Firelight Media x BlackStar Film Festival 2026

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MEDIUM

July 30, 2026

Firelight Media is proud to return as a sponsor for this year’s BlackStar Film Festival, which will feature screenings of nine films by Firelight Media-supported filmmakers.

Firelight Media is proud to return as a sponsor of the BlackStar Film Festival, which will take place from August 6–9, 2026, in Philadelphia (with select programming available online worldwide), featuring 91 films from more than 30 countries, along with conversations, performances, and community gatherings throughout the city. This year’s festival marks the 15th annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the global majority — showcasing films by Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from around the world.

Nine films from Firelight Media-supported filmmakers will screen throughout the festival, including those by Adam and Zack Khalil, Yoruba Richen, Sabaah Folayan, Rodney Evans, Michèle Stephenson, Logan Rozos, and Juan C. Dávila Santiago.

Tickets and passes for the 2026 festival may be purchased here.

Read on to learn more about the Firelight Media-supported films and filmmakers at this year’s festival. We hope to see you in August!

‘Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild],’ co-dirs. Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil

Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] documents the emotional and vital work of the Michigan Anishinaabek Cultural Preservation and Repatriation Alliance. This alliance, made up of repatriation specialists representing all Michigan tribes, fights to bring their Ancestors and funerary objects home from settler-colonial institutions like museums, libraries, and archives.

Adam and Zack Khalil’s monumental and formally daring film follows the pressing struggle to rebury Indigenous human remains that have been held in sterile storage, laying bare the history of Indigenous collections and the battle to recognize and enforce the laws intended to facilitate their repatriation to the communities they were originally stolen from. Using an essayistic approach alongside vérité portraits, the film celebrates the courageous individuals who carry out this hard and emotionally draining labor of return.

Aanikoobijigan is supported by Firelight Media’s Documentary Lab.

Learn more + get tickets

‘At the Stage When’ (‘Ci Shi Ci Ke’), dir. Hao Zhou

A young married couple in a Chinese megalopolis navigates the tricky waters of the traditional expectations that surface in their most intimate exchanges. At the Stage When explores the evolving roles, identities, and avenues of self-actualization available to young adults today.

At the Stage When (Ci Shi Ci Ke) is directed by Hao Zhou, a recipient of Firelight Media’s Impact Campaign Fund and the director of the documentary short film Here, Hopefully from our HOMEGROWN: Future Visions collection.

Learn more + get tickets

‘Free Joan Little,’ dir. Yoruba Richen

Free Joan Little tells the story of the 1975 groundbreaking case of Joan Little, who was the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. At 20 years old, Joan (pronounced Jo-Ann) Little was incarcerated in North Carolina when she killed a white jailer she said tried to rape her. Her trial drew international attention, becoming a rallying point for civil rights, women’s rights, and prison reform. The case brought together activists, including Angela Davis and Rosa Parks, and catalyzed an international conversation about sexual assault and racial justice that has reverberations to this day. With rare archival footage, contemporary interviews, and the folk anthem that carried her cause, Free Joan Little captures the spirit of resistance that made history. The film features Oscar-nominated actress Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple) as the voice of Joan.

Free Joan Little is directed by Yoruba Richen, an alum of Firelight Media’s Documentary Lab, William Greaves R&D Fund, and Our 100 Days documentary short film series.

Learn more + get tickets

‘Lani B Supreme: Legacy,’ dir. Sabaah Folayan

Lani B. Supreme: Legacy is a short documentary exploring the creative practice of interdisciplinary musician Lani B. Supreme. Through poetic visuals, narration, live performances, and an orchestral score composed and conducted by the artist himself, audiences are introduced to Lani B.’s musical style and deep historical roots.

Lani B. is a trumpeter, composer, and educator born in New York City and raised in the New Orleans community. His music is dynamic, layered, and embedded with the influences of his community. As a composer, he challenges notions of genre by moving fluidly between a variety of compositional approaches. As a performer, his clarion sound is reminiscent of the great trumpeters who have influenced him, yet infused with his own unmistakable voice. As a teacher and orator, Lani B. uses his performances as an opportunity to highlight the personal and historical influences that drive his creative practice.

Lani B. Supreme: Legacy is directed by Sabaah Folayan as part of Firelight Media’s In The Making documentary short films series with PBS’ AMERICAN MASTERS. Sabaah is also an alum of Firelight Media’s Documentary Lab.

