Afros In Tha City is excited to announce our participation in the inaugural Calgary Black Film Festival (CBFF), which will run online from May 26th to the 30th. Afros In Tha City will be co-presenting the film: The Search For Healing by Tyler Simmonds. You’ll also find us co-presenting and moderating a panel discussion about diversity on and off screen.

The Calgary Black Film Festival was created by the Fabienne Colas Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting Black independent filmmakers through funding and promotion. The Calgary Black Film Festival strives to amplify the voices of Black storytellers through their filmmaking. Their vision is to bring forth a space where world views are challenged through exposure to the different social, cultural and socio-economic realities of Black communities around the world.

Fabienne Colas, is a filmmaker and actress among so many other things. Her work centers around fostering diversity on and off screen, inspiring others to take meaningful action and offering a platform to equity seeking creators of color. She has earned the title of ‘Queen of Festivals’, managing 11 different successful festivals from Montreal to New York City, Brazil and Haiti. The Montreal International Black Film Festival is Canada’s largest Black film festival.

The Fabienne Colas Foundation is also the creator of the Being Black in Canada program. Holding the title of “Canada’s largest mentorship & training program for black filmmakers”, this program offers funding and promotion for talented Black creators who are looking to showcase their work. In 2020, the program helped 20 Black Canadian filmmakers create short documentaries. The program’s output has been showcased at the Montreal International Black Film Festival, the Toronto Black Film Festival, Télé-Quebec and CBC among other major platforms.

To learn more about the Being Black in Canada mentorship program, visit: https://beingblackincanada.com/

The Calgary Black Film Festival programming will include 41 films from 10 different countries. Here are a few that you might be interested in checking out:

Opening film: Poppie Nongena, by Christiaan Olwagen
Closing film: John Ware Reclaimed, by Cheryl Foggo
Barbara Lee - Speaking Truth to Power by Abby Ginzberg
Fight of the Century by Steve Edwin Deku
We Are Here Too by Shani McKenzie
Kiss From a Rose by Shaman Aponte
We Can’t Breathe by Miranda Winters & Rocky Romano
Uprooted - The Journey of Jazz Dance by Khadifa Wong
We Have Reached the Moment by Christi Cooper & Liz Smith

The festival will also host the following panel discussions:

Diversity On & Off Screen, hosted by (our very own!) Tomi Ajele - May 27, 2021 at 6 pm MDT
Black Stories Matter, hosted by Kizzie Sutton - May 28, 2021 at 6 pm MDT
Black Artists in Calgary on the Move, hosted by Wunmi Idowu - May 29, 2021 at 4 pm MDT

Tickets and all-access passes are now available for purchase on the Calgary Black Film Festival website linked below. An all-access pass gives you access to all films (with feature films only available in Canada).

To purchase your all-access pass and tickets visit: https://calgaryblackfilm.com/tickets/buy-tickets-and-passes/.