

Jason Moran Musician

PROGRAM COMMITTEES

Jamal Batts

Jamal is an assistant professor of Black studies at Swarthmore College. His work reflects on the relationship between Black queer contemporary visual art and risk. He is a member of the curatorial collective The Black Aesthetic, which has programmed four seasons of experimental film screenings and published three edited volumes.

SHOR

Janaína Oliveira, Chair

Janaína is a film scholar, curator and professor at the Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro. Since 2009, she has been developing research and curating film programs, mainly focusing on Black and African cinemas, and working as a consultant, jury member and lecturer at various institutions in Brazil and abroad. She is the founder of the Black Cinema Itinerant Forum.

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, and co-curated Isuma’s show in the Canadian pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. In their work, asinnajaq is interested in sharing tools for navigating life’s journey.

Chloë Walters-Wallace

Chloë is the Director of Regional Initiatives at Firelight Media, where she is the creator and executive producer of the award-winning anthology series Homegrown: A Part of/ Apart From, which focuses on films from Hawaii and the U.S. territories. She is also the creator of the Groundwork Intensive, an initiative that supports emerging filmmakers of color based outside of New York and Los Angeles.

Nyambura M. Waruingi, Chair

Nyambura is a writer, producer and curator working at the intersection of art, culture and immersive technology. Committed to imagining new worlds, 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.

Melissa is a film curator, consultant and programmer specializing in Indigenous and Asian American film. She is currently the festival director for the D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival. 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.

Tzutzu Matzin

Tzutzu’s work often intersects with archival research, curating film programs that highlight issues of memory, decolonial resistance and audiovisual preservation. She has collaborated with festivals, cultural institutions and community projects that emphasize alternative narratives in cinema. Tzutzu has been part of the programming committee of Ambulante Documentary Film Festival in Mexico since 2018.

Melissa Bisagni

PROGRAM COMMITTEES

Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva

Lyse is a film programmer 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 and BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia as a programmer.

Matazi Weathers

Matazi is a temporal and spatial film farmer, curator, educator and filmmaker from Los Angeles. They are the Assistant Curator of Film at LACMA, an experiential researcher who constellates image-making networks across the African diaspora and the founder of Black Bloom, a Black farmers’ cooperative in Los Angeles.

Kartik Nair

Kartik 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.

Marcellus Armstrong

Marcellus is an artist, media programmer and educator. He is invested in archives of Blackness and 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.

Samia is a Tunisian-French independent curator and cultural worker based in Tunisia. She has programmed for the JCCCarthage Film Festival, Palestine Cinema Days and Haifa Independent Film Festival.

Born in Martinique and living in Paris, Séverine is a film professional with activities spanning from production to distribution. She has a keen interest in developing projects from the African diasporas and continent, focusing on international co-productions. She cofounded Cinemawon, a nonprofit aiming to shed light on Black cinemas by building bridges between audiences and professionals.

Séverine Catelion, Chair

Samia Labidi

PROGRAM COMMITTEES

Alia Ayman, Chair

Alia is a film curator and doctoral candidate in anthropology at New York University. She is the cofounder 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 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, which works to give more visibility to films from Africa and Afro-descendant diasporas of the Americas that often go unnoticed on commercial circuits or at festivals.

FEATURE FILMS

All That’s Left of You

Saturday, August 2

4:30 PM

Perelman Theater

Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Directed by Harlan Banks

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 63 min.

World Premiere

English

Audio description available

Supreme Court plaintiff Kuntrell Jackson reflects on his adolescence before and after being sentenced to life without parole for a murder he didn’t commit when he was just 14 years old.

Directed by Cherien Dabis

Feature narrative | Germany, Cyprus, Jordan, Greece, 2025, 145 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Arabic and English with English subtitles

After a Palestinian teen gets swept up into a West Bank protest, his mother recounts their family’s story of hope, courage and relentless struggle that led them to this fateful moment.

Friday, August 1

5:30 PM

Friday, August 1

2:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Binnigula’sa’ (Ancient Zapotec People)

Directed by Jorge Ángel Pérez

Feature documentary | Mexico, 2024, 75 min.

United States Premiere

Diidxaza’ (Zapotec of Isthmus) and Spanish with English subtitles

While working the land in 1964, a Zapotec boy named Cándido discovered a stone-carved deity that was subsequently taken from him to be exhibited in the country’s capital. Sixty years later, Tá Cándido, along with Carlos and Edith, seeks to recover the deity and protect his ancestral legacy.

BLKNWS:

Terms & Conditions

Directed by Kahlil Joseph BlackStar Alum

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 113 min.

Special Screening

English

Conceived as a cinematic experience that mirrors the sonic textures of a record album, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions is a genre-bending documentary adapted from Kahlil Joseph’s renowned video art installation. The film’s unique soundscape is mastered in stereo, with featured guest artists interwoven across its 21 tracks, each adding their distinct perspective.

Sunday, August 3

1:30 PM Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Brick by Brick (Tijolo por tijolo)

Directed by Victória Álvares & Quentin Delaroche

Feature documentary | Brazil, 2024, 103 min. North America Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

In Ibura, on the outskirts of Recife, Cris lost her job at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, as well as the house she lived in with three small children, due to the risk of collapse. Pregnant with her fourth child and trying to get a tubal ligation, she works as a digital influencer while trying to rebuild her house and restructure her life.

Cais

Directed by Safira Moreira

Feature documentary | Brazil, 2025, 69 min. North America Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

After her mother’s death, Safira travels through a river route to dive into new perspectives on memory, time, birth, life and death.

Thursday, July 31 7 PM Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Carissa

Directed by Jason Jacobs & Devon Delmar

Feature narrative | South Africa, 2024, 90 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Afrikaans with English subtitles

A young woman who dreams of leaving small village life to live in the city breaks away from her grandmother’s home only to be drawn into the care of her grandfather’s mountain rooibos plantation.

Compensation

Directed by Zeinabu irene Davis

BlackStar Alum

Feature narrative | United States, 2024, 92 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English, Black American Sign Language and American Sign Language

A landmark of independent cinema, Compensation is Zeinabu irene Davis’ moving, ambitious portrait of the struggles of Deaf African Americans and the complexities of loving relationships at the bookends of the 20th century.

The Debutantes

Saturday, August 2

12:30 PM Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Directed by Contessa Gayles BlackStar Alum

Feature documentary | United States, 2024, 91 min.

Special Screening

English

A coming-of-age portrait, The Debutantes follows an intergenerational group of Black women and girls in post-industrial Canton, Ohio, as they revitalize the debutante ball. Waltz lessons and etiquette classes clash with Gen Z sensibilities as a new generation of young Black women find their voices, their light and their own way forward.

Don’t

Cry, Butterfly (Mu’a trên cánh bu’ó’m)

Directed by Du’o’ng Diêu Linh

Feature narrative | Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, 2024, 97 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Vietnamese with English subtitles

Tam, a hardworking staff member at a wedding venue, finds out about her husband’s affair on live TV. Instead of confronting him, she seeks to win back his love with the help of a powerful spell master. Tam’s daughter Ha disapproves of her mother’s way of handling her father’s affair but has stopped trying to reason with her.

Thursday, July 31

11 AM

Perelman Theater

Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Gazan Tales

Saturday, August 2

3:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Directed by Mahmoud Nabil Ahmed

Feature documentary | Palestine, Tunisia, 2024, 82 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Arabic with English subtitles

In the heart of the Gaza Strip, four men navigate through divergent paths in pursuit of their definitions of existence, intertwining their fates Amidst the complexities of life, love and survival.

