The Harlem-based African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF NYC) says that Caribbean stories will take center stage during ADIFF NYC’s 33rd edition, running Nov. 28 – Dec. 14 across New York City venues including Cinema Village, The Forum, and Teachers College, Columbia University.
ADIFF said it continues its mission to expand cultural awareness and spotlight diverse voices within the global African Diaspora.
It said this year’s program specializes in Caribbean cinema and celebrates groundbreaking storytellers from Curaçao, Bonaire, Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, and Canada.
ADIFF NYC lists the following gala screenings:
Village Keeper (Canada, 2024)—Winner of multiple Canadian Screen Awards, including Best First Feature, this film is a stirring testament to Black motherhood, resilience, and the healing power of self-care.
Sugar Island (Dominican Republic, 2024) – A visually rich, Afrofuturistic drama set in the Dominican Republic’s sugarcane fields, exploring identity, labor, and the enduring legacy of colonial exploitation.
Fanon (Guadeloupe/Trinidad and Tobago, 2024) – Fanon brings to life the revolutionary journey of Martiniquan psychiatrist and anticolonial thinker Frantz Fanon, tracing his transformation from healer to activist during Algeria’s independence struggle.
ADIFF 2025 also said it will host a special retrospective honoring pioneering Caribbean filmmaker and visual artist Felix de Rooy, “whose work has profoundly shaped conversations around race, identity, and queerness in the Dutch Caribbean.
ADIFF 2025 said the retrospective will feature Desirée, Ava & Gabriel: A Love Story, Almacita: Soul of Desolato, and Nomad in No Man’s Land.
Noting that Canada is home to a vibrant Caribbean community whose influence is increasingly visible in contemporary cinema, two standout titles in ADIFF 2025 — The Last Meal and Village Keeper — “exemplify this dynamic cultural fusion, bringing powerful Caribbean stories to the screen through Canadian lenses.”
In The Last Meal, ADIFF 2025 said director Maryse Legagneur delivers a “moving drama that explores the intertwined histories of Haiti and Canada through the story of a Haitian-Canadian chef preparing a final meal that evokes memory, loss, and cultural identity.”
In Village Keeper, ADIFF 2025 said a widowed mother named Jean confronts grief and a fracturing home life.
“Her reggae-loving mother and her therapist slowly push her to recognize that she must develop self-care practices to regain the strength she needs to protect her children,” ADIFF 2025 said.
It said other Caribbean films in the selection include: Love Offside (Jamaica). “In this vibrant Jamaican romance, an overlooked physical therapist risks her career by secretly treating an injured rugby star using a daring blend of modern and traditional island remedies, sparking a profound connection threatened by professional jealousy and scandal,” ADIFF 2025.
In She Island (Trinidad and Tobago / United States), ADIFF 2025 said this short experimental film “blends Caribbean folklore and history, following a mother and daughter’s mystical journey to break a curse and reclaim their community’s cultural memory and identity.”
In Kasita (Bonaire), ADIFF 2025 said that, when a young girl on Bonaire decides to shelter her rescued dog in one of the tiny, haunting “slave huts” once used by salt miners, “she ignites a spiritual journey that confronts her with the island’s painful colonial past and the need for historical memory.
ADIFF said Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know (Guyana/UK), backed by popular demand, is “a 72-minute documentary probing the assassination of Guyanese scholar-activist Walter Rodney, weaving Cold War intrigue, Black Power, and today’s surveillance practices with first-time personal testimony from his widow and voices including Angela Davis and Donald Ramotar.”
For more information, go to: www.nyadiff.org.
