FILMS

TICKETS: $12 general public/$9 Members


FEATURE FILMS

DOWNLOAD FULL PROGRAM GUIDE (FEAT. ALL FILMS/EVENTS) HERE

THE BIG PAYBACK

1h 28m

A rookie alderwoman from Evanston, Illinois, led the passage of the first tax-funded reparations for slavery bill in U.S. history for Black Americans. While she and her community struggle with the burden to make restitution for its citizens, a national racial crisis engulfs the country. Will the debt ever be addressed, or is it too late for this reparations movement to finally get the big payback?

DIR Erika Alexander, Whitney Dow

Thursday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m ≫

THE LAST DRAGON

1h 49m

A young man searches for the "master" to obtain the final level of martial arts mastery known as the glow. Along the way he must fight an evil martial arts expert and rescue a beautiful singer from an obsessed music promoter.

DIR. Michael Schultz

Saturday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. >>

THE AFRICAN DESPERATE

1h 40m

It’s MFA grad Palace Bryant’s final 24 hours in art school, and she is not going to the fucking graduation party! She needs to get back home to Chicago from Upstate New York, but that means surviving a hazy, hilarious, and hallucinatory odyssey, stumbling from academic critiques to backseat hookups.

DIRS Martine Syms

Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7 p.m. >>

BLACK LOVE THROUGH A BLACK LENS SHORTS

1h 30m

You do not have to watch a romance film to experience the expansive nature of Black love! Boundless, limitless and most importantly genreless, Black love exists in a variety of forms. Come join us Valentine’s Day weekend for an evening screening of short films that center and celebrate Black love in all of its multitudes.

Film titles coming soon! 

Saturday, Feb. 11 at 12 p.m. ≫

LOUDMOUTH

2h 0m

Since bursting on the national political scene in New York City in the late 1980s, preacher and activist Reverend Al Sharpton has been at the center of national conversations revolving around race. In the aftermath of George Floyd's horrific murder in 2020, the veteran civil rights leader has grabbed global headlines. LOUDMOUTH puts an unprecedented spotlight on the veteran activist and asks whether Al Sharpton has gone mainstream, or if America has finally decided to listen.

DIRS Josh Alexander

Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7 p.m.≫

JUNETEENTH: FAITH AND FREEDOM

1 hr 15 min

Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom is an unscripted documentary that invites viewers into the story of Juneteenth – the holiday recognizing the end of legalized slavery in Texas – through the eyes of a Black man learning about the holiday from the direct descendants of those liberated. The story serves as a parable that offers hope, and the insight that faith can be the greatest weapon against injustice.

DIR. Ya'Ke Smith

Saturday, Feb 18 at 12 p.m. ≫

FIRE MUSIC

1h 28m

Although the free jazz movement of the 1960s and ‘70s was much maligned in some jazz circles, its pioneers – brilliant talents like Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane – are today acknowledged as central to the evolution of jazz as America’s most innovative art form. FIRE MUSIC showcases the architects of a movement whose radical brand of improvisation pushed harmonic and rhythmic boundaries, and produced landmark albums.

DIR. Tom Surgal

Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7 p.m. ≫

AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY

2h 2m

A quixotic artist hypothesizes about why he feels bad when a mystery girl stands him up. The event prompts him to ask: what’s the content of a momentary feeling? Is it the sum of your experiences? And, perhaps more importantly, are your experiences the sum of you? Preceded by the short film DON'T GO TELLIN' YOUR MOMMA directed by Topaz Jones and rubberband.

DIR. Terence Nance

Saturday, Feb. 25 at 12 p.m. ≫