Roxbury International Film Festival

06/17/2026

🎬✨ FREE EVENT: ROXFILM Shorts – Next Generation ✨🎬

Join us for an inspiring afternoon celebrating the next generation of filmmakers at the Roxbury International Film Festival! Experience a powerful collection of student-created films, emerging voices, and community stories that showcase creativity, resilience, and imagination.

📅 Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2026
🕞 Time: 3:30 PM – 5:30 PM
📍 Location: Hibernian Hall
🎟️ Admission: FREE
🎤 Followed by a Q&A with filmmakers and special guests.

🎥 FEATURED PROGRAM

🌟 BOSTON ARTS ACADEMY STUDENT SHORTS
A collection of original student films showcasing fresh perspectives and creative storytelling:

• No Teacher's Day
• Survivor's Guilt
• Bucket List
• The Offer
• My Alarm Clock is Evil!
• Patience
• Silly String
• The Accidental
• Project Rival

🌟 RAW ART WORKS STUDENT SHORTS
Stories created by emerging young filmmakers:

• Mvcho's Room
• My Guatemala Bakery
• Classworkin'
• Attara's Chair Heist
• Friendships
• Bloom

🎬 THE END
Directed by Fenet Abebe & Elzion Kassahun (USA, 2026 | 8:14)

A young couple navigates a long-awaited night together where expectations, timing, and unspoken truths quietly collide. Through parallel moments and fleeting connections, The End explores how love can change before we're ready to name it.

🎬 EAST BOSTON MUSIC COLLECTIVE
Directed by Christopher Leone, Gary Hernandez, Nadinne Alcantar, Olman Diaz, Gabriela Argueta De Leon & Matthew Taylor (USA, 2026 | 16:41)

Created by student filmmakers as part of BPS Arts Expansion at EdVestors, this documentary highlights the East Boston Music Collective, a neighborhood-wide initiative expanding music education across all 11 East Boston Public Schools. Through interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, students document the impact of arts education in their community.

🎬 ACCEPTANCE
Directed by Daniel Gutierrez (USA, 2025 | 3:57)

A dreamlike journey following a young man grappling with time, expectations, and self-discovery. Produced by the Academy of Entertainment Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida.

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06/16/2026

✨ invites seniors and community members to a special FREE Senior Lunch Screening, featuring three inspiring films that explore Black history, music, education, social justice, and the power of possibility. Lunch will be provided by New England Culinary Arts Training (NECAT).

🎬 Senior Lunch Screening (FREE)
📆 Tuesday, June 23, 2026
🕦 Doors Open: 11:30 AM
🎥 Films Begin: 12:15 PM
📍 Hibernian Hall
184 Dudley Street, Boston, MA 02119
🍽️ Complimentary Lunch Provided
🎤 Followed by a Q&A
🎟️ FREE Admission (Space limited)

✨ Inspiring stories of love, perseverance, and achievement.
🎶 A tribute to one of music's most iconic voices.
📚 A celebration of education, opportunity, and social change.
🌟 Films that honor history while inspiring future generations.

Film Line-Up:

🖤 BLACK HISTORY BEGINS WITH A LOVE STORY
🎬 Directed by Irene Smalls
⏱️ 3:06

The story of Antony and Isabella, a Black couple living in the Virginia colony during the early 1600s. Their love, family, and pursuit of freedom reveal an often-overlooked truth: Black history began not only through struggle, but also through love, community, and resilience. RoxFilm Alum. Local.

🎷 ELLA
🎬 Directed by Nikki Taylor Roberts
⏱️ 17:35

Starring Jill Scott, this moving short explores a pivotal moment in the life of the legendary Ella Fitzgerald. Focusing on her challenging adolescence and the life-changing Apollo Amateur Night performance that launched her extraordinary career, *Ella* offers an intimate portrait of a musical icon. RoxFilm Alum. Pan African Film Festival 2026 Best Short Narrative Nominee.