The Great North

Directed by Jenn Nkiru BlackStar Alum

Feature documentary | United Kingdom, 2024, 52 min. North America Premiere

English

Manchester’s industrial history and modern-day architecture intertwine in a meditative new film by British artist and filmmaker Jenn Nkiru. The Great North weaves together new footage and archive material to explore parallels between architecture and the human body — and how they both shapeshift through time and space.

Sunday, August 3

8:30 PM

Perelman Theater Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Copresented by

Hanami

Thursday, July 31

1:30 PM Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Directed by Denise Fernandes

Feature narrative | Switzerland, Portugal, Cape Verde, 2024, 96 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Capeverdian Creole, English, Japanese and French with English subtitles

On a remote volcanic island that everybody wants to leave, little Nana learns how to stay.

Killer of Sheep

Directed by Charles Burnett

Feature narrative | United States, 1977, 82 min. Retrospective Screening

English

A giant revelation in American independent filmmaking, Charles Burnett’s lyrical debut feature unfolds as a mosaic of Black life in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a father worn down by his job in a slaughterhouse, and his wife (Kaycee Moore) seek moments of tenderness in the face of myriad disappointments.

Sunday, August 3

11:30 AM Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Listen to Me

Saturday, August 2

11 AM Perelman Theater Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Tree of Authenticity)

Directed by Sammy Baloji

Feature documentary | Belgium, Democratic Republic of Congo, 2025, 89 min. Philadelphia Premiere

French and Dutch with English subtitles

In the heart of the Congo rainforest, the remains of a research center dedicated to tropical agriculture reveal the burden of the colonial past and its inextricable links to contemporary climate change.

Directed by Stephanie Etienne & Kanika Harris

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 77 min. World Premiere

English

The road to motherhood while navigating institutional racism takes three Black women on a journey from heartbreak to resistance, healing and joy.

Listen to the Voices (Kouté vwa)

Directed by Maxime Jean-Baptiste

Feature documentary | Belgium, France, French Guiana, 2024, 77 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

French and Guianese Creole with English subtitles

During his summer holidays in French Guiana, Melrick, a young boy, becomes aware of the reasons why his family has been destroyed by a tragic death.

Love, Brooklyn

Directed by Rachael Abigail Holder

Feature narrative | United States, 2024, 97 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Three longtime Brooklynites navigate careers, love, loss and friendship against the rapidly shifting landscape of their beloved city.

Move Ya Body: The Birth of House

Directed by Elegance Bratton BlackStar Alum

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 88 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Out of the underground dance clubs on the South Side of Chicago, a group of friends turn a new sound into a global movement.

Next Life

Directed by Tenzin Phuntsog BlackStar Alum

Feature narrative | United States, Mexico, 2025, 73 min. North America Premiere

Tibetan, Mandarin and English with English subtitles

A Tibetan family seeks moments of “temporary happiness” while living in exile in suburban America. As their father suffers from a mysterious inner pain rooted in childhood trauma, they turn to Buddhist teachings on death and rebirth, finding solace in the belief that in his next life he will be reborn as a bird in Tibet.

Possible Landscapes

Sunday, August 3

3 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Directed by Kannan Arunasalam

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 105 min.

World Premiere

Trinidad Creole, Creole and English with English subtitles

An exploration of intergenerational experiences of Caribbean environments shot over two seasons in Trinidad and Tobago. Across sugarcane fields, steep hillsides and dying coral reefs, the film presents intimate portraits of people in their daily lives and examines the impacts of colonialism, post-independence aspirations and extractivism.

Remaining Native

Directed by Paige Bethmann

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 87 min. Philadelphia Premiere

English

Remaining Native is a coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Kutoven (Ku) Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather’s escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present and future.

Saturday, August 2

1:30 PM

Perelman Theater

Kimmel Center

Audio description available Available virtually

Directed by Karabo Lediga

Feature narrative | South Africa, 2025, 110 min. North America Premiere

Spitori and English with English subtitles

A banker returns unannounced to her childhood home and her overbearing mother, whom she hardly visits. Unbeknownst to her mother, a life-changing secret brought her back, threatening to upend their relationship forever.

Directed by Brittany Shyne

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 123 min. Philadelphia Premiere English

Seeds is a portrait of centennial farmers in the American South. Using lyrical black-and-white imagery, this meditative film examines the decline of generational Black farmers and the significance of owning land.

The Shadow Scholars

Directed by Eloise King

The Sixth Borough

Directed by Jason Pollard

Some of the most legendary names in hip-hop came from places you’ve probably never heard of. This is the story of how a New York suburb changed music forever. Feature documentary | United Kingdom, 2024, 100

Tens of thousands of young and well-educated Kenyans are hired online by undergraduates and doctoral students at Western universities to write their essays and theses in a multibillion-dollar underground industry.

Oxford professor Patricia Kingori embarks on a search for these “shadow scholars.”

Sugar Island

Directed by Johanne Gomez Terrero

Feature narrative | Spain, Dominican Republic, 2024, 91 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Haitian Creole and French with English subtitles

Makenya, a Dominican-Haitian teenager, navigates an unwanted pregnancy and the harsh labor that defines her world. As Makenya confronts family burdens and the specter of displacement, a mysterious theater troupe’s arrival illuminates the haunting connections between past and present struggles.

Sun Ra: Do the Impossible

Directed by Christine Turner BlackStar Alum

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 84 min. Philadelphia Premiere

English

A kaleidoscopic portrait of the visionary jazz musician, composer and poet known as Sun Ra and the musical, historical and philosophical currents that shaped him.

Thursday, July 31

8 PM Perelman Theater

Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing

Directed by Louis Massiah & Monica Henriquez

BlackStar Alum (Louis Massiah)

Feature documentary | United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Senegal, 2025, 105 min.

World Premiere

English

Copresented by

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing is a biography of the influential writer Toni Cade Bambara, whose literary works and film collaborations were a catalyzing force in 20th century cultural and political movements. The documentary is made up of stories shared by friends and colleagues including Toni Morrison, Nikky Finney and Haile Gerima.

Third Act

Directed by Tadashi Nakamura

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 91 min. Philadelphia Premiere

English and Japanese with English subtitles

Generations of artists call Robert A. Nakamura “the godfather of Asian American media,” but filmmaker Tadashi Nakamura calls him Dad. What begins as a documentary about his father’s career takes a turn with a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis and evolves into an exploration on art, activism, grief and fatherhood.

Friday, August 1

6 PM Perelman

Saturday, August 2

10:30 AM Wilma Theater

Viet and Nam (Trong lòng dat)

Directed by Minh Quy Truong

Feature narrative | Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, United States, 2024, 129 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Vietnamese with English subtitles

In the underground coal mines, Nam and Viet, young miners, face danger and darkness. One prepares to leave for a new life, but they must find Nam’s father’s remains, a soldier lost in a faraway forest, retracing the past through memories.

The Volcano Manifesto

Directed by Cauleen Smith

BlackStar Alum

Experimental | United States, 2024, 50 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

“A densely woven meditation on geological and cinematic time, on the wild abyss of volcanoes and the womb of mines and caves.” — MoMA Doc Fortnight

Saturday, August 2

7 PM

Perelman Theater

Kimmel Center

Available virtually

We Want the Funk!

Friday, August 1

9:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Directed by Stanley Nelson & Nicole London BlackStar Alum (Stanley Nelson)

Feature documentary | United States, 2025, 80 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

We Want the Funk! is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning from African, soul and early jazz roots to its rise into the public consciousness. Featuring James Brown’s dynamism, the extraterrestrial funk of George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic, transformed girl group Labelle and Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, the story also traces funk’s influences on both new wave and hip-hop.

