Films and Screenings
Natchez
The city of Natchez, Mississippi is known for its historical tourism rooted in the antebellum South. This piece examines the intersections of memory and race, showcased through various people in the town who guide outsiders through the town’s sites. Her examination into performances of history produce thought provoking questions surrounding truth and stewardship of the past.
📍Moving Image Archive
🗓️Thursday, April 9, 2:30 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Suzannah Herbert
Writing Hawa
Filmed over five years, Afghan director Najiba Noori intimately documents her mother Hawa’s late-blooming independence after a child marriage—learning to read, starting a textile business, and sheltering her runaway granddaughter Zahra from abuse. As three generations of Hazara women pursue emancipation amid patriarchal traditions, the Taliban’s 2021 resurgence shatters their dreams, forcing exile and remote resistance.
📍Moving Image Archive
🗓️Thursday, April 9, 4:30 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Najiba Noori
The Shadow Scholars
Oxford's youngest Black professor, Patricia Kingori, delves into a multibillion-dollar underground industry where educated Kenyans ghostwrite essays for students often in Western institutions. Filmed across three continents amid crackdowns and AI threats, it probes into the colonization of knowledge, racial inequities, and the exploitation of African labor.
📍IU Cinema
🗓️Thursday, April 9, 7:00 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Eloïse King
Seeds
Filmed over nine years in black-and-white, Seeds intimately portrays Black farmers in the American South fighting to preserve their ancestral lands amid economic injustices and dwindling subsidies. Following enduring families like the Williams siblings and activist Willie Head Jr., it captures daily labor, community bonds, and activism against systemic barriers.
📍The FAR Gallery
🗓️Friday, April 10, 2:00 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Brittany Shyne
Gianfranco Rosi’s monumental black-and-white documentary captures Naples’ hidden, unglamorous side—focusing on everyday lives, municipal routines, and subterranean historical layers shadowed by Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields. Amid quakes and fumaroles, archaeologists excavate ancient ruins, firefighters calm fears, law enforcement hunts tomb robbers, and locals to navigate daily life. Blending past and present, the film evokes a volatile time machine of history, anxiety, and resilience.
📍IU Cinema
🗓️Friday, April 10,7:00 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Gianfranco Rosi
Below the Clouds
Between places & Passages
In this installation, Ina interlaces time-specific images from his family history to explore themes of diaspora, cross-generational survival, and the fading of cultural memory. He recontextualizes photographs of his father and himself taken during the 1980s, a period when the Lebanese Civil War effectively collapsed the nation-state. Simultaneously, he grapples with navigating a new cultural landscape and yearning for what was meant to be. He aims to challenge the perceived homogeneity of national identity and investigate the role that selective memory and (re)imagined narratives play in shaping our understanding of belonging.
📍Bloomington Fine Arts Supply
🗓️Reception: Friday, April 10, 4:30 pm
🎟️Free and open to the public
Artist Andrew Ina
Slumlord Millionaire
Exposing the corruption behind New York City’s gentrification issues, Slumlord Millionaire follows tenants and activists in their fight against landlords. By exposing the relationship between local politicians, the judiciary system, and real estate, this documentary exposes the systemic relationships that have facilitated the housing crisis.
📍The FAR Gallery
🗓️Saturday, April 11, 1:00 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Steph Ching + Ellen Martinez
Black Snow
Siberian homemaker-turned-journalist Natalia Zubkova uncovers a toxic mine fire poisoning her remote coal town’s homes with deadly gases. As her viral reporting exposes government corruption and the coal mafia, she faces surveillance, harassment, and threats from an authoritarian regime. This courageous mother battles for environmental justice in a polluted world of black snow.
📍IU Cinema
🗓️Saturday, April 11, 4:00 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Alina Simone
How Deep is Your Love
Marine biologists venture into Earth’s last wilderness—the deep sea—to study ‘alien-like’ creatures and ancient ecosystems thriving in darkness. As they race to map undiscovered species, the film reveals the urgent threat of deep-sea mining, poised to devastate these fragile habitats. Blending awe-inspiring exploration with a call to action, it questions humanity’s commitment to preserving an unseen and mysterious world.
📍IU Cinema
🗓️Saturday, April 11, 7:00 pm
🎟️Ticketed, but free
Dir. Eleanor Mortimer