Kinship is the focus of today’s short films, which include Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman (2012), Mickalene Thomas’s directorial debut. These films explore the idea that what is past is also present and celebrate the art created by Black people across time.

A special screening of Bridgett M. Davis' Naked Acts. This program is in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the exhibition, Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure.

Desire is the focus of this shorts block, which showcase lush, joyful, and tender longing for a world beyond patriarchy.

Shorts inspired by the themes in The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A special screening of Exhibiting Forgiveness (2024), Titus Kaphar’s first narrative feature film. The semi-autobiographical film follows Tarrell (André Holland), an artist attempting to overcome the trauma of his past through painting.

A screening of writer-director Nefertite Nguvu’s debut feature In the Morning, relates to the theme of femininity and offers an exploration of love, infidelity, and friendship with a focus on the interiority of Black women.