White House (Kasa Branca)

Directed by Luciano Vidigal

Feature narrative | Brazil, 2024, 90 min. East Coast Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

Dé is a Black teenager from Chatuba, a Rio de Janeiro favela. He receives the news that his grandmother, Almerinda, is in the terminal stage of Alzheimer’s disease. He and his two best friends, Adrianin and Martins, decide to make the most of the last days of life with her.

Available virtually

SHORT FILMS

Adamstown

Dir. Andrew Bilindabagabo

BlackStar Lab Fellow

Short narrative | United States, Rwanda, 2025, 15 min.

World Premiere

English, Kinyarwanda and Swahili with English subtitles

A young African woman is drawn into a high-stakes manhunt that could compromise her fragile American dream.

all the love i could handle

Dir. Ruby Rose Collins

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 14 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

all the love i could handle is a reimagining of the filmmaker’s mother’s young diary, unraveling the raw complexities of Black motherhood, artistic AMbition and the enduring sacrifices women have to make as mothers and artists. Based on the true family story of pioneer filmmaker Kathleen Collins (Losing Ground, 1982).

A Luta Continua // Ataraxy 44

Dir. Curtis Essel

BlackStar Alum

Experimental | Germany, 2024, 2 min.

World Premiere

French with English subtitles

This film tells the poignant story of Hif Belowi Anga, a saxophonist who once played in Mobutu’s band before fleeing Congo in the early 1990s. His melancholic melodies blend with archival audio of Patrice Lumumba, whose words remain strikingly relevant today. While highlighting the enduring impact of neocolonial powers on Africa, the film offers a message of resilience and hope, captured in the enduring phrase “a luta continua.”

Another Other

Experimental | United States, 2025, 9 min.

North America Premiere

English

A Black police officer and university president are interrogated by multiple white state officials after their failures to sufficiently comply with their respective institutions’ plans. An experiment in image, sound and subtitle, Another Other identifies these figures as collaborators with racist systems, even as those systems betray them.

Program: Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab

Sunday, August 3

5:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

Program: Framed

Thursday, July 31

7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Program: In Memoriam

Thursday, July 31 2 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Framed

Thursday, July 31 7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Axel

Dir. Stefani Saintonge

BlackStar Alum

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 12 min.

World Premiere

English

Axel is a happy 2-year-old. As long as mommy is near, the world brings something exciting every day. But one day, mommy leaves, and Axel is left to find new meaning.

Black Glass

Dir. Adam Piron

BlackStar Alum

Experimental | United States, 2024, 9 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

Black Glass examines the entangled histories of visual technology and the genocide and expropriation of Indigenous populations by white settlers through a violent collision of image and sound by looking back to Eadweard Muybridge’s series of stereographs taken of the U.S. Army’s efforts against the Modoc Tribe of Northern California during the Modoc War.

Bloodlines, Mississippi

Dir. Crystal Kayiza

BlackStar Alum

Short documentary | United States, United Kingdom, 2024, 20 min.

East Coast Premiere

English

In the heart of the Mississippi Delta, Dr. Foluso Fakorede is fighting to save lives. Set in America’s Diabetes Belt and epicenter of the Amputation epidemic, Bloodlines, Mississippi examines a medical system that is stacked against the Delta’s most vulnerable residents.

Boil

That Cabbage Down

Dir. Candace Williamson

Short documentary | United States, 2024, 25 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

In this documentary, a novice banjoist embarks on a transformative journey to uncover the forgotten Black roots of the banjo. Through lessons, history and struggle, she learns to embrace the instrument’s complex legacy culminating in a celebratory Black Folk Jam Session that connects the past with the present.

SCREENING

Program: Dawning

Friday, August 1

12 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Framed

Thursday, July 31

7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually SCREENING

Program: Galvanize

Sunday, August 3

7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually SCREENING

Program: Revel

Friday, August 1 11 AM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Bubbling Baby

Dir. Sharine Rijsenburg

Short documentary | The Netherlands, 2025, 19 min.

North America Premiere

Dutch with English subtitles

Bubbling Baby celebrates a heritage often overlooked, reframing and reclaiming the Caribbean-Dutch bubbling culture.

Budget Paradise

Dir. LaTajh Simmons-Weaver

BlackStar Alum

Short narrative | United States, 2024, 14 min.

East Coast Premiere English

Black nonbinary painter Chester searches for space and belonging in their rapidly changing hometown, navigating identity, creativity and the struggle for permission to exist on their own terms.

Bukra

Dir.

Alex Aljouni Celestine (Florida Storm)

Short Narrative | United States, 2024, 15 min.

East Coast Premiere

Arabic and Turkish with English subtitles

After winning a soccer ball in a sweepstakes, a young Syrian refugee must race to claim her prize and play one final game with her best friend before he’s gone forever.

Dir. Allison Janae Hamilton

Experimental | United States, 2025, 12 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

A recording of “Florida Storm,” a 1928 hymn written by Judge Jackson in response to the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, plays on a loop underneath various celestial scenes made from time-lapse astrophotography. This trancelike experimental film hearkens to the brutal labor history of North Florida’s turpentine industry and contemplates how their only moments of rest or leisure must have taken place under the cover of this starry expanse.

Program: Revel

Friday, August 1 11 AM Wilma Theater

Program: Ebullience Friday, August 1 8:30 PM

Program: Dawning Friday, August 1 12

Available virtually

Program: Orison Saturday, August 2 9:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Children of the Waves (Enfants des Courants d’Eaux)

Dir. Kezia Sakho

Short documentary | France, 2025, 8 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

French with English subtitles

Noakim, Alassane and Ilan, three young friends from Marseille, meet up after school as they always do. Amid their carefree laughter, a serious question suddenly emerges: “What do we want to be when we grow up?” This question sparks a deep conversation about their dreams and aspirations as they dive into a boundless world of imagination.

Correct Me if I’m Wrong

Dir. Hao Zhou

BlackStar Alum

Short documentary | Germany, United States, 2025, 23 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Sichuan Mandarin with English subtitles

A filmmaker undergoes a series of home remedies and spiritual rituals as their family attempts to purge their gender-nonconforming identity. Caught in a struggle of love, legacy and belief, this Southwest Chinese family seeks to rid their queer heir of what they perceive as an unwanted entity.

Dear Sikhonkwane

Dir. Sihle Hlophe

BlackStar Alum

Short documentary | South Africa, 2025, 21 min.

World Premiere

SiSwati and English with English subtitles

Dear Sikhonkwane is an intimate portrait of one of the first SiSwati authors, who wrote, cowrote and edited over 40 books. Told through the eyes of someone who deeply admired him, the film is a love letter to his legacy, exploring his passion for his mother tongue.

Della Can Fly!

Dir. Jasmine Lynea

BlackStar Alum

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 14 min.

World Premiere

English

Della Can Fly! is a Black folktale set in the early 2000s. In hopes of reuniting with his long-lost sister, an eccentric old man is in desperate need to prove to his family that she flew away. With the help of his grieving 10-year-old great-niece, they rectify the family myth, proving it to be true.

Program: Dawning

Friday, August 1 12 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Wellspring Sunday, August 3 6:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre Available virtually

Program: Wellspring

Sunday, August 3 6:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Program: Antecessor

Thursday, July 31 5 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

The Devil Is Busy

Dirs. Christalyn Hampton & Geeta Gandbhir

BlackStar Alum (Geeta Gandbhir)

Short documentary | United States, 2024, 31 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

As the director of operations and security of an abortion clinic in Atlanta, Tracy doesn’t take any chances when it comes to the safety of both the patients and the staff.

Dooni

Dirs. Kevin Jerome Everson & Claudrena N. Harold

BlackStar Alums

Experimental | United States, 2025, 8 min. World Premiere

Eternal Kinship

Dooni is the eulogy, voiced by actor Timothy Johnson, of the American soul singer and disco legend Sylvester (19471988) as delivered by the gospel singer and preacher Walter Hawkins.

