Harlem International Film Festival at Aaron Davis Hall

Celebrating the art of cinema in the home of the Harlem Renaissance, The Harlem International Film Festival (Hi) inspires and entertains by honoring dynamic films by anyone about anything under the sun. Conceived from the belief that we all have unique experiences and perspectives to share, the Festival actively seeks and exhibits fresh and urgent work. Hi is committed to exemplifying the eminence that Harlem represents and is dedicated to bringing attention to the finest filmmakers from Harlem to Hong Kong.

The Hi experience integrates the best that Harlem has to offer – great restaurants, unique boutiques, world-class music venues, prestigious universities and cultural institutions, and a long history of excellence in the Arts. The Festival showcases features, documentaries, shorts, animation, youth projects, episodic work and cutting edge music video. Other events include Hi noon lunchtime screenings, the screenplay showdown, panel discussions, nightlife, the Hi Honors and the Renaissance Awards gala.

In addition to showcasing some of the best films from around the world, the Festival also features the Harlem Spotlight, which highlights films produced or directed by Harlem residents, films shot in Harlem, or films about Harlem and her legendary history.

Films Expected to be Screened:

Friday, September 19, 2025

12:00 pm

Beautiful Evening, Beautiful Day

Director: Ivona Juka, Country: Bosnia, Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus and Poland, Running Time: 137 min

Four close friends in their young 20s, Lovro, Nenad, Stevan, and Ivan, fought against the Ustashas and Nazis by joining the partisans. Sixteen years later, they became renowned filmmakers. In 1957, in Communist Yugoslavia, their sexual orientation raised suspicion, and a communist party loyalist named Emir was assigned to sabotage their careers and lives. The pursuit of freedom becomes a fight for survival for the artists, while Emir's beliefs are challenged.

Seppuku: The Sun Goes Down

Director: Yuji Kakizaki, Country: Japan, Running Time: 133 min

This period piece set in Japan during the Edo Period, finds Yoshino, the wife of the shogunate's castle guard, a direct retainer of the Shogun, rebuking her husband, Furuta Kyuzo Masanari, after he is placed under house arrest for the crime of damaging the Shogun's bow while on duty at the Edo Castle. Kyuzo’s fate will soon be decided.

2:15 pm

3 Cold Dishes

Director: Asurf Amuwa Oluseyi, Country: Côte d'Ivoire, France, Nigeria, Running time: 116 min

Three women, once trafficked as young girls and stripped of their innocence, reunite years later with a single goal: to take down the powerful men who shattered their lives. Bound by their shared trauma and unyielding resilience, they embark on a dangerous journey of revenge, turning the tables on their captors in a story of justice, empowerment, and unrelenting retribution.

Comrade Tambo’s London Recruits

Director: Gordon Main, Country: United Kingdom, Running Time: 104 min

At the height of apartheid in the late 60s and early 70s, an international group of working-class students and workers living in London answered Oliver Tambo’s secret call for undercover agents.

This film tells the story of these young men and women who brought to life - at great personal risk - Oliver Tambo’s daring, non-violent strategy to keep hope alive in his embattled people in South Africa. Not everyone made it out.

4:15 pm

GAME ON: BASKETBALL IN RURAL CHINA

The Arrivals

Director: Andrea M DeGeorge Garbarini, Country: United States, Running Time: 40 min

From the Arrival of the first busload of asylum seekers sent to NY from Texas in August of 2022, the film follows three tiny, underfunded volunteer organizations that welcomed, assisted, fed, clothed and provided kindness and dignity to the newcomers in need.

Preceded by:

1) The Seed

Director: Hélène Goupil, Country: United States, Running Time: 19 min

Guy Clark, an iconic figure in the LGBTQ community who's been selling flowers in San Francisco's Castro District since the AIDS epidemic, finds himself priced out of his own neighborhood and has to weather the seasons of a changing city.

2) Homeless to Homeowner

Director: Jahangir Golestan-Parst, Country: United States, Running Time: 26 min

Homelessness continues to devastate communities across our Nation. In Sacramento, California, a group of determined individuals are transforming this seemingly intractable problem. Homeless to Homeowner introduces Mohammad Mohanna, a successful Iranian American developer and philanthropist, who believes everyone deserves dignified and prosperous lives. Shocked that his homelessness neighbors are routinely harassed and relocated, he established a facility where people receive the resources they need to become members of society once again.