💡 PURSUING LIGHT: THE BILL STRICKLAND STORY
🎬 Directed by Karen Somers
⏱️ 88:00

An inspiring ""rags-to-riches"" story chronicling the life and impact of Bill Strickland, whose groundbreaking work in arts education, workforce development, civil rights, and social justice transformed opportunities for countless young people and adults. Through his revolutionary community-based centers, Strickland demonstrates the power of creativity, education, and belief in human potential. Local.

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06/16/2026

✨ Join us for Shorts: Turning Points, a powerful collection of films exploring the moments that alter the course of our lives. From stories of self-acceptance and cultural identity to family, friendship, loss, and belonging, these films capture the pivotal experiences that define us and inspire change.

🎬 Shorts: Turning Points
📆 Monday, June 22, 2026
🕗 8:00 PM
📍 Massachusetts College of Art and Design
🏛️ 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115
🎤 Followed by a Q&A

✨ Stories of transformation, identity, and self-discovery.
🌎 Perspectives from diverse communities and cultures.
💫 Characters facing life-changing choices and unexpected truths.
🎬 Powerful short films from emerging and established filmmakers.

Film Line-Up:

👁️ BEST EYES
Directed by Kira Powell (USA 2025, 16:35)

While navigating two very different worlds-a working-class neighborhood and an elite private school-a biracial teenager forms an unexpected friendship that challenges the version of herself she believes she must be to fit in. A moving story about identity, belonging, and self-acceptance.
57th NAACP Image Awards Nominee.

🎓 THE BLACK GIG
Directed by Jaden Arcay Blake (USA 2025, 18:35)

Three Black students navigate life at a predominantly white school. As each searches for identity, acceptance, and belonging, they confront the pressures of assimilation and the challenge of staying true to themselves.

✨ HAIRDOO
Directed by Exodia Demosthene (USA 2026, 11:00)

The night before school picture day, a determined young girl embarks on a magical journey to recreate the perfect hairstyle. With help from an otherworldly hairstylist, she discovers confidence, beauty, and the power of embracing who she is.

🌱 POSHUN
Directed by Meenakshi Garodia (India/USA 2025, 17:25)

An 18-year-old immigrant from Punjab struggles to balance her family's traditional expectations with her desire to explore friendship, independence, and her evolving identity in a new country. A heartfelt coming-of-age story about growth, belonging, and finding one's voice.

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06/13/2026

06/10/2026

📜 What truths about our past are still waiting to be uncovered?

Join us for Shorts: Family Truths and History, a compelling collection of films that explore ancestry, faith, identity, and the enduring search for belonging. Followed by a special Q&A with filmmakers. This screening is FREE.

🎬 Shorts: Family Truths and History (FREE)
📆 Saturday, June 20, 2026
🕠 5:30 PM
📍 Massachusetts College of Art and Design
621 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115
🎤 Post-film Q&A

✨ Hidden histories brought into focus.
📚 Stories of resilience, remembrance, and identity.
🗺️ Journeys through ancestry, community, and faith.
🔍 Powerful explorations.

Film Line-Up:

KINDAH: A HISTORY IN THE SHADOWS
Directed by Tibria J. Brown (USA 2025, 10:00).

Kindah: A History in the Shadows spotlights the under-documented history of Jamaica's Maroon community—descendants of self-emancipated Africans who resisted British colonial rule and fought to secure their freedom.

SAME WATER
Directed by Martine Granby (USA 2025, 21:30).

Drawing from institutional and personal archives, Same Water revisits a segregated riverside recreation space, revealing the layered history of racial exclusion and unequal access to nature and leisure during the Jim Crow era.

THE SIGHT UNSEEN
Directed by Shawn Antoine II (USA 2026, 39:00).

When a six-year-old girl in the Bronx discovers a glowing cross in her bathroom window in 1971, it sparks wonder and controversy throughout her community. Fifty years later, she revisits the event to examine the mystery that shaped her faith and understanding of miracles.