Dir. Arbin Rai

Short narrative | Nepal, 2024, 11 min.

World Premiere

Nepali with English subtitles

After his sister unforeseeably runs away with her lover, 10-year-old Suresh must deal with the ordeal of life without a sister figure.

Dir. Nimco Sheikhaden

Short documentary | United States, Panama, 2025, 35 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Exodus is an intimate portrait of two women who face unique challenges following decades of incarceration. The film bears witness to their impassioned attempts to rebuild their lives and ultimately restore their humanity.

Program: Galvanize

Sunday, August 3

7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Program: In Memoriam Thursday, July 31 2 PM Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center Available virtually

Program: Jamaa

Suzanne Roberts Theatre Available virtually

Program: Abolish!

August

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing

Dir. Theo Panagopoulos

Short documentary | United Kingdom, 2025, 17 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Arabic with English subtitles

When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wildflowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender essay film questions the role of image making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and land.

Food for the Soul

Dir. Chisom Chieke

BlackStar Lab Fellow

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 18 min. World Premiere English

A first-generation Nigerian American and her Black American partner must decide between being true to themselves or trying to live up to their families’ expectations.

Hatchlings

Dir. Jahmil Eady

BlackStar Alum

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 15 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

A resentful teenager is forced to babysit her turtle-obsessed half-brother; meanwhile, he dives into a vivid fantasy world where he is a sea turtle and she is a tortoise.

Highway to the Moon

Dir. Letitia Wright

Short narrative | United States, United Kingdom, 2025, 26 min. North America Premiere

English

Highway to the Moon is a comingof-age fantasy drama that unravels the mysterious aftermath of young boys whose lives have been abruptly snatched away. Set in a fantasy world between heaven and earth, the story delves into the themes of brotherhood, unity, forgiveness and hope.

Program: Framed

Thursday, July 31

7:30 PM

Wilma Theater Available virtually

Program: Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab

August 3

Program: Jamaa

July 31

Theatre

Program: In Memoriam Thursday, July 31 2 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Hosts for Half a Century (Anfitriões há meio século)

Dirs. Typju Myky & André Tupxi Lopes

BlackStar Alums

Short documentary | Brazil, 2025, 39 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Myky and Portuguese with English subtitles

The film presents the perspective of the Myky people on 50 years of contact with the non-Indigenous population, reflecting about their way of life and the changes experienced in the last half century.

Images de Tunisie

Dir. Younès Ben Slimane

Experimental | United Kingdom, France, Tunisia, 2025, 15 min.

United States Premiere

French and Arabic with English subtitles

Returning to the Berber villages in southern Tunisia where a colonialist propaganda film from the 1940s was shot.

Kanenon:we –Original Seeds

Dir. Katsitsionni Fox

BlackStar Alum

Short documentary | United States, 2024, 26 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

Kanenon:we – Original Seeds features three Haudenosaunee women who are stepping back into their sacred responsibility as seed keepers, honoring the work of our ancestors by regenerating and rematriating sacred seeds for future generations and offering a glimpse into the challenges facing the world related to food security.

Lana

Dirs. Laetitia Angba & Julie R. Lissouba

Short narrative | Canada, 2024, 17 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

French with English subtitles

In the turmoil of adolescence, Lana does not lead a life completely like the others. As a daily fight goes on in silence, Lana learns that her father, Benjamin, must leave Canada permanently. She must then muster her courage to confront her father before he leaves.

Program: Terrain

Sunday, August 3

11 AM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Terrain

Sunday, August 3 11 AM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Galvanize

Sunday, August 3 7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Program: Jamaa

Thursday, July 31 4 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Las Cosas

Que Brillan

(Shiny Objects)

Dir. Kristal Sotomayor

BlackStar Alum

BlackStar Lab Fellow

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 11 min.

World Premiere

English

When a trans Latinx mermaid defies her mother’s warnings, she is forced to confront the violent legacies of colonialism, environmental destruction and the danger of being desired in the human world.

The Last Harvest

Dir. Nuno Boaventura Miranda

Short narrative | Cape Verde, Portugal, 2025, 22 min.

North America Premiere

Creole and Portuguese with English subtitles

The Last Harvest is a short film that follows three characters navigating life within Lisbon’s Cape Verdean immigrant community. The film delves into their connection to memories and nostalgia and their ways of coping with loss, abandonment and the complexities of life as immigrants in an urban environment.

Last Hoorah at G-Baby’s

Dir. DeeDee Casimir

Short narrative | United States, 2024, 14 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

After blowing through her cash inheritance, an aimless and apathetic art school grad must come up with five months of back rent or risk eviction from her rent-controlled apartment in a gentrifying Brooklyn.

Leaving Ikorodu in 1999

Dir. Rashida Seriki

Short narrative | United Kingdom, Nigeria, 2024, 18 min.

United States Premiere

English and Yoruba with English subtitles

During a road trip to the airport, Fade questions whether her niece’s departure from Nigeria is truly for the best. SCR

Program: Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab

Sunday, August 3

5:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

Program: Dawning Friday, August 1 12 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Antecessor Thursday, July 31 5 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

Program: Dawning Friday, August 1 12 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Lees Waxul (Unspoken)

Dir. Yoro Mbaye

Short narrative | Senegal, France, 2024, 21 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Wolof with English subtitles

In his village where bread is rare, Ousseynou, a former fisherman, finds fragile stability selling stale bread to support his family. But when his sisterin-law opens a traditional bakery, silent tensions arise. Her success threatens not only his small business, but also his sense of purpose and position in the household.

LWCLazy White Cows (VBP - Vacas Brancas Preguiçosas)

Dir. Asaph Luccas

Short narrative | Brazil, 2025, 19 min.

North America Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

After calling a classmate a “lazy white cow,” a young Black student embarks on a virtual saga to avoid being canceled.

Maqluba

Dir. Mike Elsherif

Short narrative | United States, 2024, 28 min.

East Coast Premiere

Arabic and English with English subtitles

Laila, a Palestinian American drummer, visits her grandmother in her new apartment during a powerful storm under the guise of helping her unpack. But her nefarious goals slowly unfold as they delve deeper into the mystical, fateful night.

Natimorto

Dirs. Ibrahem Hasan & Leandro HBL

Experimental | Brazil, 2023, 12 min.

World Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

In Bahia, Brazil, Benicio is born into silence, loss and ancestral grief. Haunted by inherited pain, he turns inward, recording messages to his unborn self. Through remembrance and release, he begins to break the cycle. By embracing his darkness with acceptance, he confronts his past, rewrites his story and creates space for healing.

Program: Jamaa

Thursday, July 31

4 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Program: Ebullience

Friday, August 1

8:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Program: Antecessor

Thursday, July 31 5 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

Program: In Memoriam

Thursday, July 31 2 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

A New Voice

Dirs. Mike Davis & Debbie Davis

BlackStar Alums

Short documentary | United States, 2023, 16 min.

World Premiere

English

A New Voice is a firsthand look into the upward journey of citizens returning to communities after incarceration. The film sheds some light on the rarely seen success stories of people who have transitioned home from prison and their impact on their communities.

nobody’s word

Dir. Camara Taylor

Experimental | Scotland, Jamaica, Barbados, 2025, 13 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Based on a voice note received 500 years after the “start of slavery,” nobody’s word seeks to complicate notions of ancestors, inheritance and implication across time and space. Within the film, Camara Taylor digitizes and disintegrates the family archive in order to reframe accounts, destabilize claims, and inhabit the spaces between fact and fiction.

Oceania

Dir. Valentin Noujaïm

BlackStar Alum

Short narrative | France, 2024, 24 min.

