Mackleen Desravines grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, to Haitian parents and now resides in Atlanta, Georgia. The sole creative and artistic individual in her family, she spent her childhood immersed in reading and writing, raised by her single mother. Despite her mother's wish for her to pursue a career in nursing, Mackleen followed her passion for storytelling, earning both a bachelor's and master's degree in creative and professional writing.

Determined to share everyday stories and collaborate with other artists, Mackleen launched "The Adjuncts" web series in 2016 and directed her debut feature film, "Smoke," which premiered in theaters in 2018 and is now available on multiple streaming platforms.

Mackleen continues to create films and runs M.A.D. Film House Productions, a production company she co-founded in Atlanta with her partner, Doryan Sparkman. Together, they work with creators and business owners to produce commercials, films, shows, and other original content.

Dir. Statement: Hello, I’m Mackleen Desravines, the director of this film. I’m honored to share a deeply personal story about love, loss, and the difficult journey of letting go. This film is for anyone who has faced the challenge of caring for a sick family member and struggled with the pain of saying goodbye. My hope is to bring light to that emotional journey while offering a sense of hope and understanding to those who may be going through a similar experience.

Born in Montreal but living in Toronto, Gordon has done just about every job in front of and behind the camera, including a short stint as a host of YTV. Gordon owns his own film package to make short narrative films and documentaries on a variety of subjects.

Dir. Statement: How can you hate someone you have never met or spoken to? This is the premise of what I hope to be a series of short but impactful films on those who do not play by the rules or live extraordinary lives. Nevada was a friend of a good friend and listening to her journey I was struck by how strong and brave she has to be! Its heartbreaking to hear how she can’t take certain freedoms that some of us just take for granted.

Moreetsi Gabang is a screenwriter and director from Botswana. He is an alumnus of Talents Durban (2017), Berlinale Talents (2018), the DFMI Business Lab 2021-22, and AuthenticA Series Lab (2023-2024). His feature film, "THUPO" (Initiation), currently in development, won the ScreenCraft Film Fund 2023 Award and was selected for DFMI Jumpstart 2023.

Moreetsi graduated valedictorian from AFDA Johannesburg, and completed his MA (First Class) after receiving the Vice-Chancellor Postgraduate International Scholarship to study at UAL: London College of Communication. His short film "Motswakwa" (Foreigner) was nominated for Best Short Film at the 2019 Africa Movie Academy Awards, while "Zombie Date Night in Tlokweng" won the inaugural NEFTi Africa Competition Main Prize and Audience Choice Awards 2023. He directed "Partly Cloudy & Hot" which won Best Short Film at the Mumbai International Film Awards 2024. Moreetsi is a two-time recipient of the Bessie Head Literature Award and Shore Script 2024 Script Development Fund recipient. His recent short film "Baratani" (The Hill of Lovers) won the NEFTi All Stars 2024 Competition Main Prize and Audience Choice Awards.

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Dir. Statement

"Baratani" is more than just a love story that celebrates African folklore; it is a celebration of the human spirit’s capacity to overcome the greatest challenges. It is a tribute to all who dare to defy convention in the name of love, leaving behind a legacy that will echo through generations. 

Stella Awuor / Chanda Lwansa / Omololu Oluwafunmilola / Anreea Caprariu /

Amira Barrett is a fourth-year documentary film major at Spelman College from Atlanta, GA. She is of Jamaican and African American descent, fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and Jamaican Patwa, learning French and has been directing and writing narrative and documentary films for the past five years. After being mentored by Julie Dash, Barrett aspires to be an industry-renowned screenwriter, film director, and actress who uses the power of cinema to advocate for underrepresented groups and tell hidden stories throughout the African diaspora. Currently, Amira is working on her senior thesis film about demystifying the Black body from stereotypes and tropes that originated during slavery. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in the spring of 2025, Amira desires to live abroad where she will direct and write films and utilize the impact of those films to champion social justice for people of color around the world. 

