The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) returns for its 33rd year this Fall in New York City from Nov. 28 to Dec. 14, presenting a vibrant line-up of films from the African diaspora and around the globe.
This year’s festival emphasizes resilience, artistic freedom, and identity, using cinema to challenge stereotypes, celebrate global Black voices, and examine critical social issues. Audiences will experience stories of decolonization and cultural reclamation, with major programs and filmmaker Q&As at venues across Manhattan and online.
Audiences can also engage with the filmmakers as they discuss their creative processes and cultural inspirations. Opening night of the event includes a screening of “The Dutchmen,” a modern adaptation of Amiri Baraka’s 1964 play, directed by Andre Gaines. This will be the first time that Gaines has had a film screened at the ADIFF.
“This gives us an opportunity to showcase the film for a new and trusted audience,” said Gaines in an interview with NJ Urban News. “A lot of New Yorkers know the history of this play. Since we shot it in the heart of New York, it will be nice to celebrate it with people from the city.”
“The Dutchmen” features Andre Holland as Clay, a Black businessman who meets the mysterious Lula, played by Kate Mara, on a New York subway as their meeting progresses into a game of cat-and-mouse, forcing Clay into confronting his identity and assimilation as a Black man in America.
With the play simply following two people on a train, Gaines thought taking on the project would be easy. But once development began, he realized the film couldn’t be an immediate translation of it. Some of the challenges included shooting on an operable nine-car subway train in the city, but for Gaines, there was also a more nuanced and emotional side to shooting “The Dutchman.”
“This was a play that always stuck with me from the first time I was exposed to it,” he says. “It’s one of these pieces of American literature that I felt was important to bring to a new audience. The themes and story of the film are still very relevant and current.”
Other highlights among this year’s festival include a conversation with filmmaker Leslie Harris, who wrote and directed the 1993 film “Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.,” which she produced alongside Irwin Wilson. The film has been screened at the ADIFF in the past.
“The ADIFF is a great festival in terms of seeing international films in the perspective of African cinema,” said Harris. “I’ve had a long history with them since they screened my film in the past and it’s great to just keep that relationship going.”
“Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.” has been considered a breakthrough film about Black Americans by a Black woman. The film follows Chantel Mitchell, a Black teenager living in the New York City projects. The film’s title refers to the New York subway’s I.R.T. Lexington Avenue Line.
Harris faced challenges along the way of making the film, and with few producers and financing options available, she was forced to raise money for the film herself.
“At that time, which was around 1992, I wasn’t seeing feature films from the African American woman’s perspective,” said Harris. “This was the era of Boyz in the Hood or Straight Outa Brooklyn, which were all male centric. While Julie Dash did a beautiful job with her film Daughters of the Dust, I wanted to do something more contemporary.”
While submitting the screenplay to a studio, Harris had to deal with interference from executives that wanted certain changes made to the characters of the film that perpetuated the stereotypes that she was trying to dispel.
“The studio wanted me to make Chantel’s boyfriend, Tyrone, a drug dealer and for me the whole idea of the film was that I wanted to show that Chantel was not just another girl on the I.R.T. and not a stereotype that people may think of when it comes to young Latino or African American people at that time.”
The ADIFF will screen up to 59 films for this year’s event, which will primarily include feature length narratives and documentaries, across three Manhattan venues: Teachers College Columbia University, Cinema Village, and Lenfest Center for the Arts at Columbia.
There will also be a Mini Virtual Festival from Nov. 28 to Dec. 14, streaming 20 titles online for audiences in the U.S. and Canada that can’t make it out to the festival in person.
A complete schedule and film guide for the ADIFF lineup can be found online at adiffnyc.eventive.org.