| BLACK HARVEST SHORT FILM PROGRAM |
2025–2026, USA, 86 min.
In English and Sudanese Arabic with English subtitles | Format: Digital
November 13 & 15 | SHORTS FROM THE BLOCK celebrates Chicago as both place and practice, a city continually shaped by its artists, organizers, institutions, and neighborhoods. Spanning documentary, narrative, and experimental forms, these films document acts of remembrance, creativity, resistance, healing, and everyday life while revealing the many ways Black Chicagoans preserve history and imagine new futures. Together, these works offer a portrait of the city authored from within, affirming Black Chicago as a living cultural ecosystem sustained by generations of artists, filmmakers, and community builders.
Friday, November 13, 5:30 p.m. | Followed by The Big Picture Party in the Siskel Film Center Cafe, hosted by the Black Harvest Community Council.
PROGRAM
ESSENCE OF INNOCENCE
2025, dirs. Joyce A. Lee, Love Joel Aryeetey, USA, 17 min., In English / Format: Digital
A young girl builds a healing memorial wall at her Islamic school in the wake of 9/11.
SISTAS IN THE PIT
2026, dir. Monet-Chanel Khanyahl, USA, 18 min., In English / Format: Digital
Black femmes carve out space, express rage, and find joy within the alternative punk music scene.
I DREAMT OF COWBOYS, COTTONFIELDS AND CLOUDS: BERNARD WILLIAMS
2026, dir. Kevin Shaw, USA, 21 min., In English / Format: Digital
Artist Bernard Williams unearths overlooked histories of Black cowboys, farmers, and aviators through public art.
PLIGHT OF THE HONEYBEE
2026, dir. Abdeljaleel Ismail, USA, 16 min., In English and Sudanese Arabic with English subtitles / Format: Digital
A grieving woman’s hunt for honey leads her to face the personal loss she has tried to avoid.
NOTES OF REST
2026, dirs. Sulyiman Stokes, Julian Davis Reid, USA, 11 min., In English / Format: Digital
A musical and visual meditation chronicling Julian Davis Reid’s ongoing series celebrating rest.
120 SECONDS
2026, dir. Denzel Adolphus Howard, USA, 3 min., In English / Format: Digital
An ambitious culinary graduate channels years of kitchen experience into chasing his restaurant dream.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu
SHOWTIMES
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 5:30 P.M. & SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 11:00 A.M.
