$95 /ALL-ACCESS PASS
$15 /SPECIAL EVENTS
$10 /GENERAL ADMISSION
ADIFF18 presents virtual screenings exclusive to the Midwest of 14 narratives and documentaries from 13 countries, all Chicago premieres.
WOMEN TAKE CENTER STAGE IN THE 18TH ANNUAL AFRICAN DIASPORA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – CHICAGO
The African Diaspora International Film Festival – Chicago (ADIFF Chicago), in collaboration with Chicago-based, longtime partner FACETS, will celebrate its 18th anniversary virtually and exclusively in the Midwest with 14 narratives and documentaries from 13 countries, all Chicago premieres.
Since its inception, ADIFF has spotlighted culturally and socially meaningful feature and documentary films about the human experience of people of color all over the world. The films in ADIFF Chicago 2021 explore the full humanity and range of the Black and Indigenous experience, giving a multidimensional voice to often misrepresented and misunderstood realities and peoples.
Titles in ADIFF Chicago 2021 come directly from important domestic and international film festivals such as Tribeca, Toronto, Berlinale, Durban, the Pan African Film Festival and The Trinidad and Tobago film festival. Others are independent productions made by filmmakers eager to share their message with an audience.
Browse the full schedule, buy tickets, and get more information on the 18th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival – Chicago virtual festival on Eventive.
Described by film critic Armond White as “a festival that symbolizes diaspora as more than just anthropology,” ADIFF has managed to increase the presence of independent Afrocentric films from all over the world in the general American specialty movie scene by launching films such as The Tracker by Rolf de Heer (Australia), Kirikou and the Sorceress by Michel Ocelot (France), Gospel Hill by Giancarlo Esposito (USA), Darrat/Dry Season by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad), Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story by Yousry Nasrallah (Egypt), The Pirogue by Moussa Touré (Senegal), White Lies by Dana Rotberg (New Zealand), and The Citizen by Roland Vranik (Hongary), among others.
ADIFF attracts a wide cross-section of cinephiles and audiences of African-American, Caribbean, African, Latino and European ethnic backgrounds who share a common interest for thought provoking, well crafted, intelligent and entertaining stories about the human experience of people of color, ADIFF is now a national and international event with festivals held in New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, and Paris, France.
Commenting on the line up of ADIFF Chicago 2019, film critic Kathleen Sachs of the Chicago Readers wrote: “The films in the 17th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival – Chicago do what much media and even the public school system fail to do: educate. Through robust programming that gives meaning to the word ‘diverse,’ the selections in this year’s festival illuminate the experiences of those living in the African diaspora around the world. The New York-based husband-and-wife programmers, Reinaldo Barroso-Spech and Diarah N’Daw-Spech, have chosen more than a dozen films that, through a variety of modes and genres, further dimensionalize already complex issues specific to those living in these communities. Naturally, documentary lends itself to this mission, though several narrative features and a short fiction add to the plenitude of information.”
Special events in ADIFF Chicago 2021 will spotlight the work of women filmmakers of color.
Opening Night Friday, June 18, 7 PM CDT
Centerpiece Sunday, June 20, 3 PM CDT
Closing Night Thursday, June 24, 7 PM CDT
$15 /Special Events
Betrayal of a Nation is an experimental documentary that indicts the U.S. Government on 18 charges, for crimes committed against Black and Brown citizens. The Opening Night virtual screening to be held on Friday, June 18 @ 7PM CDT will be followed by live Zoom Q&A with director Brandi Webb.
Brandi Webb | USA | 2018 | English | 130 mins.
2 Weeks in Lagos is romantic comedy drama that captures the excitement, vibrancy, and complexity of everyday life in Lagos, Nigeria, a dynamic city where anything is possible in 2 weeks. The screening at 3PM CDT on Sunday, June 20 will be followed by a live Zoom Q&A with director Kathryn Fasegha.
Kathryn Fasegha | Canada, Nigeria | Englis | 2019 | 115 mins.
At Closing Night romantic comedy Maya and Her Lover, the mundane life of a 39-year-old introvert is disrupted when she begins a steamy but contentious affair with a much younger man. The 7PM CDT screening on Thursday, June 24 will be followed by live Zoom Q&A with director Nicole Sylvester.
Kathryn Fasegha | Canada, Nigeria | Englis | 2019 | 115 mins.
$95 /All-Access Pass
$10 /General Admission
View the full schedule for ADIFF Chicago 2021 on the ADIFF website.
Ghofrane, 25, is a young Black Tunisian woman. A committed activist who speaks her mind, she embodies Tunisia's current political upheaval. As a victim of racial discrimination, Ghofrane decides to go into politics. We follow her extraordinary path, ranging from acting on her ambition to disillusion. Through her attempts to persuade both close friends and complete strangers to vote for her, her campaign reveals the many faces of a country seeking to forge a new identity. In its own unique way, this documentary sheds light on women's place in Tunisia's changing society.
Raja Amari | Tunisia | 2020 | Documentary | Arabic and French w/ English subtitle | 90 mins.
Bringing his experience in the ballet world with him, Lil Buck heads back to South Memphis to teach dance to the youth, offering them the chance of a better future. Returning home to the town where he first learned to dance, Lil Buck leads us through the streets as he recounts his personal story and the history of Jookin.
Louis Wallecan | France, USA | 2019 | Documentary | English | 82 mins.
