Sh*t White Girls Say to Black Girls is one of the latest videos to take the Internet by storm, having been viewed by over 4 million in less than a week. The creator, Franchesca Ramsey, a young, dark skin, Black woman with locs throws on a blond wig and goes IN, reenacting remarks made by …
From the shifting faultlines of Hollywood fantasies and the economic and racial tensions of Reagan’s America, Fishbone rose to become one of the most original bands of the last 25 years. With a blistering combination of punk and funk they demolished the walls of genre and challenged the racial stereotypes and political order of the …
At a crossroad in life, 26-year-old Daniel Dembélé returns to his homeland of Mali and starts a local business building solar panels. Daniel’s unprecedented goal: to electrify rural communities, 99% of which live without power. Burning in the Sun tells his story of growing the budding idea into a viable company and of Daniel’s impact …
A mythopoetic feast of self-discovery that crosses three continents and three generations, That’s My Face traces the filmmaker’s journey to Salvador Da Bahia, the African heart and soul of Brazil, as he seeks the identity of the spirits who haunt his dreams. Paralleling the journey his mother made twenty years earlier to Tanzania in search …
Calypso Rose is the ambassador of Caribbean music. A living legend of calypso, this charismatic artist has often been compared to great black singers such as Aretha Franklin, Cesaria Evoria or Miriam Makeba. Born in 1940 in a fishing village on the island of Tobago, Calypso Rose began singing at the age of 15. Since …
The Olutunmbi’s is the eight month endeavor by filmmaker Temitope Olutunmbi to document and explore his relationship with religious faith and family. The piece is a cerebral and poetic take on the journey to come of age. Through a blend of observational, verite and conventional documentary techniques, the film unfolds in a series of overlapping …
When a community is in the process of development and gentrification, what happens to the art and culture that represents the people of that community? With colorful strokes, Franco the Great has been painting murals on the storefront roll-down gates (riot gates) on 125th Street in Harlem for 40 years. A rezoning legislation and recently …
The Other Side of the Water follows a 20-year journey of the Haitian-American community, told through the lens of a vodou-based walking band in Brooklyn. The music is called rara: part-carnival, part-vodou ceremony, and part-grassroots protest. Rara originally served as a voice of the slaves in their revolt against the French and continued on as …
Uprooted explores the effect of Colombia’s civil war on the people of the Colombian Pacific region, an area that, for centuries, remained exclusively a mining frontier on the periphery of the nation’s development. The majority of the population—freed and runaway slaves and indigenous peoples—lived in relatively dispersed communities up and down the river basin, where …
Mrs. Goundo’s Daughter is the story of a young mother’s quest to keep her baby daughter healthy and whole. It is also the story of the African tradition of female genital cutting—which dates back thousands of years—and how it affects people’s lives in just two of the many places where the practice is being debated …