Black Harvest Film Festival celebrates 31 years of Black cinema and storytelling, announces lineup

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago proudly announces the full lineup for the 31st Annual Black Harvest Film Festival, Chicago's annual showcase for Black cinema from across the diaspora.

Spotlighting eight feature films, nine shorts programs, and more than 50 guests, this year's festival takes place at the Siskel Film Center Friday, Nov. 7, through Sunday, Nov. 16, with support from presenting sponsor Gilead Sciences.

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Throughout the festival, audiences will enjoy exclusive screenings, thought-provoking dialogues, and celebratory receptions as they come together to honor more than three decades of the Black Harvest Film Festival.

"From the Block" returns this year, featuring short works from Chicago filmmakers-homegrown talent, festival alumni, and first-time voices.

A theme this year is homelands: films that trace memory, longing and return, reflecting how the idea of home reverberates across the diaspora. Among the highlights is "BLKNWS: TERMS AND CONDITIONS," a bold new theatrical release that journeys through the Black Atlantic-formally daring, expansive and visionary, a work destined to shape the canon. Curation for this year's festival affirms cinema as a force that continues to transform community and culture.

"Black storytelling has always been a ceremony-calling forth what must be seen, felt and remembered," said Black Harvest Film Festival Curator Jada-Amina. "When we gather in the dark before the big screen, a covenant forms-film and filmmaker, film and the faithful-each breathing life into the other. Black Harvest extends that lineage, reminding us that to see is sacred, to listen is to learn-and to keep the light even after the screens go dark."

Festival passes and individual tickets are available for purchase.