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‘Solace,’ dir. Rodney Evans

Framed by a speech given by the filmmaker’s brother at their uncle’s memorial service, this doc/fiction hybrid comedy blends archival family photos with surreal animated scripted scenes to explore outsized childhood fears, shifting family dynamics, and intergenerational care.

Solace is directed by Rodney Evans, a recipient of Firelight Media’s Spark Fund (NEH).

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‘Buckskin,’ dir. Mars Verrone

Carroll B. Williams Jr. (1929–2024) was the first African American to receive a doctorate in forestry and entomology, the first African American scientist to be hired by the U.S. Forest Service, and among the first African Americans to be a part of the environmental science and forestry faculties at both Yale and UC Berkeley. Featuring stunning 16-mm cinematography, this experimental documentary explores the life and legacy of a groundbreaking scientist through intimate conversations with his daughter and grandchild. The film engages questions around personal and collective memory, the human/nature divide, the ongoing impact of settler colonialism in the Americas, and the possibilities and limitations of an individual human life in effecting social change. At times, Buckskin is grand in its scope, envisioning how white supremacy has shaped human societies and natural environments alike over nearly a century. At other times, the film is deeply personal: a moving portrait of a fascinating and exceptional person told from the perspective of a loving and curious grandchild.

Buckskin is directed by Mars Verrone, a recipient of Firelight Media’s Impact Campaign Fund.

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‘True North,’ dir. Michèle Stephenson

Set against the backdrop of 1960s Montreal, True North unearths two pivotal but underrecognized events, the Congress of Black Writers and the Sir George Williams Affair, positioning the city as a powerful nexus in the global Black liberation movement. Through never-before-seen archival footage and intimate first-person testimonies, the film revisits a charged era of resistance, where Black students and activists challenged institutional racism that sparked reverberations across the globe.

Taking a hemispheric view of Black resistance, True North connects threads from the Caribbean, Canada, and the U.S., tracing the shared legacies of colonialism and state oppression. At the heart of the film are the voices of elders who lived through this period and whose contributions have largely gone unrecognized. Their stories ground the film’s narrative, offering a rare and poignant perspective on the era. Through their lens, True North becomes both an act of remembrance and a call to action for new generations.

Visually striking and emotionally resonant, True North is a love letter to 1960s Montreal and a radical reimagining of its place in history. With its bold artistic approach and commitment to truth-telling, it invites audiences into an immersive experience that is as relevant now as it was revolutionary then.

True North is supported by Firelight Media’s PBS/Firelight William Greaves Production Fund. Michèle Stephenson was also a recipient of Firelight Media’s Spark Fund (NEH).

Learn more + get tickets

‘What Will I Become,’ co-dir. Logan Rozos

In this heartfelt documentary, directors Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos explore grief, mental health, trans boyhood, and other realities too often dealt with in isolation.

Together, they intertwine the stories of two young trans men no longer here today — homecoming king Blake Brockington and soft-spoken Kyler Prescott — who were poets, musicians, and community advocates. The film traces their joys and challenges, their tragic deaths and resulting media attention, and the larger aftermath within their communities. It also uplifts resources that affirm trans boys and the LGBTQIA2S+ community, offering alternative forms of care, resilience, and masculinity.

What Will I Become? asks why the transmasculine community is particularly vulnerable to living briefly and dying quietly, and ultimately asks what we will become as a society.

What Will I Become? is supported by Firelight Media’s Documentary Lab.

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‘Zenón and the Rebel Boats’ (‘Zenón y la flotilla rebelde’), dir. Juan C. Dávila Santiago

After being displaced from his home by the U.S. Navy to build a military base, Puerto Rican fisherman Carlos “Taso” Zenón pledged his life to fight against the military occupation of the island of Vieques. Alongside Puerto Rican fishermen and activists, Zenón organized countless efforts to halt U.S. war games in the Caribbean Sea. Never-before-seen archival footage reveals the artisanal strategies implemented by fearless fishermen to defy warships, inspiring one of the most influential environmental and anti-war movements in the Caribbean.

Zenón y la flotilla rebelde is directed by Juan C. Dávila Santiago and supported by Firelight Media’s PBS/Firelight William Greaves Production Fund and William Greaves R&D Fund. Juan was also a recipient of the Hulu/Firelight Kindling Fund.