Thursday, August 7, 2025
By Caroline Moore
This past weekend, the Africa World Now Project and the GWU Africana Studies Program hosted the African Diaspora International Film Festival DC right on George Washington University’s campus. The festival showcased a diverse selection of films from across the African diaspora, offering a unique opportunity to engage with global Black narratives through the lens of cinema.
This was the 18th year that the African Diaspora International Film Festival has come to DC. This year the organizing was focusing on the theme of Black music, anti-colonial resistance and women’s stories and unique voices. The programming emphasized storytelling as a tool for both cultural preservation and political critique, aligning historical reflection with contemporary relevance.
The African Diaspora International Film Festival featured 14 different films from 14 unique countries, including a mix of award-winning dramas, moving documentaries and classics. The countries included are Belgium, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Ethiopia, the United States, Guyana, India, the Netherlands, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Haiti, Canada, and Nigeria. Highlights included Legacy: The De-Colonized History of South Africa, which opened the festival with a provocative look at the lingering effects of apartheid, and Rhythm of Dammam, the first narrative film to spotlight the African Diaspora in India.
The GW Africana Studies Program, established in 1989 through student advocacy for expanded Black studies coursework, has played a central role in fostering dialogue and scholarship around race, culture, and identity. Over the decades, it has evolved into a hub for interdisciplinary learning, community engagement, and global discourse. They were a co-sponsor of the African Diaspora International Film Festival DC.
The Africa World Now Project, another one of the co-sponsoring organizations, is a “multimedia educational project” that focuses on creating knowledge about the African world using various methods, including radio, podcasts, film festivals, social media, etc. It focused on providing access to education that is traditionally not as easily accessed.