Photo credit: jada-amina
Black cinema cannot be reduced to one genre, experience or familiar storyline. It includes stories about love, family, identity, history, experimentation, joy and everyday life. For Black Harvest Film Festival lead curator jada-amina, that range is central to building a meaningful film program.
As the festival celebrates its 32nd year, jada-amina is helping bring different expressions of Black life to the big screen. The 2026 festival runs Nov. 6–15 at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center. Its lineup includes nine feature films, multiple shorts programs and a restored film by legendary photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks.
In an interview with Porsha Monique, jada-amina discussed the importance of curating diverse Black stories, preserving Black cinema and creating spaces where filmmakers can present their experiences without having to explain everything to unfamiliar audiences.
Black cinema deserves room to tell different stories
For jada-amina, Black Harvest is more than a film festival. It is a cultural space with a history that connects generations of Black filmmakers and audiences.
She describes the festival as an inheritance. Her mother brought her and her younger sister to screenings when they were children. Those experiences helped her understand the importance of Black cultural institutions and seeing people who looked like her on screen.
That early connection now informs her work as a curator. She wants audiences to encounter films that reflect the diversity of Black life, including stories that may not fit familiar industry expectations.
Her approach also challenges the idea that Black filmmakers must explain their experiences for a dominant audience. Black stories should have the freedom to speak to their communities without constantly translating their culture.
One festival can hold many Black experiences
The festival’s programming reflects that belief. Its shorts programs make room for different generations, identities and creative approaches.
One featured film, Dreams and Nightmares, follows queer Black women on a road trip. Rather than placing all LGBTQ stories into a separate section, jada-amina wants those experiences represented throughout the festival.
She explained that she does not want to relegate queer filmmakers and characters to one program. Their stories belong within the wider range of Black cinema.
Other selections explore Black masculinity, women, children and older generations. Programs such as To Know Her Is To Love Her and From the Block offer different perspectives, including stories connected to Chicago.
The lineup also includes Candy Paint, an experimental featurette by Nia Imani and Adishola McKende. The film explores Black visual culture through influences such as church aesthetics, rap music and the broader African diaspora.
Black films do not have to follow one formula
Jada-amina describes herself as a film nutritionist. Her comparison captures the variety she wants audiences to experience.
As she explained, a film program needs different ingredients. It needs something for different tastes, interests and perspectives.
That philosophy extends to experimental cinema and documentary storytelling. Programs such as Black and Blur, Ancestral Futures and Everyday People bring different approaches to film form and narrative.
For jada-amina, the question is not simply whether a film follows familiar expectations. She wants to understand the spirit behind the work and whether its subjects feel fully realized.
This approach leaves room for films that challenge conventional storytelling. It also allows Black filmmakers to explore difficult subjects without being defined by stereotypes.
Preserving Black cinema protects cultural memory
Film preservation is another important part of the festival’s mission. The 2026 closing-night presentation features a restored version of Gordon Parks’ Solomon Northup’s Odyssey, adapted from the book 12 Years a Slave.
The festival also highlights Black Panthers, a rarely seen 1968 short film about the Black Panther Party.
Jada-amina believes restoration matters because films can disappear when no one takes responsibility for preserving them. Without that work, future audiences may lose access to important records of Black history and creative expression.
She also emphasizes the economic value of cultural work. Filmmakers and artists deserve compensation for their labor, not simply exposure.
Black cinema creates community beyond the screen
For emerging filmmakers, a festival screening can lead to relationships, professional opportunities and future collaborations. Jada-amina points to filmmakers who met through Black Harvest and later worked together on new projects.
The festival also creates space for audiences to speak directly with filmmakers through post-screening conversations and question-and-answer sessions.
That exchange is part of what makes theatrical screenings valuable. Audiences can respond, ask questions and connect with the people behind the work.
Ultimately, jada-amina wants Black cinema to remain expansive. It should make room for laughter, experimentation, history, romance, difficult conversations and joy.
Her curatorial perspective offers a reminder that Black stories do not need to fit one mold. They deserve the freedom to reflect the full range of Black life.
Source: According to Porsha, featuring Porsha Monique and jada-amina
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