33rd Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival
November 24—December 10
Latin American and U.S. Latinx Films co-presented by Cinema Tropical
Now in its 33rd edition, ADIFF NYC continues its mission to present independent films that explore the richness and diversity of the global Black experience. This year’s program brings together a powerful selection of Latin American and US Latinx films that illuminate stories of resistance, identity, and cultural memory across the diaspora.
For tickets and more information visit: https://nyadiff.org
‘Afro-Latino Short Program’
EL CANON
(Martín Seeger, Chile, 2024, 19 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A Haitian immigrant in Chile finds his body praised as an artistic ideal inside an academy, yet remains unseen and marginalized in everyday life. A striking meditation on the contradictions of visibility and exclusion.
CANDOMBE
(Rafael Deugenio, Uruguay, 1993, 16 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
A portrait of musician and drum-maker Fernando Núñez, who fights to preserve the Afro-Uruguayan legacy of candombe despite erasure and marginalization.
BI ILÉ
(Clarissa Rebouças, Brazil/Canada, 2025, 20 min. In French with English subtitles)
Bi Ilé explores Yoruba cultural continuity across borders through the work of artist Odun Orimolade, weaving tradition, performance, and diasporic identity.
ROSA CHUMBE
(Jonatan Relayze, Peru, 2015, 75 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Rosa is a mature police officer with both a gambling and a drinking problem. She lives with her daughter Sheila, who has a little baby. One day, after a big fight between them, Sheila steals her mother's savings and storms out of the house leaving her baby behind. Rosa is forced to spend some time with her grandson. Something changes inside her heart of stone. However, everything takes a wrong turn one night. Only a miracle can save her.
ADIÓS MOMO
(Leonardo Ricagni, Uruguay, 2005, 107 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
An 11-year-old street boy, Obdulio, who sells newspapers for a living but cannot read or write, finds a magical "Maestro" in the night watchman of the newspaper's office. Obdulio's charismatic mentor not only introduces him to the world of literacy but also teaches him the real meaning of life through the lyrics of the "Murgas" [Carnival Pierrots] during the magical nights of the irreverent and provocative Uruguayan Carnival.
MARIGHELLA
(Wagner Moura, Brazil, 2021, 155 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
This action-packed political drama chronicles the life and struggle of Carlos Marighella, the legendary Afro-Brazilian revolutionary and writer who led the urban guerrilla fight against Brazil's military dictatorship in the late 1960s. The film was directly targeted by the Bolsonaro administration due to its political content, which is sympathetic to the leftist guerrilla leader, resulting in the blocking and significant delay of its theatrical release in Brazil through politically motivated regulatory obstruction.
Wednesday, December 10, 3:30pm at Cinema Village, New York City
MALÊS
(Antônio Pitanga, Brazil, 2024, 122 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
From the award-winning Brazilian filmmaker Antônio Pitanga—one of the key actors of Brazil's influential Cinema Novo movement (1960s and 70s), Malês is a dramatic journey of courage, faith, and resistance set in 1835 Salvador, Bahia. The film centers on a young Muslim couple ripped from their African homeland and sold into slavery in Brazil on the eve of their wedding. Separated by cruel fate, they struggle not only to survive the daily horrors of the sugar plantations and urban servitude but also to find a path back to each other. Their personal fight for survival becomes swept up in the Malê Revolt, the largest and most influential organized uprising of enslaved people in Brazilian history, led by Muslim Africans.
This powerful historical drama vividly brings to life the resilience, intellect, and unity of the enslaved and free Black communities who dared to challenge the entire institution of slavery, cementing Malês as a monumental contribution to the cinematic history of the African Diaspora.
Sunday, December 7, 9:10apm and Wednesday, December 10, 3:30pm at Cinema Village, New York City
BRICK BY BRICK / TIJOLO POR TIJOLO
(Victória Álvares & Quentin Delaroche, Brazil, 2024, 102 min. In Portuguese with English subtitles)
After being forced from their collapsing home during the pandemic, Cris and her family rebuild their lives in the outskirts of Recife while navigating motherhood, survival, and political struggle.
Saturday, December 13, 1pm at 177 Grace Dodge, Teachers College
SUGAR ISLAND
(Johanné Gómez Terrero, Dominican Republic, 2025, 91 min. In Spanish and Haitian Creole with English subtitles)
Sugar Island immerses us in the Dominican Republic’s sugarcane fields, where Makenya, a Dominican-Haitian teenager, navigates an unwanted pregnancy and the harsh labor that defines her world. Director Johanné Gómez Terrero masterfully blends social realism, spirituality, and Afro-futurism to expose the enduring legacy of colonial exploitation. As Makenya confronts family burdens and the specter of displacement, the arrival of a mysterious theater troupe illuminates haunting connections between past and present struggles. As Makenya fights for her future and her grandfather battles for justice, Sugar Island unfolds as a lyrical, visually rich meditation on identity, survival, and the enduring power of cultural memory.
