Celebrating Black Futures
This February, in honour of Black Futures Month, the Vancouver Art Gallery presents a series of special programming celebrating Black Futures in Vancouver, Canada and beyond. This year’s programming will focus on the intersection of art, film and poetry.
The Gallery has partnered with the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) to screen three feature films and four shorts that speak to the future of Black and African cinema. These films present a contemporary snapshot of the multilateral nature of African, African-American, Caribbean and Black Canadian culture and cinema.
Our month-long programming series, Celebrating Black Futures, will begin on Thursday, February 8, with an evening of live jazz, performed by the Feven Kidane Sextet at VIFF, followed by a screening of Sam Pollard and Ben Shapiro’s documentary, Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes (2023).
The next film screenings will include Babatunde Apalowo’s All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White (2023), which tells the story of a Nigerian man struggling to come to terms with his sexuality; Kelly Fyffe-Marshall‘s When Morning Comes (2022), a familiar tale of Jamaican Canadian immigration; and series of recent shorts exploring diverse Black experiences. 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. All films have been selected by Kika Memeh, Public Programs Assistant at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and Tom Charity, VIFF Centre Year-Round Programmer.
On Friday, February 16, join the Gallery’s inaugural Poet in Residence Jillian Christmas as she marks her illuminative residency with a day of delight. The Gallery will be brought to life through thoughtful conversations, a flower crown-making workshop and a poetic tour of the exhibition Denyse Thomasos: just beyond.
SCHEDULE
Celebrating Black Futures Film Screenings
Presented in partnership with the Vancouver International Film Festival
Opening Celebration and Film Screening: Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
Thursday, February 8, 6:30 PM | VIFF
Film Screening: All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White
Thursday, February 15, 6:30 PM | VIFF
Film Screening: Short Film Showcase
Thursday, February 22, 7 PM and 8:15 PM| VIFF
Film Screening: When Morning Comes
Thursday, February 29, 6:30 PM | VIFF
Jillian Christmas: A Day of Delight
BELOVED: Flower Crown Making Workshop
Friday, February 16, 2 PM | Annex Workshop
Jillian Christmas In Conversation with David-George Morgan:
Archiving and Documenting Black Art in Vancouver
Friday, February 16, 5:30 PM | Room 4East
Family Day at the Gallery
Monday, February 19, 11 AM to 4 PM