Black History Month-- VIFF Welcomes Guest Curators to Honour The Past & Celebrate Brighter Futures

VANCOUVER, BC (JANUARY 23, 2024) – This February, Vancouver’s premiere independent cinema VIFF Centre honours Black History Month and celebrates Black voices with two new series guest-curated by Union Street director Jamila Pomeroy and Vancouver Art Gallery’s Kika Memeh, along with a free screening of Mighty Jerome in tribute to the late Charles Officer.

A NEW CHAPTER

In addition to bringing back Jamila Pomeroy’s made-in-Vancouver festival hit Union Street for screenings from February 2-7, VIFF is excited to have the director guest-curate A New Chapter. 

Jamila Pomeroy(bio below)

Jamila has chosen to screen two inspiring international films for this series: Boots Riley’s surreal comedy Sorry to Bother You and Suhaib Gasmelbari’s Talking About Trees, in which four Sudanese cinephiles attempt to resurrect film culture after years of civil war and oppression.

“These selections honour a new chapter in Black cinema. Each film has inspiring characters that stand in their power and are community leaders; and instead of centering Black pain, they prioritize Black joy and ask us to look beyond the tired Black cultural archetypes we’ve been fed by film and media.

 Sorry To Bother You, Talking About Trees and Union Street together challenge the idea of a Black cultural monolith, expand our ideas of Blackness, and showcase rich African and African diasporic cultures.

Centering community, resilience, and positive action, these films invite us to break generational cycles, laugh and co-create an Afrofuturism that honours a multiplicity of African experiences for years to come.” — Jamila Pomeroy, Guest Curator

CELEBRATING BLACK FUTURES

On successive Thursdays in February, writer and journalist  Kika Memeh guest-curates Celebrating Black Futures. This series is presented in partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Kika Memeh-(bio below)

Highlighting Black and African films that reflect the present and demonstrate the exciting future of cinema, this series kicks off on February 8 with Ben Shapiro's documentary Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, which delves into the American jazz legend’s creative peaks, personal struggles, and inspiring commitment to Civil Rights. The special event includes live jazz from the Feven Kidane Sextet.

Kika will also showcase Babatunde Apalowo’s All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White, which tells a tale of forbidden love in an unsupportive society, and Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s When Morning Comes, which sees a nine-year-old faced with a move from Jamaica to Canada, and his mother dealing with the decision to send her son abroad.

(Top L-Gita Boy, Top R- Hair or No Hair
Bottom L-Dead End, Bottom R My Body Is A Poem...)

Celebrating Black Futures also encompasses a showcase of four short films on February 22 (Toye Aru’s Gita Boy, Janessa St. Pierre and Courtenay Mayes’ Hair or No Hair, Courtenay Mayes’ DEAD END, and Brandon Wint’s My Body Is A Poem The World Makes With Me. Ranging from humorous dark comedy to somber drama, these shorts explore existential crises, beauty standards, and daring ambitions in the lives of the protagonists.

“The Celebrating Black Futures film series brings together Black and African films that reflect the present and exciting future of cinema. In three feature films and a series of shorts, these filmmakers present a contemporary snapshot of the multilateral nature of African, African-American, Caribbean, and Black Canadian culture and cinema.

Through colourful visual rhythms and dynamic storytelling, these stories of love, immigration, pain, ambition, and family are representative of the new wave of Black and African cinema.” — Kika Memeh, Guest Curator.

TRIBUTE TO CHARLES OFFICER - FREE SCREENING OF MIGHTY JEROME

On February 4 VIFF will pay tribute to the late Charles Officer, one of Canada’s most accomplished and adventurous filmmakers who passed away last year at the age of 48, with a free screening of Mighty Jerome introduced by the film’s producer Selwyn Jacob.

The documentary tracks the rise, fall, and redemption of Harry Jerome, Canada's most record-setting track and field star.

The full program can be viewed at viff.org/blackhistorymonth. Tickets are available now.

TICKETS & INFORMATION

​Adult $15

Senior $13

Student $10

Accessible $10

  Special Events  

A Tribute to Charles Officer Mighty Jerome

(Feb 4, 4pm) FREE

   

Celebrating Black Futures Opening Night Event featuring

live jazz from the Feven Kidane Sextet and the screening of

Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes

​(Feb 8, 6:40 pm) $30

About Jamila Pomeroy

Jamila Pomeroy is a Kenyan-Canadian WGC screenwriter and TWUC internationally-published writer with experience spanning print, new media and film. Her work often champions historically underrepresented people and narratives, while generating both accessible, intellectually-charged and comedic storylines. She has created scripted and factual work for networks and publications like CBC, BBC, Telus Originals, Network Entertainment, Quibi, and Showtime. Union Street is her first feature-length documentary as a director.

About Kika Memeh

Kika Memeh is a writer and journalist whose work revolves around Black and African arts - with a focus on the Nigerian Film Industry (Nollywood) - and African diasporic relationships. In the Public Engagement and Learning team at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Kika is committed to building memorable relationships through wholesome, community-centered programming.