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Celebrating Black Futures

Four Successive Thursdays at VIFF Centre from Feb 8

Co-Presented with the Vancouver Art Gallery | Curated by Kika Memeh

Image: Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, at VIFF Centre

The Celebrating Black Futures film series brings together Black & African films that reflect the present and exciting future of cinema. In three feature films and a series of shorts, these filmmakers present a contemporary snapshot of the multilateral nature of African, African-American, Caribbean, and Black Canadian culture and cinema.

Babatunde Apalowo’s All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White tells a tale of forbidden love in an unsupportive society. Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro’s Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, a necessary and revelatory documentary about the American jazz legend. Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s When Morning Comes is a familiar tale of Jamaican-Canadian immigration.

Through colorful visual rhythms and dynamic storytelling, these stories of love, immigration, pain, ambition, and family are representative of the new wave of Black and African cinema.

Kika Memeh headshot

Co-Presented by

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes + Feven Kidane Sextet Live

82 min

Legendary drummer and activist Max Roach was one of the prime instigators of bebop, but his influence goes way beyond that. This film records his creative peaks, personal struggles and his inspiring commitment to Civil Rights. + Live Jazz Show.

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All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White

93 min

Babatunde Apalowo's luminously photographed debut feature is a brave, empathetic treatment of a Nigerian man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality in a society where homosexuality is illegal and taboo.

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Black History Month: Short Film Showcase

69 min

The four short films in this program range from humorous dark comedy to sombre drama. These films explore existential crises, beauty standards and daring ambitions in the lives of the protagonists.

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When Morning Comes

83 min

Nine-year-old Jamal (a radiant Djamari Roberts) is getting bullied at school and his mum -- a widow -- decides she needs to get him out of Jamaica and educated in Canada, with his grandmother. Only one problem: Jamal is not on board.

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