Schedule:

Friday, April 25, 2025

6:30 p.m: We Want the Funk
Directors: Stanley Nelson and Nicole London
U.S., 90 min., 2025
So named for the iconic George Clinton song, We Want the Funk is a syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, spanning its African and early jazz roots, to the early work of James Brown and the rise of Parliament Funkadelic and Fela Kuti's Afrobeat, through its influences today on both new wave and hip-hop. The film also explores the symbiotic relationship between the explosion of funk music and the political and racial dynamics coming out of the post-Civil Rights Movement and 1970s inner-city America. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Attica, Miles Davis: Birth of Cool), and co-directed and produced by Nicole London, the film is also a joyous and body-moving celebration of Black culture and the spirit of resistance. As George Clinton says in the film, "You’re free of all the rules and you just let go and let the groove take over."

Locations:
Chicago Cultural Center
Claudia Cassidy Theater

Saturday, April 26, 2025

3:00 p.m: Going Varsity in Mariachi
Directors: Alexandra Vasquez, Sam Osborn
U.S., 105 min, 2023
In the competitive world of high school mariachi, South Texas’s border towns offer the best and the brightest. But who is the best of the best? In this vibrant and affecting underdog story, co-directors Alexandra Vasquez and Sam Osborn track the students of Edinburg North High School as they go for the gold, singing, strumming, and trumpeting their hearts out. While the team has won plenty of trophies in the past under the guidance of dedicated Coach Abel Acuña, this year’s varsity group is a bit shaky, what with new recruits and pandemic-related rustiness. Can they become State mariachi champions? As with films such as Mad Hot Ballroom and Spellbound, this lively documentary charmer is "nail-biting and heart-wrenching" (Indiewire), "well-crafted and intimate" (POV Magazine), and yet, so much more: a rich celebration of and moving tribute to Mexican American music, culture, and identity.

Location: National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W 19th St, Chicago, IL 60608

Sunday, April 27, 2025

5:00 p.m: Shorts Program

Black Tide
Director: Kim Yip Tong
France, Mauritius, 14 min
On July 25, 2020, a ship ran aground off the coast of the island nation of Mauritius. Twelve days later, oil began to spill, causing the worst ecological disaster ever in the region. This lyrical, beautifully drawn animation pays tribute to the residents who united to save their precious environment.

Correct Me If I’m Wrong
Director: Hao Zhou
Germany, USA, 23 min
A filmmaker searches for reconciliation between their gender identity and their family’s beliefs.

Livestreams with Grandma Puzzles
Director: Emily Sheskin
US, 6 min
A lifelong hobby for a grandmother becomes both a lifeline and a pathway to Twitch fame.

How The West Was Fun
Director: Sarah Garrahan and Sue Ding
US, 14 min
At a photography studio at a Wild West theme park, a diverse range of visitors masquerade as their own imagined visions of the American West.

Norman Teague: Love Reigns Supreme
Director: Adewole Abioye
US, 16 min
Taking inspiration from jazz legend John Coltrane, the acclaimed Chicago furniture maker and conceptual artist prepares for a solo exhibition while confronting the existential crisis facing Black youth through his work and mentorship.

Man Number 4
Director: Miranda Pennell
UK, 10 min
In this provocative essay, an unseen narrator confronts a disturbing photograph on social media of the war in Gaza, trigging questions about what it means to be an onlooker.

The People Could Fly
Director: Imani Dennison
US, 21 min
A poetic look at roller skating and how roller rinks emerged as sanctuaries for Black culture in Louisville, Kentucky, the film combines archival footage, still photography, and contemporary images to explore the magic that its Black community has conjured as an act of resistance.

Shanti Rides Shotgun
Director: Charles Frank
US, 8 min
On Manhattan’s jam-packed streets, New York City’s most iconic driving instructor prepares students for the road ahead.

Location: Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N State Street, Chicago, IL 60601

Monday, April 28, 2025

6:00 p.m: Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Directors: Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson
U.S., 102 min, 2023
"The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans." The statement, taken from one of Giovanni’s most famous poems, is both the opening epigraph and the central visual metaphor for this innovative trip with the illustrious and charismatic thinker—whose revolutionary and penetrating words have given voice to decades of Civil Rights and personal struggles. Winner of Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize, Going to Mars follows Giovanni, now in her 70s and as blunt and witty as ever, on tour around the country, while also traveling into the past, via riveting archival footage, and into the Afrofuturist outer-space realms of her poetic universe. "Through tender immersion and lyrical invention" (Indiewire), Going to Mars is a "stunning" (Chicago Reader), "eloquent and engaging" (Variety) portrait of a brilliant artist and an inspiring testament to the enduring power and resolve of Black Americans.

Location: Sisters in Cinema Media Arts Center, 2310 E 75th St, Chicago, IL 60649

Tuesday, April, 29, 2025

6:00 p.m: The Infiltrators
Directors: Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera
U.S., 95 min, 2019
With ripped-from-the-headlines relevance, though set during the Obama years, The Infiltrators chronicles the riveting, unbelievably true story of a group of activist Dreamers who slipped undercover into ICE detention centers to stop those inside from being deported. With a "formally daring" (Indiewire) mix of fiction and documentary, filmmakers Ibarra and Rivera track young Marco Saavedra as he gets himself arrested in order to save a Mexican father from getting thrown out of the country. Once inside the facility, Saavedra, along with another covert counterpart, Viridiana Martinez, expand their mission to give aid to a wide range of multinational immigrants until Ice officials stumble onto their schemes. "Like watching a classic prison film" (The Boston Globe), The Infiltrators is a "thrill In gripping fashion, Ibarra and Rivera maintain an effortless balance between genre-rooted entertainment and concern for real human suffering" (The Hollywood Reporter). Winner of the Audience Award and Innovator Award, 2019 Sundance Film Festival’s Next section.

Location: Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601

Sunday, May 4, 2025

11:00 a.m: On Healing Land, Birds Perch
Director: Naja Pham Lockwood
U.S., Vietnam, 33 min, 2025
On Healing Land, Birds Perch is a short documentary that tells the remarkable stories behind one of the most iconic photos in history. This is the first documentary from a Vietnamese born filmmaker that explores the continuing aftershocks of the Vietnam War from the perspectives of both sides of the war through the iconic Pulitzer winning photo of General Loan shooting a Vietcong captain Nguyen Van Lem in the head on the second day of the 1968 Tet Offensive.

Location: Davis Theater, 4614 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60625

Date: April 25 - May 4, 2025

Location: Various Venues in Chicago, IL 60649

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