Shorts Program: Interrelations
120min
Layered family dynamics are conveyed through themes of loss and the need to preserve values, traditions, and memories.

Hayat
Rendah Haj, Australia, 2019, 14m
Rahma, an Eritrean migrant, contends with feelings of isolation and disconnect while raising four young children in Melbourne’s inner suburbs. Set during Ramadan, Hayat observes the intricate challenges of her daily life as she encourages her family to embrace Western society while maintaining a strong sense of their own faith and culture.

End / Fin
Lara Sousa, Cuba/Mozambique, 2018, 15m
In this arresting cinepoem, a young filmmaker inhabits an unsettled space between Cuba and Mozambique as her aging father recalls filming the revolution and how his vision of independence was at odds with dominating ideologies. Alongside beautifully composed images evoking melancholy and fracture, she meditates on the complexities of both her relationship to her father and her homeland.

I Cannot Bury My Father
Nana-Jo N'dow, Ghana, 2020, 28m
In 2005, Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh murdered 56 West African migrants out of fear they were mercenaries intending to overthrow him. The disappearance of their slain bodies robbed families of healing and closure by being unable to bury their loved ones. Isaac Mensah, one of the victim’s sons, shares the emotional toll of this atrocity and his quest for answers.

Black Boy Joy
Martina Lee, USA, 2019, 17m
With nuance and sensitivity, this film examines intergenerational effects of limiting ideas about Black masculinity. On the day of his wife’s funeral, Miles tries to prepare his autistic son but is confronted by his father about how to raise him. As the film unfolds, they come to terms with their grief by recognizing their shared need for vulnerability and support.

Three Blades
Matthieu Maunier-Rossi, France/Haiti, 2019, 29m
Three generations in a Haitian family of men are preoccupied with their individual hopes and struggles. As they each forge their own paths under the burning sun, they’re linked by the wielding of the machete, their everyday tool used for everything from preparing food, to sacred ceremonies and physical protection. At nightfall, what happens when dreams and frustrations collide?

Waters of March
Chase Johnson, USA, 2019, 17m
When a family loses its matriarch, each member must come to terms with her absence. But March, being especially close with his grandmother, experiences this loss through overwhelming emotional and physical devastation. Making room for himself to grieve, he occupies liminal mental spaces, seeking traces of his grandmother amidst darkness and uncertainty.

This screening is a part of the New York African Film Festival (NYAFF)