Black Cinema Collective presents Community Curated films for the Seattle Black Film Festival (SBFF)
at LANGSTON from April 24th to 27th
House of Aama: Threads of Legacy film still, courtesy of Jamal Ademola
WE MAKE A/WAY AND BACK AGAIN
A Series of International Shorts
co-presented by Black Cinema Collective + LANGSTON
Saturday April 26th, 2025, 2:15pm
Contemporary African and Afrodiasporic filmmakers explore ancestral roots, cultural and familial memory, and delve into the haunting mystics and social politics of connection, yearning, immigration, Western hegemony, and hopes of return throughout the Global South. Afro-descendants live everywhere on the globe, speaking multiple languages, while negotiating relationships that simultaneously reveal differences and unexpected similarities of Black people worldwide. While making new lives, friendships, and communities, the characters in these films make a/way and back again; they negotiate what it is to remember who they are and where they come from; they reconcile struggle and loss into liberatory and resonant connections.
Program Curator, Berette S Macaulay
FILM SYNOPSES + TRAILER PLAYLIST
SYNOPSES
Where My Memory Began, 2023, Dir. Priscillia Kounkou Hoveyda
Sierra Leone - Krio - 9:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
Centuries ago, freed Black folks braved the Atlantic Ocean to travel back to Africa. On arrival, they walked from the shore to a tall cotton tree, where they took respite from their journey. When they awoke with renewed strength, they decided to name this place freedom town, today's Freetown, the capital city of the western country, Sierra Leone. When the tree falls, an elder, Elder Ballu, tries to remember this history and legacy in this experimental short doc, Where My Memory Began.
Reunion, 2024, Dirs. Zainab Jah & Timothy Naylor
United States - English - 16:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
Isata, a West African immigrant, comes across a newspaper profile on best-selling author of Redemption Of A Boy Soldier, Mamadou Kargbo. A picture of him as a boy soldier unearths long forgotten childhood memories. Convinced that Mamadou was once the child soldier who wiped out her family during their country's civil war, she resolves to track him down. The closer she gets, the more she grapples with thoughts of retribution or forgiveness.
IG. @ladyzjah | @t.s.naylor
Pepo Kali, 2023, Dir. Lydia Matata
Kenya - English, Swahili - 15:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
Pepo Kali, meaning strong wind in Kiswahili, is about Wairimu, a woman in her 50s who decides to learn how to ride a motorcycle after her daughter is killed in a riding accident. Her grief intensifies with every lesson she takes.
IG. @lydiamatata
Mirah, 2024, Dir. Ahmed Samir
Egypt / Germany - English, Arabic, German - 19:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
Inspired by a true story, Mirah, an Egyptian immigrant living in Germany, finds a unique way to adapt to the fast life of Berlin. Through the fictional story of Mirah and her journey of self discovery, the film invites audiences to question the social masks we wear to feel safe.
Leave the Edges, 2020, Dir. Baff Akoto
Ghana - English - 39:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
Leave the Edges blurs narrative boundaries of portraiture, vérité and performance to evoke an abstracted fluidity of cultural exchange which ripple beyond temporal horizons of our lifetimes. The film meditates on the evolution of Black cultures, which are indelibly marked simultaneously by colonialism, and act as an agent of resistance to colonisers.
IG. @baff_akoto
House of Aama: Threads of Legacy, 2025, Dir. Jamal Ademola
United States - English - 15:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
After the loss of her father, Akua Shabaka and her mother, Rebecca Henry—the visionary duo behind the fashion label House of Aama—find solace and inspiration in their creative bond. Drawing from the Free Jazz movement, they craft a captivating new collection, Sun Records, which they debut at New York Fashion Week. As Akua recalls her father's lineage from the Caribbean to Ghana, this evocative short documentary delves into their journey of resilience, and renewal, revealing the profound artistry that emerges from archives and ancestral reverence.
IG. @jamalademola
Coconut, 2022, Dir. Jard Lerebours
Jamaica - English - 4:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
Coconut details the director's trip to his mother's homeland in Jamaica to bury his grandmother, who was also his caretaker. Made from original super 8mm footage filmed in Jamaica, as well as found footage, Coconut is a public declaration of love for Gladys Austin.
IG. @jard_lere
Cape Town Royalty Programme, 2023, Dir. Max Fouchee
South Africa - English - 7:00 mins
⭐️ Seattle Premiere
A bright and charming presenter invites you to explore all that the Cape Town Royalty Programme has to offer wealthy European investors in glamorous Cape Town, South Africa.
PRESENTING PARTNERS + FILM SUPPORT
LOCATION
LANGSTON Center for Performing Arts Grand Hall Theatre
Located on the first floor
104 17th Avenue South
Seattle, WA, 98144