East Coast Premiere

French with English subtitles

During the summer, 16-year-old Najib spends his days gaming until his mother, Asma, informs him of their old neighbor’s passing. Intrigued, Najib takes the keys to the neighbor’s apartment, uncovering an unexpected world within.

One Day This Kid

Dir. Alexander Farah

Short narrative | Canada, 2024, 18 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Dari and English with English subtitles

One day this kid will feel something stir in his heart and throat and mouth. One day this kid will reach a point where he senses a division that isn’t mathematical. One day this kid will talk.

Program: Abolish!

Friday, August 1

3 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

Program: Wellspring Sunday, August 3 6:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Program: In Memoriam Thursday, July 31 2 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Jamaa

Thursday, July 31 4 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Oríkì Oshun

Dir. Elena Guzman

Experimental | United States, 2025, 16 min.

World Premiere

English, Yoruba, Spanish and Portuguese

A visual praise poem honoring the mother of the sweet waters, Oshun.

Otherworld

Dir. Lokotah Sanborn

Short documentary | United States, 2025, 10 min.

World Premiere

English and Abenaki with English subtitles

A poetic documentary exploring Abenaki ancestral memory and connection to Allen Island, the site of first contact with the English in 1605, which was bought and curated by the wife of American painter Andrew Wyeth three centuries later in hopes of enticing her husband’s inspiration.

Piñata Prayers

Dir. Daniel Larios

2022 BlackStar Pitch Winner

Short documentary | United States, El Salvador, 2025, 24 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English and Spanish with English subtitles

Breaking down the colonial tradition of piñatas, this personal film probes into a loss of faith while retracing a family history.

Ree’s Destiny

Dir. Steven Mosley

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 16 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Ree Ree, a 43-year-old social worker and single mother of three, pursues her lifelong dream of being a rapper despite backlash from her fierce teenage daughter, Destiny. Over the course of a long day, Ree Ree tries to win her daughter over before she steps up to the mic in front of her community.

SCR

Program: Orison

Saturday, August 2

9:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Terrain Sunday, August 3 11 AM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Wellspring Sunday, August 3 6:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Program: Ebullience Friday, August 1 8:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

The River

Dir. Herrana Addisu

Experimental | Ethiopia, 2024, 18 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Amharic with English subtitles

The River is a film that pays homage to culture and the experiences of women through the lens of Ethiopia and draws inspiration from the director’s childhood home, Kebena. The film not only celebrates the art of beauty, but will also highlight the systemic barriers women face in the context of forced marriage, education and water access.

Run, Sister Joan

Dir. Walé Oyéjidé

BlackStar Alum

BlackStar Lab Fellow

Short narrative | United States, Italy, 2025, 20 min.

World Premiere

English and Italian with English subtitles

In a haunted town, a migrant woman with mysterious abilities searches for her missing companion.

Seek No Favor

Dirs. Elle Clay & Leilah Weinraub

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 12 min. World Premiere

Space to Breathe

Dir. Juicebox P. Burton

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 21 min.

America Premiere

Low-key, anxiety-managing millennial Monroe Malone is trying to outrun last year’s job loss when she collides with a weave-snatching cartel led by Big Baby. After overhearing his plan to kidnap hair tech genius Camille J. Walker and steal her Infinite Track invention, Monroe jumps into action. The encounter is bound to leave him not untouched by blood.

Space to Breathe is an Afrofuturist science fiction hybrid documentary, framed with a future where there are no prisons or police. The year is 2070, and Sojourner is a young genderqueer filmmaker who sets out to understand how abolition came to be, through history’s archives on the movements of the early 21st century.

Program: Orison

Saturday, August 2

9:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab

Sunday, August 3 5:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available Available virtually

Program: Ebullience Friday, August 1 8:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Program: Abolish!

Friday, August 1 3 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Audio description available

Available virtually

spaces as traces

Dir. Teo Shi Yun

Experimental | Singapore, United Kingdom, 2024, 9 min.

United States Premiere

English and Mandarin with English subtitles

An interdisciplinary multimedia survey into Singaporean domestic and communal space, injecting a science fiction interpretation of Chinese folklore to parse its spiritual, technological and architectural threads.

Speaking in Tongues: Take One

Dir. Christopher Harris

Experimental | United States, 2024, 15 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

A film about Black ecstasy and the carceral forces arrayed against it.

Talking Walls

Dir. Marcellus

Short documentary | United States, 2024, 27 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

Multiple voices reflect on the language, sounds, touch, history, and choice of public and private Black and queer spaces.

Teaching America

Dir. Anurima Bhargava

Short documentary | United States, 2025, 23 min.

World Premiere

English

Teaching America explores the battle around the teaching of African American studies from inside the classroom, focusing on the transformative journeys of the Arkansas students, teachers and families who are part of the inaugural classes of students taking AP African American studies nationwide.

Program: Terrain

Sunday, August 3 11 AM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Revel Friday, August 1 11 AM Wilma Theater

Program: Antecessor Thursday, July 31 5 PM Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Program: Dawning Friday, August 1 12 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Tessitura

Dirs. Lydia Cornett & Brit Fryer

BlackStar Alum (Brit Fryer)

Short documentary | United States, 2025, 18 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Tessitura explores the entangled ways that voice, character and gender are continuously reformulated in opera by those who contend with these connections daily.

Tiger

Dir. Loren Waters

Short documentary | United States, 2024, 13 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

Tiger highlights an Indigenous awardwinning, internationally acclaimed artist and elder, Dana Tiger, her family, and the resurgence of the iconic Tiger T-shirt company.

Twenty Three

Dirs. Wasima Farah & Kamyar Mohsenin

Experimental | United States, 2024, 2 min.

Philadelphia Premiere English

Twenty Three is a visual interpretation of loss of childhood inspired by Alice in Wonderland and the IU song “TwentyThree.” It follows the story of Yellow (symbolizing childhood and past) with eerie, cultural, playful and nostalgic elements.

Two Niles (Dois Nilos)

Dirs. Rodrigo de Janeiro & Samuel Lobo

Short documentary | Brazil, 2024, 18 min.

North America Premiere

Portuguese with English subtitles

A journey through the memories of Brazilian filmmaker Afranio Vital. Between dreams and ruins, a cinematic life doesn’t end like this. SCR

Program: Revel

Friday, August 1

11 AM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Program: Wellspring

Sunday, August 3 6:30 PM

Suzanne Roberts Theatre

Available virtually

Program: Orison

Saturday, August 2 9:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

Program: Framed

Thursday, July 31 7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

Untitled (How High the Moon)

Dir. Rashida Bumbray

BlackStar Alum

Experimental | United States, 2024, 10 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

English

Rashida Bumbray’s short film Untitled (How High the Moon) reimagines her mother’s childhood visits to the Metropolitan Museum of Art through the lens of magical realism.

We Were the Scenery

Dir. Christopher Radcliff

Short documentary | United States, Canada, 2025, 15 min.

Philadelphia Premiere

Vietnamese with English subtitles

The story of Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che, who, in 1975, after fleeing the Vietnam War by boat and docking in the Philippines, were utilized as background extras in the filming of Apocalypse Now.

Why the Sun & Moon Live in the Sky

Dir. Aisha Bolaji

Short narrative | Ireland, 2024, 13 min. North America Premiere

English

Living in the mundane suburbia of a small Irish town, teens Diana and Sol plan to escape by building a spacecraft and living in the sky. When doubt starts to set in, they have to decide whether to pursue their dream or remain in their familiar world and face the inevitable.

SCREENING

Program: Orison

Saturday, August 2

9:30 PM

Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

Available virtually

SCREENING

Program: Framed

Thursday, July 31 7:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

SCREENING

Program: Ebullience

Friday, August 1 8:30 PM

Wilma Theater

Available virtually

SHORTS PROGRAMS

ABOLISH!

