BLACK IS: BOUNDLESS
BLACK IS: BOUNDLESS
AFRICAN DIASPORA CINEMA BEYOND OCTOBER
Exploring the breadth, complexity and creative possibility of Black cinematic storytelling, BLACK IS: BOUNDLESS brings together independent films, filmmaker conversations and an industry discussion to create space for Black cinema beyond October.
Supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, with additional support from the National Film and Television School, the season opens with a specially curated short film programme before presenting three feature screenings: the landmark British film Black Joy (1977), Brittany Shyne’s Sundance winning documentary Seeds (2025), and Rungano Nyoni’s BIFA winning On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024).
Across the programme, audiences will encounter films that have received limited mainstream exhibition alongside conversations with filmmakers, artists and cultural voices that expand on the ideas within the work.
Our programme furthers the conversation with an industry-led panel using Akinola Davies Jr’s acclaimed film My Father’s Shadow (2026) as a case study to explore the cultural visibility of Black, African and diaspora cinema. The discussion will look beyond the film itself to consider how exhibition, distribution and industry infrastructure shape which stories reach audiences, how they are positioned, and what sustained visibility for Black cinema can look like beyond individual moments of recognition.
BLACK IS: BOUNDLESS is about more than a single commemorative month. It creates an ongoing space to discover, discuss and celebrate the range of Black, African and diaspora cinema, while bringing audiences, filmmakers and the wider screen community into conversation.
“BLACK IS: BOUNDLESS was born out of a desire to diversify the representation of Black life on screen. I grew up with a very narrow field of view of what Black representation was, and that ultimately impacted how I saw myself and understood my position in the world. As I grew into adulthood, it became a journey of unlearning the negative stereotypes that had been projected onto me, as they had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The moving image is incredibly powerful. It shapes society. Through BLACK IS: BOUNDLESS, we are reclaiming our stories and presenting a more expansive view of who we are and all that we can be. My hope is that by widening that field of view, we can begin to shift the balance of how Black people are seen, understood and experienced.”
- Ebele Tate, Filmmaker & Founder, G.O.A.T Film Club
FEATURES PROGRAMME: OCT-DEC 2026
Ben (Trevor Thomas), an innocent immigrant from a remote village in Guyana, arrives into Brixton with a full wallet and a packed suitcase.
Nominated for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1977.
Dir: Anthony Simmons
Content warning: strong language and adult themes
Interweaving the stories of three Black generational farmers to create a collective and intimate portrait of farming today, SEEDS is a moving and powerful exploration of their lives, joys, and struggles as well as the fragility of legacy and owning land.
Winner of the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2025
Dir: Brittany Shyne
On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family in this surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.
BIFA ‘Best Director’ winner 2024
Dir: Rungano Nyoni
Content warning: strong language and adult themes
SHORT FILM SERIES
Reserve your spot now to be part of the conversation!
Supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery Good Cause funding, with additional support from the National Film and Television School.