Porridge With Love

Mary Yohannes Getaneh – Canada – 2025 / 8:06 – AMHARIC/ENGLISH
In Ethiopia and Eritrea, women gather to prepare genfo (traditional porridge) to bless expectant mothers. For 40 days after birth, the community cooks, cleans, and cares for mother and baby. Adanech Sahilie continues this tradition in Calgary, supporting pregnant ewcomers through her program, Porridge with Love, with nourishment, dignity, and community care.

Crowned

Chanice Lorde – Canada – 2025 / 7:57 – ENGLISH
“Crowned” shines a light on Black women rewriting narratives formed in their earlier years. Through raw, intimate reflections, they reveal how shame targeted at Afro-textured hair has transformed into knowledge, pride, and radical self-love – encouraging audiences to unapologetically embrace themselves in their natural state.

Hyphenated

Dáminí Awóyígà – Canada – 2025 / 6:49 – ENGLISH
“Hyphenated” examines identity among Canadians with hyphenated cultural identities. It explores tensions between heritage and home, language and belonging, pride and pressure. Centring young people’s experiences through interviews, Hyphenated asks: what does it mean to be Canadian, and what does home mean; capturing the quiet reality of existing in the-between.

ANGLOPHONE COHORT

Twenty-Nine

Ra’anaa Yaminah Ekundayo – Canada – 2025 / 8:10 – ENGLISH
In conversation with their mother, emerging filmmaker Ra’anaa Yaminah Ekundayo compares both their lives at 29, in 1996 and 2025 respectively. An exploration of Black motherhood, queerness, and identity, Twenty-Nine shares a warm and witty intergenerational heart-to-heart in the face of an ever-changing socio-political landscape.

Three Layers of Intimacy

Sydney Shelton – Canada – 2025 / 7:41 – ENGLISH
Jega is a painter experiencing his first major career milestone: a public vernissage of his work. Through this moment, he reflects on how loss, identity, and community have shaped his emerging artistic journey.

A Date with Sarah Akinterinwa

Ugo Nwachuku – Canada – 2025 / 6:53 – ENGLISH
New York Times and The Guardian’s Black British cartoonist, Sarah Akinterinwa discusses her journey as an artist and her political illustrations with aspiring African Canadian filmmaker Ugo Nwachuku.

FRANCOPHONE COHORT

Heirs of a Faith

Joeneel Abraham Benjamin – Canada – 2025 / 7:36 – FRENCH
The very large majority of immigrant children in Quebec are born into a religion. This documentary explores three different paths they will take as they grow up: some remain deeply attached to their faith, others distance themselves from it, and others do not know where they stand.

A Poutine and a Picture

Kalthoum Sitta – Canada – 2025 / 7:46 – FRENCH
As her aunt remembers aloud, a young woman assembles fragments of her mother’s life. The film dwells in a fragile in-between, where gestures, archives, and silences shape a fractured family history.

Sena

Shadlyne – Canada – 2025 / 5:12 – FRENCH
“Sena” follows a young woman who works in a library while developing her artistic practice through dance and drawing. The documentary accompanies her daily life, between work and creation, at a pivotal moment in her journey.

We Tried to Change the World

Soazik Beugré – Canada – 2025 / 8:01 – FRENCH
Four former Montreal street fundraisers come together to reflect on their experience. Through their conversations, the film explores the racism they faced, the mental burden, the lack of support, and the irony of a so-called “charitable” sector that mobilizes racialized people to defend human rights elsewhere.

Bloqué

Loïc Ky – Canada – 2025 / 8:58 – ENGLISH
From that frozen moment on the page, “Bloqué” explores the tangled roots of writer’s block, the fear behind creating, and the weight of expectation. Through self-questioning, interviews with writers and observation, the film searches for the line between creative pause and paralysis; the journey circles back to continuing his story.

The Talk

Precious Iziomon – Canada – 2025 / 7:38 – ENGLISH
“The Talk”, directed and hosted by Precious Iziomon, is a set of fun, raw, and honest conversations that shed light on the many “talks” that occur in Black families. “The Talk” pulls back the curtain on these moments, highlighting the lived experiences of Black youth and families.

Viewfinder

Tejiri Obaze – Canada – 2025 / 7:41 – ENGLISH
After a tragic loss, a young photographer relocates to Ottawa to rebuild their life. In a new environment, photography continues to be a tool for healing and connection. Through intimate interviews, photographers reflect on framing reality, preserving memory, and how images shape identity, belonging, and community.

JAPA

Ediri Obor – Canada – 2025 / 7:52 – ENGLISH
When two young Nigerians leave home to settle in Toronto, Canada, hoping to build a better life, they face challenges far harsher than expected and are forced to decide whether to evolve or abandon the dream they travelled so far to pursue.

Rhino: Diary of a Krumper

Glo Romy – Canada – 2025 / 7:54 – ENGLISH
“Rhino” traces a Black man’s journey through Krump as he moves between vulnerability and strength in his Toronto hometown. The film explores how he transforms raw movement into power—revealing this dance form as both armor and confession, where movement turns personal experience into shared Black expression.

Streetnames

Mars – Canada – 2025 / 8:11 – ENGLISH
“Streetnames” explores how naming shapes memory and power in Toronto. Centered on the transformation of Yonge-Dundas Square into Sankofa Square, the film reflects on how public space reveals whose histories are preserved, contested, or forgotten.

Kings to Strangers: The Climb Back

Oluwaxplorer – Canada – 2025 / 7:56 – ENGLISH
“Kings to Strangers: The Climb Back” follows immigrants in Canada as they navigate loss of status, identity, and certainty. Through quiet moments of struggle and resilience, the film reveals how dignity, family, and perseverance fuel the long climb toward rebuilding purpose in a new land.

Straight Out of Africa

Temitope Akinterinwa – Canada – 2025 / 7:19 – ENGLISH
When a young African woman lands in Toronto, she expects only to be seen as Black. What she doesn’t anticipate is feeling blacker. In this bold, voice-driven documentary, she reflects on bias, challenges assumptions tied to her background, and carries the quiet burden of assimilation — without losing herself.

My True Love’s Skin

Yemie Sonuga – Canada – 2025 / 7:19 – ENGLISH
A documentary connecting diverse experiences of Canadian Black women, bringing intimate conversations about identity, social issues, and the complexities of living as Black person in modern day Canada.

Taking Up Space

Mobolaji Tunde-Oladepo – Canada – 2025 / 7:41 – ENGLISH
Up-and-coming improvisers Alex, Frankie and Felix form a BPOC (Black and People of Colour) comedy group called the “Diversity Hires.” Part of improving their practice comes from participating in improv jams, where they experience the high energy and oftentimes ridiculous nature of making up stories with friends and strangers.

The Modern Tale of Vancouver Animators

Ophelia Klaus – Canada – 2025 / 8:06 – ENGLISH
The art of animation is beloved by all but do we know who is behind the moving drawings that makes us dream? “The Modern Tale of Vancouver Animators” drops the veil on the current state of the animation industry, letting us know of the obstacles it can be facing.

Parallax Bodies

Zelee Ilima – Canada – 2025 / 8:36 – ENGLISH
Two African immigrants in Canada trace the roots that shape them as artists. By exploring memory and present-day practice, they reveal their rituals and moments of doubt when vision slips, showing how creative output is possibility and perception refracted through time.