Post-carceral stories, from the individual to the systemic

Juicebox

Burton

Theater, Kimmel Center

ANTECESSOR

“Cause

Hoorah

DAWNING

Seeing and living through the eyes of children

EBULLIENCE

Exuberant, lighthearted Black

sketches

FRAMED

filmmakers

GALVANIZE

Building new ways together, through action and protection

The Devil Is Busy

IN MEMORIAM

Posthumous meditations on the departed

JAMAA

Dilemmas within the community of blood relations

ORISON

REVEL

Bubbling Baby

Sharine Rijsenburg

Boil That Cabbage

TERRAIN

WELLSPRING

Reflecting on family legacies

PHILADELPHIA FILMMAKER LAB

Sunday, August 3, 5:30 PM Perelman Theater, Kimmel Center

BlackStar is proud to present the 2025 Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab, a yearlong fellowship for emerging and midcareer artists in the greater Philadelphia area. Serving as an executive producer on four short narrative films, BlackStar identifies mentors, instructors and collaborators while providing feedback on works in progress, marketing support and distribution strategy.

The 2025 Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab fellows are Andrew Bilindabagabo, Chisom Chieke, Kristal Sotomayor and Walé Oyéjidé.

The BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab is presented with support from Independence Public Media Foundation, William Penn Foundation and Wyncote Foundation.

Adamstown

Dir. Andrew Bilindabagabo

Short narrative | United States, Rwanda, 2025, 15 min.

World Premiere

English, Kinyarwanda and Swahili with English subtitles

A young African woman is drawn into a high-stakes manhunt that could compromise her fragile American dream.

Las Cosas Que Brillan Dir. Kristal Sotomayor

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 11 min.

World Premiere

English

When a Trans Latinx mermaid defies her mother’s warnings, she is forced to confront the violent legacies of colonialism, environmental destruction and the danger of being desired in the human world.

Short narrative | United States, 2025, 18 min.

World Premiere

English

A first-generation Nigerian American and her Black American partner must decide between being true to themselves or trying to live up to their families’ expectations.

Short narrative | United States, Italy, 2025, 20 min.

World Premiere

English and Italian with English subtitles

In a haunted town, a migrant woman with mysterious abilities searches for her missing companion.

Food for the Soul Dir. Chisom Chieke Run, Sister Joan Dir. Walé Oyéjidé

Photos courtesy of Lab fellows

MORNING SHOW

THE DAILY JAWN

Co-sponsored by NEON

Hosted by Maori Karmael Holmes, Rashid Zakat and Anne Ishii

August 1 – August 3

Live @ 10 AM

The Daily Jawn Stage Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

Start your festival mornings with Maori, Rashid and Anne as they have a coffee and chat with featured filmmakers, festival programmers and other special guests. Expect energy, insight and lots of laughter.

RECLAIMING THE REEL

Co-presented by Color Congress

With Ambreen Qureshi, Charlie Raboteau, Ginou Choueiri and JT Takagi

Moderated by Sahar Driver and Sonya Childress

Thursday, July 31

5:30-6:30 PM

In 1992, the Librarian of Congress warned that documentaries and home movies were vanishing faster than archives could preserve them. Today, that crisis is not just technical; it’s political. As censorship rises, public institutions are defunded and climate threats grow — archivists and community media centers stand at the forefront of protecting Black, Brown and Indigenous histories. This panel brings together intergenerational filmmakers, archivists and cultural workers to explore the archive as a site of resistance, memory and narrative sovereignty. Join us to discuss radical strategies for preservation in the face of erasure.

PANEL

THE POLITICS OF PERSPECTIVE

With Lana Garland, Laurens Grant, Rafael Samanez and Shola Lynch

Moderated by Natalie Bullock Brown

Friday, August 1

2:30-3:30 PM

Too often, stories about Black and Brown communities are shaped by production teams from outside their community, raising critical questions about authorship, perspective and representation. But what happens when BIPOC filmmakers find themselves within these teams, advocating to ensure that their film participants are portrayed with dignity? This panel brings together documentary film professionals to discuss the complex realities of navigating teams across lines of race, class and nationality — and the ongoing fight to maintain narrative agency and ethical representation in documentary storytelling.

BLACK MEDIA LEGACY: HONORING THE PAST, SHAPING THE FUTURE

Co-presented by Firelight Media’s Beyond Resilience Series

With Louis Massiah and Marcia Smith

Moderated by Maori Karmael Holmes

Friday, August 1

5:30-6:30 PM

Legacy is more than just remembrance — it’s a living, evolving force that continues to shape the future. This panel explores the lasting impact of pioneering Black filmmakers, storytellers and cultural workers, including William Greaves and Toni Cade Bambara, whose works and ideas continue to inspire new generations. Firelight’s cofounder Marcia Smith reflects on 25 years of championing BIPOC filmmakers and the role institutions play in shaping artistic legacies. Meanwhile, filmmaker Louis Massiah, founder of Scribe Video Center, discusses his latest work on Toni Cade Bambara and how her powerful storytelling remains vital today. Together, these changemakers will examine what it means to build, protect and carry forward a Black artistic legacy.

CONVERSATION

SPOTLIGHT CONVERSATION: BLKNWS

With Kahlil Joseph and Onye Anyanwu

Moderated by Yaba Blay

Saturday, August 2

2:30-3:30 PM

Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS began as a radical art project that reimagined how we see and understand the world, blending journalism, cinema and art to reclaim the news format for Black thought and creativity. The feature film BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions expands this vision into a 21-track cinematic experience, echoing the sonic layers of a music album. Spanning 247 years, it fuses fiction, history and speculative futures with texts by Du Bois, Garvey, Hartman and others — layered with archival materials, YouTube clips, family photos and news footage. Join the creative team for a conversation on how BLKNWS reshapes storytelling and redefines the language of news.

MUSIC AS RESISTANCE

Co-presented by Firelight Media’s Beyond Resilience Series

With Elegance Bratton, Christine Turner, Joseph Patel and Stanley Nelson

Moderated by DJ Lynnée Denise

Saturday, August 2

5:30-6:30 PM

Black music has always been a tool of resistance — pushing against societal norms, reshaping cultural expectations and Amplifying the voices of those demanding change. This panel explores the deep connection between Black musical innovation and acts of defiance, from funk’s rejection of rigid structures in the 1960s and 1970s to Sun Ra’s refusal to be confined by genre. Along the way, we’ll examine films that capture funk’s political power and cultural legacy, revealing how cinema has helped preserve and Amplify its revolutionary spirit. Join us for a powerful conversation on how Black artists have challenged limitations and, in doing so, created timeless movements of sonic and social revolution.

CONVERSATION

SPOTLIGHT

CONVERSATION: CHARLES BURNETT

With Charles Burnett and David Hartt

Sunday, August 3

2:30-3:30 PM

In this special spotlight conversation, legendary filmmaker Charles Burnett sits down with artist David Hartt for an in-depth exploration of Burnett’s groundbreaking body of work. From Killer of Sheep to To Sleep With Anger, Burnett has shaped a cinematic language rooted in the emotional and political realities of Black life. Together, they’ll reflect on the power of everyday storytelling, the challenges of independent filmmaking and the enduring legacy of Charles Burnett’s quietly radical vision. This conversation offers a rare opportunity to engage with one of the most influential voices in American film.

