Light bearers and revolutionaries. Thank you to our screening partner: <a href="https://www.scribe.org/" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent;">Scribe Video Center</a> and <a href="https://www.blackdocumentarycollective.org/" target="_blank">Black Documentary Collective</a>.

Old Man River is the final film in this body of work, continuing an exploration of lineage, memory and inheritance through an intimate portrait of the filmmaker’s father, a 100-year-old political activist and nation builder from Guyana who helped found the country’s first multiethnic political party. The film sits beside him as he reflects on a lifetime shaped by political struggle, idealism, sacrifice and the contradictions within revolutionary movements. Now blind, with his connection to the physical world becoming more fragile, his mind drifts freely between past and present, between his current home in Georgia and the landscapes of Guyana, between memory, dream and lived reality. The film moves within the rhythms of this roving consciousness, embracing a nonlinear structure that mirrors the simultaneity of time and the emotional terrain of aging.Threaded throughout is Kwayana’s lifelong admiration for Paul Robeson and the emotional resonance of Robeson’s song “Ol’ Man River.” Anchored as much in family life as in political history, the film uses the song as a social and spiritual probe, reflecting on the roles people inherit, perform and resist within society.

Old Man River

Old Man River is an exploration of lineage, memory and inheritance through an intimate portrait of the filmmaker’s father, a 100-year-old political activist and nation builder from Guyana who was one of the cofounders of the country’s first multiethnic political parties. The film sits beside him as he reflects on a lifetime shaped by struggle, idealism and sacrifice.

Free Joan Little tells the story of the 1975 groundbreaking case of Joan Little, who was the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. At 20 years old, Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) Little was incarcerated in North Carolina when she killed a white jailer she said tried to rape her. Her trial drew international attention, becoming a rallying point for civil rights, women’s rights and prison reform. The case brought together activists, including Angela Davis and Rosa Parks, and catalyzed an international conversation about sexual assault and racial justice that has reverberations to this day. With rare archival footage, contemporary interviews and the folk anthem that carried her cause, Free Joan Little captures the spirit of resistance that made history. The film features Oscar-nominated actress Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple) as the voice of Joan.

Descriptions of sexual violence, discussions of state violence

Free Joan Little

Free Joan Little tells the story of the 1975 groundbreaking case of Joan Little, who was the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. With rare archival footage, contemporary interviews and the folk anthem that carried her cause, Free Joan Little captures the spirit of resistance that made history.

A Bundle of Silences is an experimental documentary about the 1983 Águila Blanca heist, when the Puerto Rican revolutionary group Los Macheteros expropriated $7 million from a Wells Fargo depot. Centered on Víctor Gerena, the employee who carried out the robbery and disappeared, and his mother, Gloria, a leader in the Puerto Rican community of Hartford, Connecticut, the film weaves testimonies, archives, and film processed with tobacco and coffee to explore silences, lacunas and the limits of documentary forms.

A Bundle of Silences (Un montón de silencios)

In 1983, Puerto Rican revolutionaries expropriated $7 million from an armored truck in Hartford, Connecticut, as part of the Águlia Blanca heist. Through testimonies, archival textures, and images pressed with tobacco and coffee, this film is an exploration of the limits of documentary forms and the silences that shape history.

Luminiferous Shorts

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BlackStar Film Festival is an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the global majority, showcasing films by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from around the world. Celebrate our 15th anniversary with us. Events will take place in person in Philadelphia and films will stream online around the world from August 6-9, 2026.

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