Almost every year since 2016, THFF has gathered filmmakers, film lovers, and members of our community to experience the art of Caribbean and diaspora cinema through a rigorously curated program of films, visual art, performances, panels, and other related events. As we continue to find ourselves in an era where a hegemonic establishment seeks [...]

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION Filmmaking as process is at the heart of these five films, memorably imaginative attempts at working through a variety of themes, and towards new ways of understanding. A Q&A with filmmakers whose work appears in this program will follow the screening. NOBODY’S WORD By Camara Taylor | 13 mins | 2025 [...]

By: Abdenour Zahzah Country: Algeria, France Language: Arabic, French w/English Subs Duration: 90 mins Year: 2024 Genre: Fiction SYNOPSIS 1953, colonized Algeria. Frantz Fanon, a young black psychiatrist from Martinique, is appointed head doctor at the Blida-Joinville Hospital. As he puts his theories of “institutional psychotherapy” into practice in opposition to the racist theories [...]

This panel explores Caribbean heritage cinema as a tool for resistance, community action, and historical documentation. Centered on the films in the THFF25 retrospective You Don’t Get Freedom, You Take Freedom: Caribbean Activist Cinema 1978–1985, this discussion will examine the socio-political landscapes that shaped these films, the often collective filmmaking practices behind them, and [...]

By: Natalia Lassalle-Morillo Country: Puerto Rico Language: English and Spanish w/English Subs Duration: 63 mins Year: 2024 Genre: Non-Fiction SYNOPSIS En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I) is a reassemblage of the Greek myth of Antigone in collaboration with a cast of non-professional actors who reside in New York City’s Puerto Rican diasporic community. Developed [...]

By Ben Dupuy and Kim Ives | 77 mins | 1983 | Haiti Filmed clandestinely under the Duvalier dictatorship, Bitter Cane, presented at THFF25 in a brand new restoration, is an incisive documentary interrogation of the exploitation and domination of the Haitian people. From peasant coffee farms in the rugged tropical mountains to steamy [...]

By: Ben Dupuy, Kim Ives Country: Haiti Language: Kreyòl, French, and English, w/English subtitles Duration: 77 mins Year: 1983 Genre: Non-Fiction SYNOPSIS Filmed clandestinely under the Duvalier dictatorship, Bitter Cane, presented at THFF25 in a brand new restoration, is an incisive documentary interrogation of the exploitation and domination of the Haitian people. From peasant [...]

By: Yoel Morales Country: Dominican Republic Language: Spanish w/English Subs Duration: 80 mins Year: 2024 Genre: Fiction SYNOPSIS A raw vision of love in a hostile Caribbean city, Bionico’s Bachata is a mockumentary that follows a hopeless romantic, addicted to crack, who must take control of his life if he wants to marry the [...]

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION Ancestral echoes reverberate across the films in this programme, embodying various forms of resistance and resilience, from the Florida Everglades to a Jamaican sugar plantation to the Amazon rainforest. A Q&A with filmmakers whose work appears in this program will follow the screening. REDEMPTON (AN EXPERIENCE IN THREE PARTS) By Mariana [...]

By: Johanné Gómez Terrero Country: Dominican Republic, Canary Islands Language: Spanish w/English Subs Duration: 90 mins Year: 2024 Genre: Fiction SYNOPSIS Makenya leaves behind fun and dancing with her friends in search for work, after an unwanted pregnancy confronts her with sudden adulthood. The teenager lives alongside her grandfather and mother in the Batey, [...]