NEITHER SAINTS NOR SINNERS

With Adam Piron, Heidi Saman, Kevin Jerome Everson and Rachael Abigail Holder

Moderated by Meg Onli

Sunday, August 3

5:30-6:30 PM

We all have stories to tell — some mythical and futuristic, and some, well, ordinary. Filmmakers of color often face pressure to create extraordinary characters that fulfill unrealistic, stereotypical tropes. But what about the telling of “regular” stories that examine the lives and psyches of characters of color? We can’t, nor need we, all be geniuses, saviors or criminals. The title of this panel is borrowed from a master class given by filmmaker and author Kathleen Collins in 1984 at Howard University, in which she said, “I refuse to create mythological characters.” In this conversation, we will hear from filmmakers who have told grounded, human stories and the challenges they faced producing and distributing films rooted in the beauty and complexity of the ordinary.

BLACKSTAR PITCH

Thursday, July 31, 10 AM Wilma Theater

The BlackStar Pitch, taking place live at the festival, is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for new voices in independent film to connect with industry professionals.

Eight filmmakers will pitch their short nonfiction projects in front of a panel of judges, including funders, executives, distributors and producers, 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 2025 Camden Film Festival.

A second-place winner will receive a $25,000 prize for production funds as well as feedback from BlackStar and two passes to the 2025 Camden Film Festival.

Winners will be announced publicly on Monday, August 4, 2025.

Copresented

by

Denise Beek

Co-Chair, BlackStar Board of Directors Vice President of Original Storytelling, Represent Justice

