The Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series, celebrating its 16th year, returns to downtown Brooklyn, at Kumble Theater, on October 12th and 13th with a lineup of feature films and shorts, both fiction and documentary, made by women of color from all over the world.

This year’s event will honor Shola Lynch and Issa Rae, with a musical performance by Tamar-kali and comedy by MK Lewis. 

Elizabeth Lorde-Rollins, Audre Lorde’s daughter, will be present to accept the Reel Sisters Best Documentary Award for German filmmaker Dagmar Schultz’s Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years.

Some of this year’s highlights include a special feature screening of Shola Lynch’s Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, the acclaimed documentary on Angela Davis, on Saturday, Oct. 12th at 7:30 pm., which will be followed by a Q&A moderated by Moikgantsi Kgama, founder of ImageNation Cinema Foundation.

More Than A Month chronicles filmmaker Shukree Tilghman’s cross-country quest to end Black History Month; Salty Dog Blues tells of the injustice visited upon men and women of color after lifelong service to the U.S. Merchant Marines; Stand Down Soldier centers on Sergeant Stacy Armstrong, returning from three deployments with PTSD and determined to save her 20-year marriage from being another casualty of war; Sweet, Sweet Country introduces 20 year-old Kenyan refugee Ndizeye, whose family shows up unexpectedly on her doorstep in the small Southern U.S. town where she now lives; Little Brother: The Fire Next Time, is Chapter 4 of a series featuring young Black boys, co-created by our own Jasmin Tiggett. This installment of the series that features the candid thoughts on love, family, race, identity and more, is set in Muskogee, OK, where the Cherokee Nation and the descendants of the Freedmen are in court over Cherokee citizen rights. Living Thinkers: An Autobiography of Black Women in the Ivory Tower examines the intersection of race, class and gender in stories told by Black women professors and administrators at American colleges and universities.

And there’s more… including a “Books-to-Screen” workshop, a panel on women documentarians as well as a festive Awards Ceremony closing this year’s event.

Get the full festival program via the Reel Sisters website HERE, where you’ll also find ticket information, including a Deluxe Weekend Pass for only $50, which gives you access to all the film screenings as well as to the awards ceremony on Sunday. 

There’s also a Two-Day Pass for $25, and a one day pass for $15.

There are also individual Section passes for $7 each.

Again, visit the Reel Sisters website HERE. 

The Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival and Lecture Series, takes place in Brooklyn, NY, at Kumble Theater, on October 12th and 13th.