The Cuba-Mali Connection / Africa Mia by Richard Minier and Edouard Salieris, a musical documentary about ten young promising musicians from Mali sent to Cuba in 1964 to study music who developed a revolutionary new sound mixing Afro-Cuban rhythms with traditional African music.
Richard Minier & Edouard Salieris | France | 2019 | French & Spanish with English subtitles | 81 mins.
The Esmeraldas Beach by Patrice Raynal, a documentary that sets out to expose the invisibility of Afro-Ecuadorians and rectify the narrative of the country’s history. Among other stories is that of the 1999 assassination of Prime Minister Jaime Hurtado, the first Black to hold that office.
Kathryn Fasegha | Canada, Nigeria | Englis | 2019 | 115 mins.
Fatem, sixth month pregnant, leaves her village perched in the mountains, to fill a frame with empty glasses for the elder of her village, the only person who can decipher the letters sent by members of the villagers’ families who have gone to work in the cities. She moves from station to station to arrive in town in the middle of a protest. This will turn her trip into a peaceful revolution that she is hardly aware of.
"She will be questioned by the police, defended by an association, interviewed by a journalist… She is accused of having endangered her baby, she is asked some of the most intrusive questions, but each person applies their own way of thinking - myopia of a society incapable of perceiving its difference. Aggressive police officers falsely accused, activists urging her to press charges, sensationalist journalist who transforms news, even a listening minister… none understand that she only wants to fix the glasses." - Olivier Barlet
Sanaa Akroud | Morocco | Arabic w/English subtitles | 2020 | Drama | 86 mins.
In 1929 Panama Al Brown became the first boxing world champion from Latin America. Panama has had nearly 30 world champions and the story of Panama Al Brown, is where the history of boxing in Panama begins. He Emigrated from Panama to New York in 1923 and eventually became world champion. He then moved to Paris, where he became friends with intellectuals and artists of the time like Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Coco Chanel.
Winner, Best First Feature Film, 2020 Africa Movie Academy Awards; Winner, Best First Feature Narrative, 2020 Pan African Film Festival.
Yuhi Amuli | Rawanda | 2020 | English | Drama | 84 mins.
Set in an unnamed African country, A Taste of Our Land is a film about greed told against the backdrop of the current Chinese influence in African countries. While trying to provide for his pregnant wife, Yohani, an older African man, retrieves a gold nugget in a Chinese-run mine built on his land and runs away to sell it for $100. When he learns its real value, he becomes as obsessed with it as Cheng, the Chinese mine supervisor who will stop at nothing to get it back.
Kathryn Fasegha | Canada, Nigeria | Englis | 2019 | 115 mins.
During the dry and desolate Namibian winter a tough cop is hot on the heels of an ice-cold killer. Her investigations unravel when a reporter publishes dark secrets from her shady past. But the cop is determined to catch the killer, even if she has to break the law.
“Tough and gritty, the film should please fans of cop flicks like Training Day and End of Watch, but it gives the genre a gender flip thanks to de Wee’s badass work in the lead.” - complex.com
Tim Huebschle | Namibia | English and Afrikaans w/ English subtitles | 2019 | Action Thriller | 95 mins.
The universe of a public school in the northeastern state of Ceará is explored in its potential for social revolution. When the young Saulo Chuvisco (played by Lucas Limeira) becomes the target of a racist insult that goes unpunished, and refuses to leave the school grounds in protest, the consequences of his unruly act affect the entire community. Merging an engaging narrative with a profound questioning on the power of images, the film operates a fierce critique of racial and class discrimination in Brazil, waging on a collective awareness-raising to spark direct popular action. (C. I)
Déo Cardoso | Brazil | Portuguese w/ English subtitles | 2020 | Drama | 86 mins.
"Kuessipan is quiet and mesmerizing and tragic and full of hope. It is a triumph, and a privilege to spend time with." - Globe and Mail
Two girls grow up as best friends in a Quebec Innu community. While Mikuan has a loving family, Shaniss is picking up the pieces of her shattered childhood. As children, they promised each other to stick together no matter what. But as they're about to turn 17, their friendship is shaken when Mikuan falls for a white boy, and starts dreaming of leaving the reserve that is now too small for her dreams. Adapted from the acclaimed novel Kuessipan, Myriam Verreault's first narrative feature was co-written with the novel’s First Nation Canadian author Naomi Fontaine. Kuessipan means "your turn" in the Innu language, a title chosen to mark the notion that it is the Innu people's turn to tell their story.
Myriam Verreault | Canada | Montagnais, French & English w/ English subtitles | 2019 | Drama | 117 mins.
“Brazilian drama Marighella is an urgent film in its commitment and cinematic intensity, and it could hardly be more timely.” - Screendaily
Currently censored in Brazil, Marighella is a new Brazilian action drama set in 1969 based on the life of Afro-Brazilian politician and guerrilla fighter Carlos Marighella. Facing a violent military dictatorship and with little support from a timid opposition, writer-turned-politician Carlos Marighella organizes a resistance movement. Alongside revolutionaries 30 years younger than him and willing to fight, the revolutionary leader opts for action. The film is adapted from the biography Marighella - O Guerrilheiro que Incendiou o Mundo, by Mario Magalhaes. Brazilian musical artist, songwriter, and actor Seu Jorge plays Carlos Marighella.
Wagner Moura | Brazil | Portuguese w/ English subtitles | 2019 | Historical Action Drama | 155 mins.
The full festival schedule and ticket purchases can be made on Eventive or by calling 773-281-4114 or 212-864-1760.
$95 /All-Access Pass
$15 /Special Events
$10 /General Admission
