About the Black Harvest Film Festival
Celebrating its 31st year in 2025, the Black Harvest Film Festival is Chicago’s annual showcase for Black film across the diaspora. Born from an urgent need to celebrate the Black experience, the Black Harvest Film Festival unites filmmakers and audiences to showcase the power of Black cinema. This annual festival highlights emerging and established talents and historical narratives, enriching the landscape of Black culture. The festival curates both short and feature length films, proudly presenting influential auteurs and emerging filmmakers of color side by side.
About the Black Harvest Community Council
The Black Harvest Community Council (BHCC) elevates and uplifts the Black Harvest Film Festival (BHFF) by incorporating Black artists, communities, organizations and entrepreneurs as vital parts of the annual film festival celebrating Black creativity and storytelling at the Gene Siskel Film Center. The Council is composed of volunteers who are actively engaged in their communities, and who act as ambassadors to help ensure BHFF reaches the widest possible audience while authentically representing a range of Black experiences throughout Chicago and beyond. The Council is an asset to the planning and execution of BHFF, complementing the efforts and existing resources of the Gene Siskel Film Center and various departments of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
If you are interested in joining the Black Harvest Community Council, please fill out this form. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and will be reviewed by the Black Harvest Community Council and Gene Siskel Film Center leadership.
Black Harvest Community Council Members
D’Tura Green (co-chair)
Cortlyn Kelly (co-chair)
Barbara (B.A.) Allen
Jada Buford
Harold Dennis
Lonnie Edwards
Marshall Gibson
Okema “Seven” Gunn
NK Gutiérrez
Jameelah Houston
Alima Iscandari
Kristy Johnson
Muteeat Lawal
Alessandra Pinkston
Bolaji Sosan
Whitney Wade
David Weathersby
Jai Williams
Contacts
Black Harvest Film Festival | Patrick Friel, interim associate director of programming, pfriel@saic.edu
Make a Gift
Contact Emily Long, executive director, elong@saic.edu
About Our Black Harvest Programming Team
jada-amina returns as curator of the Gene Siskel Film Center’s 31st Black Harvest Film Festival. After serving as festival coordinator for the 28th edition and curator of the 29th and 30th anniversary editions, jada-amina will lead this year’s festival’s curation, direction, and programming.
We’re also excited to welcome back Nick Leffel, who supported Black Harvest as an intern in 2022 and served as festival coordinator in 2023 and 2024. Nick will play a key role in coordinating community outreach, filmmaker discussions, and special events.
Jada-Amina Harvey (BFA 2020) is the curator of the Black Harvest Film Festival. A Chicago-based artist, writer, and cultural worker, Jada-Amina’s practice explores the nuances of Black life across space and time. Rooted in sound, writing, video, and collage, their work engages with history to reclaim and reimagine Black narratives, resurrecting collective memory across time and space. Jada-Amina also stewards Public Programs and Engagement at the South Side Community Art Center.
Nick Leffel is a North African and Middle Eastern filmmaker and curator who serves as the coordinator of the Black Harvest Film Festival. As a filmmaker, Leffel’s work expresses themes of international politics, cultural upbringing, adoption and personal documentary. His filmography includes Zordovia My Love (2021), Flowers Forever (2022), and Dakhla (2023).
About the Gene Siskel Film Center
Since 1972, the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has presented cutting edge cinema to an annual audience of 100,000. The Film Center’s programming includes annual film festivals that celebrate diverse voices and international cultures, premieres of trailblazing work by today’s independent filmmakers, restorations and revivals of essential films from cinema history, and insightful, provocative discussions with filmmakers and media artists. Altogether, the Film Center hosts over 1,600 screenings and 200 filmmaker appearances every year. The Film Center was renamed the Gene Siskel Film Center in 2000 after the late, nationally celebrated film critic, Gene Siskel.
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
The Gene Siskel Film Center is a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). For 150 years, SAIC has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, and LeRoy Neiman.
Accessibility
The Gene Siskel Film Center strives to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. To request reasonable accommodations or for inquiries about accessibility, please contact filmcenter@saic.edu or call (312) 846-2600 at your earliest convenience. Click here to read more.
