Filmmaking in the Hour of Chaos: Cinematic Strategies for Solidarity

Can cinema be a tool for transformation? As Caribbean, diasporic, and Black and Brown filmmakers, how might we use our voices to stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Palestine, Iran, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere? How are we disrupting the status quo within a profit-driven film industry—not only through direct political action, but also in the way our films are made and shown? How is this political moment shaping the way we engage filmmaking as a whole? October 7, 2023 was a painful rupture in our collective consciousness, but it has also led to massive global mobilizations. Filmmakers have taken it upon themselves to collectivize, organize, strike, protest, speak up, and call out complicit institutions,both in their films and in their communities.

Let us discuss the strategies, the contradictions, the challenges, and the joys of radical filmmaking in the hour of genocide.

*Wearing a mask will be required to attend this event. As an act of collective care, we are making masks required for this specific event in consideration of our immunocompromised guests.