Synopsis

Pioneers in civil rights and outer space, Black astronauts like Guion Bluford, Victor Glover, and Chicago’s own Mae Jemison boldly ventured where no Black Americans had ever gone before. The Space Race is the untold story of their adventures in flight and the social forces they endeavored to transcend. Anchored by the story of Ed Dwight — who was handpicked by JFK to be the first African-American in space before he was dropped from the mission — the film chronicles the personal and political battles these pioneers encountered through the decades.

Filled with rich historical footage and candid interviews with many self-proclaimed  “Afronauts,” the film connects their ambitions with cultural forces like the Black Power movement and the Afrofuturism of icons like musician Sun Ra and author Octavia Butler. Expansive, moving, and uplifting, the film is a profound act of reclamation, giving voice to a group of trailblazers, who have been largely missing from the official history — until now.

Synopsis

A triptych of sisters sing about their suffering after the eruption of a volcano in Cape Verde. Separated from each other and surrounded by darkness and fire, their voices overlap as we hear their moving words of pain and resistance: “There will come a time when we’ll know why we suffer, and the mystery will end.” The musical ends with silence and archival footage of Cape Verdean people and landscapes after a volcanic eruption in 1951.

Directed by Pedro Costa, The Daughters of Fire represents a radical step forward in form and ambition for the singular Portuguese maestro.

This short film screens along with in water.

Synopsis

At once a heist film, a hilariously plotted workplace comedy, and a wistful ode to the human desire for freedom, The Delinquents, like its main characters, is playfully elusive and difficult to pin down. Morán works a dead-end job at a bank in Buenos Aires. Tired of the grind, he dreams up a scheme to get himself and his coworker, Román, out of there for good. The plan is simple. The fallout is not.

Crafted with impeccable wit and surreal flourishes, director Rodrigo Moreno mischievously ponders the pitfalls of modern working culture, the rigors of urban living, and the seductive allure of an unburdened life in the wide open countryside.

Synopsis

A reconstruction of a life through a series of encounters, this decades-spanning portrait of one woman’s romantic history from girlhood crush to middle-life heartbreak investigates the joy and pain of partnership. Liv, a filmmaker and the lead singer of a post-punk band, drifts through a cycle of love and separation, in search of someone or something — even she can’t grasp what, exactly —  with a sense of optimism and self-aware irony.

Vulnerable, playful, and honest, this offbeat rom-com oozes with charisma in its montage and mise-en-scène, and is buoyed by original glitter-grunge music. But, much like the character of Liv herself, the delightful, wry exterior of this confessional film belies an inner depth that plumbs questions of  intimacy, compatibility, and connection without the promise of answers or resolutions.