Pan African Film Festival 2025
BLACK IMMIGRANTS: TELLING OUR STORIES & VISIONING THE FUTURE
Directed by Al'Ikens Plancher/Rhym Guissé/Tommy Franklin
USA, 2024/2025, 36min, DCP, Presented in various languages with subtitles in English
AFS Cinema
6406 N I-35 Suite 3100 Austin, TX 78752
Pricing
$13.50 evening / $11 matinee (available M-F for shows before 6 PM)
$4 discounts for AFS MAKE & WATCH members. Free for LOVE & Impact Circle members.
Discounts for AISD educators and local high school & college students are available at the box office with a valid school ID.
Ryan Darbonne, co-founder of the Black Auteur Film Festival will host this screening.
A screening of three short films followed by a powerful discussion exploring the needs, challenges, and aspirations of Black immigrants. This event will also examine the deep connections between Black displacement, migration, and the systemic forces of racial capitalism and global anti-Blackness driving these issues.
BOAT PEOPLE (10 min), dir. Al’Ikens Plancher
Inspired by true events, a Haitian refugee fights to survive the inhumane conditions at Guantánamo Bay.
Texas Premiere.
Awards:
Best Caribbean Short, Nouveaux Regards Film Festival 2025
Best Short Narrative, BlackStar Film Festival 2024
CARTES (14 min), dir. Rhym Guissé
Immigrant Aliyah wants to volunteer at the Environmental Justice Society (EJS), the organization that helped her family’s village in Mali. She finds herself an outlier within the trendy white environmental activism world, juxtaposed against her coworkers’ ego-driven activism. Her dreams of giving back turn into a nightmare when her boss asks for proof of employment documents. Panicked, undocumented Aliyah tries to find a way to come up with proof of her citizenship, risking her family’s safety and everything they’ve built.
Regional Premiere and Texas Premiere.
MEXICO IS HELL FOR BLACK MIGRANTS (12 min), dir. Tommy Franklin
In the Mexican state of Chiapas, near the Mexico/Guatemala border, thousands of Black migrants seeking asylum face anti-Blackness in the city of Tapachula, Mexico. The US has extended its borders to South and Central America by enforcing policies that trap Black Migrants from a dozen countries in horrific conditions as they attempt to journey to the US.
Regional Premiere and Texas Premiere.
PAN AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL PASSES
Purchase a PAFF pass for tickets to all six PAFF screenings, taking place Thursday, July 31–Saturday, August 2, and receive 25% off the full ticket purchase price. AFS Members receive additional discounts on passes and individual tickets. The PAFF pass includes one ticket to each film screening and the opening night reception.
This project is supported in part by the City of Austin Economic Development Department and a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
This event is sponsored by BAJI (Black Alliance for Just Immigration).