Mmatshepo Rakhalakane, born 2000, is a South African multidisciplinary artist working in film production, theatre and visual art painting. Her work reflects profoundly the state of mind and it’s never ending process of seeking. She is still on a journey of finding her own distinct voice as a creative but the re-occurring themes she seems to always integrate into her art are of the mind space. Forever in awe of the intricacy of the mind, our thoughts, how every inch of it operates in dreams and reality and unceasingly inquisitive about the ways of life. A young mind seeking and the more she does the more it gets complicated yet she finds beauty in the chaos and that is what HER work of ART does, it BEAUTIFIES CHAOS.

Some of her work include Piecing Together Humanity, A Beautiful Mess, I Put Out A Fire, Creation, The Ancestral Journey, Oleander and Chasing Sunsets. All short films, in which some have graced local and international stages at film festivals and have garnered multiple awards, nominations and honourable mentions.

She hopes for her work of art to elicit a feeling in you, as it has in her, that makes you look beyond what art is on the surface and appreciate it for the alchemy it is to the people of the world who are constantly seeking. “Imparting a feeling within a stranger through art may seem small and insignificant but it sure reciprocates as the greatest and most rewarding feeling to me as the creator,” says Mmatshepo Rakhalakane.

Dir Statement:

Education, in whatever form it comes in, is a beautiful opportunity and one that will help further equip individuals to be of greater value in whatever path they pursue, in this instance, the world of storytelling. I admire Mr Nelsen Mokoena for dedicating his life to finding ways to impart knowledge of art-forms to marginalised individuals. To shine light on that, is an opportunity I definitely did not want to miss. 

Kayode George is a Bermudian Filmmaker based in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Toronto Metropolitan University Film Studies Program (2024). Over the course of her undergraduate degree, she worked as a crew member on numerous projects, allowing her to get experience in different roles on set. In her final year, she was chosen by a panel of judges to write and direct her thesis film, titled 'Outcasted,' which earned her the Achievement in Screenwriting award at the university's film festival.

Following graduation, her main career goal is to bring black narratives to the forefront of her storytelling and filmography as she ventures into the film industry.

Dir. Statement

OUTCASTED is a story that came to me when I realized I was tired of seeing women that did not look like me on screen, especially considering that I am not darkskin myself. So, I wanted to create a space for dark skin actresses to take charge of their narrative that is often dismissed and deemed as “bitter” and “jealous.”

While I believe this film is a necessary story to make, I simultaneously understand that dark skin actresses should not be pigeon holed into films about slavery, hardship and generational trauma but should also be seen in coming of age stories, romance, sci-fi; essentially every genre. So hopefully this film can be eye opening and challenge the unconscious bias that many people may not know they have. 

Emma-Lee Amponsah (PhD) is a creative producer, writer, thinker, and researcher of culture and media. Her work focuses on themes including Blackness, memory, technology, and ontology. As a founding member of the Belgo-Dutch grassroots platform and media collective Black Speaks Back (BsB), Amponsah has been involved in various impactful audiovisual projects exploring Blackness in Belgium and The Netherlands. Amponsah was the initiator and producer of the world's first Afrofuturistic musical EUphoria (2028). Black Ibis (2024) marks her directorial debut.

Dir. Statement: 'Zwarte Ibis was born from a commission by If I Can't Dance, I Don't Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution for their Edition IX – Bodies and Technologies biennial programme (2022-23). Grounded in Black Speaks Back's collaborative ethos, this project blurs traditional roles, placing collective creation at its core. Therefore, we emphasize that Black Speaks Back is included, if not centred, in all communication about this film. Black Speaks Back is a Belgo-Dutch grassroots collective and platform for Black experimentation that was founded in 2016 in Brussels and is now based in Amsterdam. Although frustration with the mainstream media and cultural landscape was one of the fertile breeding grounds for the creation of the platform, the collective does not just speak back but rather proactively initiates conversation, facilitates discussion, conducts art-based research, and creates poetic short films. BSB's work has been featured on a dozen film festivals, conferences, and cultural centers across the world. Their first film EUphoria (2018), received its International premiere at the Pan African Film and Art festival in Los Angeles and was awarded the prize for Best fiction at the Belgian Breedbeeld short film competition for new makers.'