Pan African Film Festival 2025
BORN IN THE STRUGGLE w/ DYING TO VOTE
Directed by Kamasi Hill/Loki Mulholland
USA, 2025/2024, 1h 31min, DCP
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.
Join us for a screening of BORN IN THE STRUGGLE, preceded by the short film DYING TO VOTE.
BORN IN THE STRUGGLE (60 min), dir. Kamasi Hill
This documentary delves into the lives of children born to 1960s and ’70s Black Power activists, including Ras J. Baraka, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Fred Hampton Jr. Through personal accounts, the documentary explores how their parents’ revolutionary commitments shaped their childhoods and inspired their own activism. Against a backdrop of shifting cultural landscapes, it examines their challenges, resilience, and the role of hip-hop in naming and proclaiming the Black experience for a new generation.
Texas Premiere.
Awards: Short Documentary, Programmer’s Award, PAFF 2025
DYING TO VOTE (31 min), dir. Loki Mulholland
Voting is so vital to American democracy that some will die for that right while others will kill to keep them from having it. This is a long-view commentary recalling the history of voting in the United States and how, during Reconstruction, Black people were able to achieve high office in the U.S. government through the exercise of their voting rights. But due to intimidation, voter manipulation, and even murder, Black people became disenfranchised, thus depriving them of representation until the mid-20th century. Included in the manipulation to disenfranchise Black voters is the January 6, 2021, Insurrection of the U.S. Capitol, which at its heart was an attempt to suppress the power of the Black and Brown vote. Centering on the story of Vernon Dahmer, a civil rights leader in Mississippi who was killed for trying to register African Americans to vote, DYING TO VOTE features Vernon’s son, Dennis Dahmer, Congressman Bennie Thompson, the Chairman of the January 6th Committee, with narration by acclaimed actor Gregory Alan Williams.
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.
