Chicago Film Festival Announces Black Perspectives Lineup

Every year the Festival is thrilled to showcase the richness and diversity of black cultures around the world and the filmmakers behind them. Featuring six full-lengths from the U.S., South Africa, France, and the U.K., our Black Perspectives program features films for lovers of all movie genres: Animation, Drama, Comedy, Music, and Documentary. Finally, don’t miss our special tribute to Career Achievement Award recipient Charles Burnett with our screening of his 1990 landmark film To Sleep with Anger.

In Syl Johnson: Any Way the Wind Blows, velvet-voiced soul singer Syl Johnson struggled for decades before leaving the biz in the 1980s to open a Chicago fried-fish chain. Since then, he’s become one of the most-sampled artists in hip-hop. With a lively soundtrack, this buoyant world premiere documentary celebrates one man who can’t stop the music. In Cuckold a young African-American professor in Johannesburg falls apart after his wife leaves him for another man. Cuckold is an incisive vision of domestic turmoil and a sly take on betrayal and forgiveness. Cronies, a Spike Lee-produced dramedy, presents a refreshingly candid and honest portrait of life in the hood. In Adama a young boy ventures outside the forbidden cliff walls of his secluded West African village in 1916 in search of his older brother. He will journey across land and sea and, eventually, find himself struggling to survive in war-torn Europe. Rendered in a striking blend of 2D backdrops and sculpted, laser-scanned characters, Adama is a vibrantly animated odyssey and a stirring tale of adventure and courage for the whole family. In Danny and the Human Zoo, a teen growing up in a Jamaican working class family, finds his calling as an impressionist (EXCLUSIVE FREE MEMBER SCREENING!).

All films listed will receive their Chicago premiere at the Festival unless otherwisescreenings will be held at the AMC River East 21 Theater (322 E. Illinois St.).

Program subject to change.

Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased by calling the Festival Hotline Mon-Fri 6:00pm CST at 312-332-FILM (3456) or by visiting our Box Office 7 days a week from 12:00pm-8:00pm at the AMC River East 21 (322 E. Illinois St, Chicago). Tickets are also available online at ChicagoFilmFestival.com/tickets.

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