| BLACK HARVEST SHORT FILM PROGRAM |
2025–2026, USA, Brazil, UK, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, 116 min.
In English and various languages with English subtitles | Format: Digital
November 13 | TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS considers love not as romance alone, but as a sustained practice of care. Across families, friendships, neighborhoods, and diasporic communities, these films illuminate the quiet acts of devotion that bind people to one another. Through caregiving, cultural preservation, sacrifice, humor, grief, and remembrance, they reveal tenderness as a quiet but enduring form of resilience. Spanning intimate narratives and richly observed portraits from across the Black diaspora, the program asks how love is carried, inherited, and continually renewed across generations. Together, these works affirm that care is not merely an emotion, but a practice of survival, stewardship, and collective flourishing.
Preceded by The Big Picture Party in the Siskel Film Center Cafe, hosted by the Black Harvest Community Council.
PROGRAM
FOR PEACE OF MIND
2026, dir. Amandla Baraka, USA, 17 min., In English / Format: Digital
Old wounds resurface when an estranged mother arrives unannounced ahead of a healing ceremony.
SUGAR WATER
2026, dir. Jordan Joseph, USA, 9 min., In English / Format: Digital
An 8-year-old girl navigates the sweltering New Orleans heat when her family’s power is cut off.
FATHER OF THE QUEEN OF ANGOLA
2025, dir. Rodrigo França, Brazil, 13 min., In Portuguese with English subtitles / Format: Digital
A devoted father embraces his adopted daughter’s royal imagination and reclaims her true name.
ACKEE AND SALTFISH
2025, dir. Jasmin Nunes, UK, USA, 16 min., In English, Punjabi, and Patois with English subtitles / Format: Digital
A Caribbean mother bridges cultural divides by preparing a traditional meal for her disconnected sons.
WHITE MUSK
2026, dir. Fatima Wardy, USA, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, 18 min., In Arabic and English with English subtitles / Format: Digital
A tense role reversal unfolds as a young woman steps into the role of primary caregiver for her mother.
BASEMENT PEOPLE
2026, dir. Christine Swanson, USA, 17 min., In English / Format: Digital
After witnessing trauma, a depressed young girl navigates distrust between her family members.
ESCAPE FROM FLAT EARTH
2026, dir. Marie Alarcon, USA, 10 min., In English / Format: Digital
Siblings team up to rescue their sister from an ill-fated engagement to a flat-earth conspiracy theorist.
BLACK SEEDS CONTINUE TO GROW
2026, dir. Laura Colbert, USA, 16 min., In English / Format: Digital
An overworked teacher forms an unexpected bond with a guarded foster youth.
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, 8:30 P.M.
