African Diaspora Film Festival on Screens in Jamaica and Sunnyside this Weekend

The Pirogue is a colorful and compelling drama about 30 Senegalese economic migrants who sail to Spain in small boat, facing a treacherous Atlantic Ocean and the possibility of never reaching their destination. Return to Gorée follows Youssou N’Dour as the Senegalese singer traces jazz’s trail from Africa to the U.S. His goal is to bring back to Africa a jazz repertoire of his own songs to perform a concert in Gorée, the island that symbolizes the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Both movies will screen in Jamaica’s Black Spectrum Theatre on Saturday as part of the African Diaspora Film Festival. Now in its 20th year, the festival features everything from world premieres to classic movies and Q&A to panel discussions. On Sunday, Sunnyside’s Thalia Spanish Theatre will screen six movies: Papa National Oyé, a political satire of African dictators; Kinshasa Mboka Té, a documentary about the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Tula the Revolt, which stars Danny Glover as the leader of a slave uprising on the Dutch-occupied Caribbean island of Curacao in 1795; Amnesty, which depicts a young Kenyan couple living the American dream until an ICE audit reveals a damaging secret; Mother of George, which is about a Nigerian couple in Brooklyn that can’t conceive a child; and Spies of Mississippi, which tells the story of a secret spy agency that seeks to preserve segregation and maintain white supremacy in 20th century Mississippi.

Details: December 14th, Return to Gorée, 2 pm, and The Pirogue, 4:30 pm, Black Spectrum Theatre, Baisley Boulevard at 177th Street, Roy Wilkins Park, Jamaica, prices vary.

Details: December 15th, Papa National Oyé and Kinshasa Mboka Té, 1:30 pm; Tula the Revolt, 3:30 pm; Amnesty and Mother of George, 5:30 pm; and Spies of Mississippi, 8 pm, Thalia Spanish Theatre, 41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside, prices vary.

Photos via African Diaspora Film Festival