The Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, in collaboration with FACETS presents Black Italian Film Showcase, a film series to celebrate Black History Month.  

Black Italian Film Showcase is the first celebration of Afro-Italian talents in film, showcasing new features, documentaries, and short films and illuminating the historical, social, and cultural aspects of Black life in Italy through film, offering the opportunity to see a diverse representation of Italy. Curated by Italian-Ghanaian-American producer-director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu, this retrospective of Italian of African descent filmmakers deals with questions of colonialism, diversity, global black diaspora, gender, race, and identity that are best answered by those who live Italy’s integration day to day. 

On Saturday, February 18th movie director Antonio Dikele Distefano and producer-director Fred Kudjo Kuwornu will lead a public conversation, following the screening of Dikele Distefano’s new movie Autumn Beat (2022), produced by Amazon Studios and co-produced by Indiana Productions and presented in Chicago for the first time to the public.  After the program, guests will be invited to enjoy a complementary cocktail reception.

A selection of short movies from the Black Italian Film Showcase will also be presented to students of Chicago schools on Tuesday, February 21st as part of the curricular offering for Black History Month. For information on how to participate, please contact help@facets.org.

Black Italian Film Showcase is presented as part of Chi Siamo: (Re)presenting Italian Culture, the theme selected for 2023 by the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago. This year-long series will explore the topics of representation and inclusion in Italian arts, with a specific focus on cross-cultural contamination in contemporary and modern Italy.

PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP 

Black Italian Film Showcase is presented by the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, in collaboration with FACETS on the occasion of Black History Month.