One of the most prestigious international Black film festivals, ADIFF screens films from Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
The most obvious reason to attend would be the films, which usually come with commentary by the film makers and cast. Q and A sessions are also common, creating a next level connection between the audience and film makers.
With a full weekend lineup showcasing movies from Raoul Peck—the Haitian-born filmmaker to , “Legacy” which re-examines the systemic structures of Apartheid, check out some of movies screening this weekend.
Will
Friday, February 27 @ 8:00 PM
A girls basketball coach battles a heroin addiction while mentoring a 12-year-old street kid adopted by Will and his wife, played by a very young Loretta Devine.
A gritty and compassionate portrait of a former basketball star fighting addiction in Harlem. As the first independent feature film directed by an African-American woman, it offers a poignant, ground-level look at urban survival and personal redemption.
Directed by Jessie Maple, 1981, 73 Minutes, Drama, USA, English
Fundi: The Story of Ella Baker
Saturday, February 28 @ 12:30 PM
This documentary highlights the life and work of Ella Baker, the “godmother of the SNCC,” whose “bottom-up” organizing philosophy transformed the American Civil Rights Movement by empowering local communities to lead themselves.
The film reveals the instrumental role that Ella Baker, a friend and advisor to Martin Luther King, played in shaping the American civil rights movement. The dynamic activist was affectionately known as the Fundi, a Swahili word for a person who passes skills from one generation to another. By looking at the 1960s from the perspective of Baker, the “godmother of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,” FUNDI adds an essential understanding of the U.S. civil rights movement.
Directed by Joanne Grant, 1981, 63 Minutes, Documentary, USA, English
The Stuart Hall Project
Saturday, February 28 @ 2:00 PM
A poetic archival journey through the life of Stuart Hall, the Jamaican-born intellectual who founded Cultural Studies. The film illustrates how he analyzed culture and identity to understand the post-colonial experience in Britain.
A person’s culture is something that is often described as fixed or defined and rooted in a particular region, nation, or state. Stuart Hall, one of the most preeminent intellectuals on the Left in Britain, updates this definition as he eloquently theorizes that cultural identity is fluid—always morphing and stretching toward possibility but also constantly experiencing nostalgia for a past that can never be revisited.
Directed by John Akomfrah, 2013, 95 Minutes, Documentary, USA, English
Lumumba: Death of a Prophet
Saturday, February 28 @ 4:00 PM
An essayistic exploration of the rise and assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo’s first Prime Minister. It provides a sobering look at the challenges of national liberation and the enduring impact of neo-colonialism.
Directed by Raoul Peck—the Haitian-born filmmaker behind Lumumba and I Am Not Your Negro—whose work consistently interrogates power, history, and imperial violence.
Directed by Raoul Peck, 1991, 69 Minutes, Documentary, Democratic Republic of the, France, French with English subtitles
Legacy: The Decolonized History of South Africa
Saturday, February 28 @ 8:00 PM
This documentary offers a perspective-shifting analysis of South African history, re-examining the systemic structures of Apartheid and the long-term struggle to reclaim a decolonized national identity.
Apartheid was dismantled in 1994, yet three decades later, South Africa still remains the most unequal country in the world. The roots of this inequality are revealed in this exploration into South African history, exposing why they persist today. A perspective-shifting documentary that features, in unprecedented access, the grandson of the “Architect of Apartheid”, who takes a searingly honest look into his ancestry, exposing not only the systemic strings that Apartheid still holds over South Africa, but the psychological strings as well.
Directed by Tara Moore, 2024, 109 Minutes, Documentary, South Africa, English
