Third World Newsreel

Join us for a film and talk of "Respect is Due" with Cyrille Phipps at Make Art, Make Trouble: Feminist Art, Film, and Collective Action.

When: Thursday, June 25, 2026
Doors open at 12 PM, Film screenings at 3 PM
SVA Theatre, 333 W 23rd Street, NYC
RSVP Here: https://buff.ly/5nvkOyW

"Respect is Due" directed by Cyrille Phipps.
In keeping with the doctrines of Wall Street and Madison Avenue, "s*x sells rap music." In this video, Black youth examine the ways women of African descent are frequently portrayed in rap lyrics and music videos. Hip-hop riffs and clips from rap videos illustrate interviews with young rap enthusiasts, art critics, and activists like rapper Sister Souljah.

All videos and films will be Closed Captioned, and live ASL interpretation will be available during the discussion portions of the event.

Join us for this landmark exploration of African spiritualities revisited in a new 2K Restoration of Al Santana’s "Voices of the Gods." A Juneteenth Celebration with the Luminal Theater, in partnership with the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI).

A post-screening Q&A with Al Santana (director) and Baba John Mason (elder, scholar, and priest in the Yoruba tradition featured prominently in the film) to follow, moderated by Sharayna Ashanti.

When: Thursday, June 18, 2026 7:00 PM EDT
Where: SNF Parkway Theatre, Theatre 1, Baltimore
RSVP Here: https://buff.ly/PZAG9VZ

“This is an offering to a city that has been and continues to be a stronghold for practitioners of these traditions. And to the now elders, some of whom may even see themselves or their dear ones on screen, that reached back and did not allow us to forget.” - Baltimore native and Associate Programmer for The Luminal Theater Jenné Afiya Matthews

SYNOPSIS: This new 2K restoration of a classic of Black independent cinema and a nuanced analysis of modern spirituality, Al Santana’s 1985 documentary "Voices of the Gods" profiles then contemporary American followers of the Akan and Yoruba religions, two West African traditions that have long been practiced in the United States - and quite heavily in Baltimore - in part as a means to reconnect with ancient histories. Filmed during the Reagan 80s, "Voices of the Gods" at times gives the sense of a political movement that has come to look inward, to enter into, as Amiri Baraka wrote, in a poem that would serve as the film’s preamble, “the ancient image, into a new correspondence with ourselves and our black family.”

Presented by SNF Parkway, the Luminal Theater, and the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). Now celebrating its 50th year anniversary, the CCCADI, located in Harlem, NYC, was instrumental in getting "Voices of the Gods" made.

📽️ “TRUE NORTH” is coming to IFC Center, New York City - Voices of 1960s Black Montréal rise through unseen archives.

📆 June 17 - 23 | Daily at 1:45, 4:05, and 6:30 PM
🎟️ Get Tickets https://buff.ly/svY7SUF
💫 Discount code IFCNORTH-15 for $15 promo tickets

💬 Q&As with the film’s director, Michèle Stephenson, at select screenings.

Rated 4-stars by The Guardian, TRUE NORTH is a visually and emotionally arresting documentary revealing a buried history of Black Canadian resistance - where students defied Canada’s myth of racial harmony and dared to build a new future.

📽️ NYC, San Francisco, Houston, Columbus, Austin, Los Angeles and more cities to be announced!

Award-winning documentary “The Gas Station Attendant” opens in select theaters nationwide on June 12 at Firehouse Cinema in New York. Visit thegasstationattendant.com to get your tickets and don't forget to tell your friends and family!

Congratulations to Karla Murthy! Karla is a TWN Production Workshop Graduate.

🎟️
https://buff.ly/xKWzdq8

Don't miss the upcoming premiere of "Rediscovering Fanon" by Rico Speight in New York City.

"REDISCOVERING FANON" is an independent feature documentary that explores the life, work, and enduring legacy of Frantz Fanon, the Martinican psychiatrist, philosopher, and revolutionary whose writings transformed global conversations about racism, colonialism, decolonization, and human liberation.

When: Sunday, July 19, 2026 at 2 PM
Where: Symphony Space
Address: 2537 Broadway at 95th St., New York, NY
RSVP Here: https://buff.ly/2SsrYOm

Featuring interviews with Fanon’s daughter, Mireille Fanon-Mendès-France; his son, Olivier Fanon; and leading scholars such as Professor Lewis R. Gordon and Dr. Alice Cherki, the film revisits tragedies from Trayvon Martin to George Floyd and the January 6 Capitol attack. It reflects on Fanon’s life while underscoring his fierce opposition to racism, his call for liberation, and his vision of a new humanity.

Blending interviews, archival footage, dramatizations, and music by Tupac Shakur and Nina Simone — along with an original score by jazz pianist Lafayette Harris — this independent social-justice documentary revives Fanon’s revolutionary humanism for a new generation.

Third World Newsreel is the fiscal sponsor of "Rediscovering Fanon."

Congratulations to TWN fiscal sponsoree, Rico Speight, on "Rediscovering Fanon" (2025) premiering in New York City.

"REDISCOVERING FANON" explores the enduring truths of race articulated by Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) — the revolutionary psychiatrist and anti-colonial thinker born in Martinique, educated in France, and practicing psychiatry in Algeria — whose writings inspired "The Battle of Algiers" and shaped the Black Panther Party. The film spotlights the peril of black lives under systemic racism in the United States and across the globe.

When: Sunday, July 19, 2026 at 2 PM
Expected Run Time: 135 minutes
Where: Symphony Space
Address: 2537 Broadway at 95th St., New York, NY 10025-6990
RSVP Here: https://buff.ly/AMgIxFT

RICO SPEIGHT is a filmmaker, producer-director, writer, and educator whose work spans film, television, and theater. His documentaries include "The People United," "Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?," "Where Are They Now?," and "New Generation." He has worked as a control room director at CUNY TV, NYU-TV, and WGBH-TV, and has taught film and television production, editing, aesthetics, and control-room directing at Sarah Lawrence College, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, NYU School of Professional Studies, Pratt Institute, Hunter College, City College of New York, Third World Newsreel, and the New York African Film Festival.

Third World Newsreel is a fiscal sponsor of "Rediscovering Fanon."

Upcoming screenings of "A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde" 📽️

This film is the most comprehensive portrait of the legendary feminist and self-described "Black, le***an, mother, warrior, poet" ever committed to film.

In a cultural moment when Black and q***r histories face systemic erasure - over 20,000 books banned in the last few years, 403 university DEI programs dismantled, federal agencies have stripped LGBTQIA+ terminology from public documents - this preservation is a political necessity.

📍 International Q***r Women of Color Film Festival, SF - June 14 @ 4 PM
https://buff.ly/Tvy7naU
📍 Sistah Sinema, Cleveland - June 14
https://buff.ly/ntswPJx
📍 Q***r North Film Festival, Sudbury, Canada - June 21
https://buff.ly/cSbOFJ1

The preservation as a resistance campaign, including the restoration of the film A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL, is supported by Color Congress, through its Elev8Docs Marketing Initiative.

Join us for the Chicago Premiere of "Blueprint for My People" directed by Carol Bash. 📽️

This short film illuminates the African-American experience by lyrically interweaving spoken-word narration of Margaret Walker’s epic poem, “For My People” with contemporary images and rare 19th century cyanotypes (blue photographic prints known as “blueprints”) of African Americans.

When: June 5, 2026 at 4:30 PM
Where: FACETS Theater, Chicago, IL
Tickets: https://buff.ly/K1yaZ16 🎟️