JUDGES

Jess Devaney Founder & President, Multitude Films

Jihan Robinson Independent Producer

Noland Walker Co-Curator, Independent Lens, ITVS

Shanida Scotland Head of Film, Doc Society

Sharifa Johka Co-Chair, IP Acquisitions, Twenty43 Ventures

Eddie Hemphill Creative Executive, Field/House Productions

Iyabo Kwayana Filmmaker & Assistant Professor, Dartmouth College

Nell Augustin Deputy Director, Explore Minnesota Film

Sweta Vohra Head of Production & Producer, Multitude Films

Anuradha Rana Professor & Co-Chair, Documentary Program at DePaul University

Monika Navarro Director of the William Greaves Production Fund, Firelight Media

Photos by Mochi Robinson

FILM INDEX

Numerals

16½—

28, 29, 30, 38, 56

AAdam Piron— 94, 132, 154

Adamstown— 30, 92, 149

Aisha Bolaji— 121, 130

Alex Aljouni— 97, 128

Alexander Farah— 111, 139

Allison Janae Hamilton— 97, 141

All That’s Left of You— 29, 57 all the love i could handle— 92

A Luta Continua // Ataraxy 44— 44, 93, 137

André Tupxi Lopes— 104, 145

Andrew Bilindabagabo— 92, 148, 149

Another Other— 30, 93, 132

Anurima Bhargava— 117, 129

Arbin Rai— 42, 101, 138

Asaph Luccas— 43, 108, 131

Axel— 94, 128

BBex Oluwatoyin Thompson— 93, 132

Binnigula’sa’ (Ancient Zapotec People)— 58

Black Glass— 30, 94, 132

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions— 59, 152

Bloodlines, Mississippi— 95, 134

Boil That Cabbage Down— 95, 143

Brick by Brick— 60

Brit Fryer— 41, 142

Brittany Shyne— 79

Bubbling Baby— 96, 143

Budget Paradise— 96, 130

Bukra— 97, 128

CCais— 61

Camara Taylor— 110, 146

Candace Williamson— 95, 143

Carissa— 62

Cauleen Smith— 45, 87

Celestine (Florida Storm)— 97, 141

Charles Burnett— 69, 153

Cherien Dabis— 57

Children of the Waves— 98, 129

Chisom Chieke— 102, 148, 149

Christalyn Hampton— 40, 100, 135

Christine Turner— 83, 153

Christopher Harris— 116, 142

Christopher Radcliff— 41, 120, 133

Claudrena N. Harold— 100, 136 Compensation— 28, 63

Contessa Gayles— 64

Correct Me if I’m Wrong— 40, 98

Crystal Kayiza— 95, 134

Curtis Essel— 44, 93, 137

D

Daniel Larios— 40, 113, 146

Dear Sikhonkwane— 99, 146

Debbie Davis— 124

DeeDee Casimir— 107, 127

Della Can Fly!— 99, 126

Denise Fernandes— 68

Devon Delmar— 62

Don’t Cry, Butterfly— 65

Dooni— 100, 136

Du’o’ng Diêu Linh— 65

E

Elegance Bratton— 74, 153

Elena Guzman— 112, 140

Elle Clay— 43, 115, 131

Eloise King— 80, 82

Eternal Kinship— 42, 101, 138

Exodus— 101, 124

FFood for the Soul— 102, 149

GGazan Tales— 66

Geeta Gandbhir— 40, 100

HHanami— 68

Hao Zhou— 40, 98, 147

Harlan Banks— 38, 56

Hatchlings— 29, 103, 138

Herrana Addisu— 44, 114, 141

Highway to the Moon— 30, 103, 136

Hosts for Half a Century— 104

IIbrahem Hasan— 44, 109, 137

Images de Tunisie— 104, 145

JJahmil Eady— 103, 138

Jasmine Lynea— 99, 126

Jason Jacobs— 62

Jason Pollard— 81, 83

Jenn Nkiru— 38, 67

Johanne Gomez Terrero— 39, 82

Jorge Ángel Pérez— 58

Juicebox P. Burton— 115, 125

Julie R. Lissouba— 105, 138

KKahlil Joseph— 59, 152

Kamyar Mohsenin— 119, 140

Kanenon:we Original Seeds— 105, 134

Kanika Harris— 71

Kannan Arunasalam— 76

Karabo Lediga— 39, 78

Katsitsionni Fox— 105, 134

Kevin Jerome Everson— 100, 136, 154

Kezia Sakho— 98, 129

Killer of Sheep— 69, 153

Kristal Sotomayor— 106, 148, 149

LLaetitia Angba— 105, 138

Lana— 105, 138, 151

L’Arbre de l’Authenticité— 70

Las Cosas Que Brillan— 106

Last Hoorah at G-Baby’s— 107, 127

LaTajh Simmons-Weaver— 96

Leandro HBL— 44, 109, 137

Leaving Ikorodu in 1999— 42, 107, 128

Lees Waxul (Unspoken)— 108

Leilah Weinraub— 43, 131

Letitia Wright— 103, 136

Listen to Me— 29, 71

Listen to the Voices— 72

Lokotah Sanborn— 112, 144

Loren Waters— 41, 118, 147

Louis Massiah— 15, 38, 84, 152 Love, Brooklyn— 73

LWC - Lazy White Cows— 43, 108, 131

Lydia Cornett— 41, 118, 142

MMahmoud Nabil Ahmed— 66 Maqluba— 109, 126

Marcellus— 16, 51, 117, 127

Maxime Jean-Baptiste— 72

Mike Davis— 110, 124

Mike Elsherif— 109, 126

Minh Quy Truong— 86

Monica Henriquez— 15, 38, 84

Move Ya Body: The Birth of House— 74

NNatimorto— 44, 109, 137

A New Voice— 110, 124

Next Life— 75

Nicole London— 88

Nimco Sheikhaden— 101, 124

nobody’s word— 110, 146

Nuno Boaventura Miranda— 42, 106, 129

OOceania— 43, 111, 136

One Day This Kid— 29, 111, 139

Oríkì Oshun— 112, 140

Otherworld— 112, 144

PPaige Bethmann— 77

Piñata Prayers— 40, 113, 146

Possible Landscapes— 76

QQuentin Delaroche— 60

RRachael Abigail Holder— 73, 154

Rashida Bumbray— 45, 120, 140

Rashida Seriki— 42, 107, 128

Ree’s Destiny— 113, 130

Remaining Native— 28, 29, 77

Rodrigo de Janeiro— 119, 133

Ruby Rose Collins— 92, 133

Run, Sister Joan— 114, 149

SSabbatical— 39, 78

Safira Moreira— 61

Sammy Baloji— 70, 72

Samuel Lobo— 119, 133

Seeds— 79, 105, 134

Seek No Favor— 43, 115, 131

Sharine Rijsenburg— 96, 143

Sihle Hlophe— 99, 146

South Africa— 39, 62, 78, 99

spaces as traces— 116, 144

Space to Breathe— 115, 125

Speaking in Tongues: Take One— 116, 142

Stanley Nelson— 88, 153

Stefani Saintonge— 94, 128

Stephanie Etienne— 71, 73

Steven Mosley— 113, 130

Sugar Island— 39, 82

Sun Ra: Do the Impossible— 83

TTadashi Nakamura— 85

Talking Walls— 117, 127

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing— 15, 28, 38, 84

Teaching America— 117, 129

Tenzin Phuntsog— 75

Teo Shi Yun— 116, 144

Tessitura— 41, 118, 142

The Debutantes— 64

The Devil Is Busy— 29, 40, 100, 135

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing— 102, 132

The Great North— 28, 38, 67

The Last Harvest— 42, 106, 129

Theo Panagopoulos— 102, 132

The River— 44, 114, 141

The Shadow Scholars— 80

The Sixth Borough— 81

The Volcano Manifesto— 45, 87

Third Act— 85

Tiger— 41, 118, 147

Twenty Three— 30, 119, 140

Two Niles— 119, 133

Typju Myky— 104, 145

UUntitled (How High the Moon)— 120

VValentin Noujaïm— 43, 111, 136 Victória Álvares— 60

Viet and Nam— 86

WWalé Oyéjidé— 114, 148, 149

Wasima Farah— 119, 140

We Want the Funk!— 88

We Were the Scenery— 41, 120, 133

White House— 29, 39, 89

Why the Sun & Moon Live in the Sky— 121

YYoro Mbaye— 108, 139 Younès Ben Slimane— 104, 145

ZZeinabu irene Davis— 63

COUNTRY INDEX

Barbados

nobody’s word— 110, 146

Belgium

L’Arbre de l’Authenticité— 70

Listen to the Voices— 72

Brazil

Brick by Brick— 60

Cais— 61

Hosts for Half a Century— 104

LWC - Lazy White Cows— 43, 108, 131

Natimorto— 44, 109, 137

Two Niles— 119, 133

White House— 29, 39, 89

Canada

Lana— 105, 138, 151

One Day This Kid— 29, 111, 139

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing— 15, 28, 38, 84

We Were the Scenery— 41, 120, 133

Cape Verde

Hanami— 68

The Last Harvest— 42, 106, 129

Cyprus

All That’s Left of You— 29, 57

Democratic

Republic of Congo

L’Arbre de l’Authenticité— 70

Dominican Republic

Sugar Island— 39, 82

El Salvador

Piñata Prayers— 40, 113, 146

Ethiopia

The River— 44, 114, 141

France

Children of the Waves— 98, 129

Images de Tunisie— 104, 145

Lees Waxul (Unspoken)— 108

Listen to the Voices— 72

Oceania— 43, 111, 136

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing— 15, 28, 38, 84 Viet and Nam— 86

French Guiana

Listen to the Voices— 72

Germany

A Luta Continua // Ataraxy 44— 44, 93, 137

All That’s Left of You— 29, 57

Correct Me if I’m Wrong— 40, 98 Viet and Nam— 86

Greece

All That’s Left of You— 29, 57

Indonesia

Don’t Cry, Butterfly— 65

Ireland

Why the Sun & Moon Live in the Sky— 121

Italy

Run, Sister Joan— 114, 149 Viet and Nam— 86

Jamaica

nobody’s word— 110, 146

Jordan

All That’s Left of You— 29, 57

México

Binnigula’sa’ (Ancient Zapotec People)— 58

Next Life— 75

Nepal

Eternal Kinship— 42, 101, 138

Netherlands

Bubbling Baby— 96, 143 Viet and Nam— 86

Nigeria

Leaving Ikorodu in 1999— 42, 107, 128

Palestine

Gazan Tales— 66

Panama

Exodus— 101, 124

Philippines

Don’t Cry, Butterfly— 65 Viet and Nam— 86

Portugal

Hanami— 68

The Last Harvest— 42, 106, 129

Rwanda

Adamstown— 30, 92, 149

Scotland

nobody’s word— 110, 146

Senegal

Lees Waxul (Unspoken)— 108

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing— 15, 28, 38, 84

Singapore

Don’t Cry, Butterfly— 65

spaces as traces— 116, 144

Viet and Nam— 86

South Africa

Carissa— 62

Dear Sikhonkwane— 99, 146

Sabbatical— 39, 78

Spain

Sugar Island— 39, 82

Switzerland

Hanami— 68

Tunisia

Gazan Tales— 66

Images de Tunisie— 104, 145

United Kingdom

Bloodlines, Mississippi— 95, 134

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing— 102, 132

The Great North— 28, 38, 67

Highway to the Moon— 30, 103, 136

Images de Tunisie— 104, 145

Leaving Ikorodu in 1999— 42, 107, 128

The Shadow Scholars— 80

spaces as traces— 116, 144

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing— 15, 28, 38, 84

United States

16½— 28, 29, 30, 38, 56

Adamstown— 30, 92, 149 all the love i could handle— 92

Another Other— 30, 93, 132

Axel— 94, 128

Black Glass— 30, 94, 132

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions— 59, 152

Bloodlines, Mississippi— 95, 134

Boil That Cabbage Down— 95, 143

Budget Paradise— 96, 130

Bukra— 97, 128

Celestine (Florida Storm)— 97, 141

Compensation— 28, 63

Correct Me if I’m Wrong— 40, 98

The Debutantes— 64

Della Can Fly!— 99, 126

The Devil Is Busy— 29, 40, 100, 135

Dooni— 100, 136

Exodus— 101, 124

Food for the Soul— 102, 149

Hatchlings— 29, 103, 138

Highway to the Moon— 30, 103, 136

Kanenon:we Original Seeds— 105, 134 Killer of Sheep— 69, 153

Las Cosas Que Brillan— 106

Last Hoorah at G-Baby’s— 107, 127

Listen to Me— 29, 71 Love, Brooklyn— 73

Maqluba— 109, 126

Move Ya Body: The Birth of House— 74

A New Voice— 110, 124 Next Life— 75

Oríkì Oshun— 112, 140

Otherworld— 112, 144

Piñata Prayers— 40, 113, 146

Possible Landscapes— 76

Ree’s Destiny— 113, 130

Remaining Native— 28, 29, 77

Run, Sister Joan— 114, 149 Seeds— 79, 105, 134

Seek No Favor— 43, 115, 131

The Sixth Borough— 81

Space to Breathe— 115, 125

Speaking in Tongues: Take One— 116, 142

Sun Ra: Do the Impossible— 83

Talking Walls— 117, 127

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing— 15, 28, 38, 84

Teaching America— 117, 129

Tessitura— 41, 118, 142

Third Act— 85

Tiger— 41, 118, 147

Twenty Three— 30, 119, 140

Untitled (How High the Moon)— 120

Viet and Nam— 86

The Volcano Manifesto— 45, 87

We Want the Funk!— 88

We Were the Scenery— 41, 120, 133

Vietnam

Don’t Cry, Butterfly— 65

Viet and Nam— 86

NOTES

Year-round support for BlackStar is provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Color Congress, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation, in addition to BlackStar’s board of directors, community partners, and a host of generous individual donors and organizations. Copy Editor: Shauna Swartz