6:30 pm

You Are Not Alone

Director: Brittney M Russell, Country : United States, Running Time 51:59

In the United States, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, a disparity that rises sharply in the Bronx, one of New York State’s most impacted communities, where Black mothers face a maternal mortality rate nine times higher than their counterparts. This film captures the powerful stories of women in the Bronx navigating pregnancy and advocating for change. This documentary unveils the harsh realities of systemic inequalities, societal barriers, and the disparities in maternal care, shedding light on a national crisis with deeply local consequences.

Preceded by:

1) The Self-Love Act

Director: Kareema Bee, Country: US, Running Time: 20 min

In this series hosted by Kareema Bee, a Black woman and artist explores her journey through self-love in dialogue with others, supported by The Big We Foundation.

In the pilot episode, Kareema finds out her African ancestry in an unexpected way, which catapults her into an exploration of her roots and how it extends to her community, only to find what she's been searching for may have been there all along.

Unbanked

Director: David Kuhn, Lauren Sieckmann, Country: United States, Running Time: 85 min

This is the story of Bitcoin, from its inception as a response to the market crash of 2008, to its infancy as either the first realistic alternative to the oppression of a failed global fiat system, or the largest bubble waiting to burst in economic history.

Preceded by:

1) Cut Me Summa Dat Noise

Director: Cara Hagan, Country: United States, Running Time: 7 min

This musical film celebrates the rhythms of everyday life through the eyes of a neighborhood matriarch who sets the tone for a new day with the beat of her own heart. As the neighborhood comes to life, people of all ages unite in a joyous cacophony of sound that illuminates the connections between them as members of a vibrant and diverse community in rhythm.

8:10 pm

The Rewrite

Director: Terry Dawson, Country: United States, Running Time: 94 min

A struggling screenwriter, obsessed with portraying Black Excellence and authenticity, is forced to do a rewrite of his latest draft in order to save his career. But when he revisits the characters in his script in real life, he soon realizes that his own world is short on authenticity and anything but excellent.

Preceded by:

1) KENDRAKE

Director: Affion Crockett, Country: United States, Running Time: 9 min

In the aftermath of the RAP BEEF HEARD AROUND THE WORLD between KENDRICK LAMAR & DRAKE, stands a divided fanbase. When the division makes its way into corporate America, extreme measures must be taken.

2) Deli

Director: Max Garcia, Country: United States, Running Time: 14 min

3 NYC deli workers find themselves wrapped up in a government conspiracy after discovering the truth about Staten Island.

8:30 pm

Unbroken

Unbroken is an intimate athletic drama as well as a meditation on loss, age, legacy & mortality.

Following parkour practitioner Bryce Clarke, Unbroken is a documentary that captures an unflinching look at a man's grief & athletic triumph following the passing of his two closest friends -- Basilio “Quiet” Montilla and Deyvid “Wolf” Garcia -- both of whom continue to live on in the New York City parkour community.

Preceded by:

1) Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel - The Anthem Spiritual

Director: Andrew Horton, Country: United States, Running Time: 4 min

Celebrate Black History with these professional baritones of the Hudson Heights Project's refreshed anthem spiritual:

"DIDN'T MY LORD DELIVER DANIEL"

Sense the Awakening...

An awakening sometimes follows a remembrance. The African-American (Negro) Spiritual is a historical embodiment of the conscious of the people it represents. Filmed with footage captured on the streets of Harlem, follow this unique group of professional baritones

known as the Hudson Heights Project as they utilize a refreshed Spiritual as a symbolic expression of contemporary sentiment.

2) Green Bay

Director: Shawn Antonio II, Country: United States, Running Time: 9 min

Set beneath a surreal green sky on a distant, crumbling world, the film captures the last survivors of a dying civilization—women who perform a synchronized ritual dance to summon an ethereal extraterrestrial presence from another realm.

Green Bay is an experimental dance film that explores themes of survival, cosmic ritual, and the transcendent cycle of life through immersive visuals and visceral choreography.

3) Selam

Director: Tevin Lanier- Country: United States, Running TIme: 9 min

This short documentary covers my time teaching film and photography in the countryside of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. While there I met some beautiful and inspiring people who I believe changed my perspective on many things as well as giving me a new purpose. I was invited by Selamta, an organization that helps children find homes in Ethiopia.

3) Woshchi’ishji: The One Close To Me,

Director: Carrie Johnson, Country: United States, Running Time: 9 min

Devaughn “Von” Sylvester has lived his entire life on the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico, playing the only sport that as a 6’2 guard took him anywhere else: basketball — but when Von spontaneously moves to Harlem, New York, the great change brings him face to face with a reflection of upbringing, and he must see if the sport that saved him once can save him again.