THE FINAL LETTER: REED PEGGRAM'S HARROWING QUEST TO BELONG
Directed by Teja Arboleda (USA 2026, 24:00).

Based on letters written by Reed Peggram while studying at the Sorbonne as a Harvard doctoral student and Julius Rosenwald Fellow on the eve of World War II, this film chronicles a remarkable search for identity, purpose, and belonging.

Tag someone who loves uncovering hidden histories, exploring family legacies, and discovering the stories that connect past.

🎟️ Space is limit! Get your tickets soon! For more info on the film or tickets: https://roxfilm26family.eventbrite.com/

06/09/2026

📜 What happens when memory becomes resistance? When the stories of a generation fuel a movement for liberation?

Join us for TRUE NORTH, a powerful documentary that uncovers a pivotal chapter in Black history, connecting the fight for justice in 1960s Montréal to the global movement for Black liberation. Preceded by WE KEEP US SAFE and followed by a special Q&A.

🎬 TRUE NORTH (with WE KEEP US SAFE)
📆 Friday, June 19, 2026
🕢 7:30 PM
📍 Massachusetts College of Art and Design
621 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115

✨ Stories of resistance and collective power.
📚 Hidden histories that shaped global movements.
✊ Voices that challenged injustice and demanded change.
🌍 A cinematic journey through memory, activism, and liberation.

Film Line-Up:
WE KEEP US SAFE
Directed by Shawn Angela Batey (USA, 28 min).

We Keep Us Safe features portraits of five activists in the 2020 NYC Black Lives Matter Movement. Illustrated through the work of 25 independent photographers & videographers, WE KEEP US SAFE provides personal journeys of activism in the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

TRUE NORTH
Directed by Michèle Stephenson (USA 2025, 90 min).

TRUE NORTH uses a bold cinematic aesthetic that centers the power of memory and archive to expose the pivotal events of those who lived through the tumultuous period of 1960s Montréal that impacted the global movement for Black liberation.

🎬 Film Screening
🎤 Post-film Q&A

Tag someone who believes history is more than what's written in textbooks—and secure your tickets today.

🎟️ https://roxfilm26true.eventbrite.com/

06/09/2026

🚀 What does it mean to live without limits?

Join us for LIMITLESS: The Dr. Chester Pierce Story and discover the extraordinary life of a man whose impact reached far beyond the field.

LIMITLESS: The Dr. Chester Pierce Story
Directed by: Gloria Respress-Churchwell
📆 Friday, June 19, 2026
🕖 5:00PM
📍 Hibernian Hall (184 Dudley Street #200, Boston, MA 02119)

🏈 First African American to play intercollegiate football against a white team in a former Confederate state.
🎓 Trailblazing scholar.
🌍 Global leader.
✨ Living proof that one person can change what's possible for generations.
🎬 Film Screening
🎤 Post-film Q&A

Tag someone who refuses to be defined by limits. For more info or to get your tickets: https://roxfilm26limitless.eventbrite.com/

06/05/2026

Thank you to for including is in their 2026 Best of the Best list! 🩷 is one of the best cultural festivals in Boston because we have the best committee members, the best leaders, the best filmmakers 🎞, the best audiences, the best supporters, and the best community📽 who uplift up and our artists. ✨️

Thank you, all, for being by our side every summer. ☀️ We can't wait to see you all at Opening Night!! 🫶

05/07/2026

OH MYYY! Calling all Star Trek fans front and center!!! ArtsEmerson’s Shared Stories program presents BEAM ME UP, SULU, directed by Timour Gregory and Sasha Schneider.

BEAM ME UP, SULU

6:30 PM | May 15th, 2026

Museum of Science, Mugar Omni Theater |1 Museum Of Science Driveway Mugar Omni Theater, Boston, MA 02114

Beam Me Up, Sulu is a love letter to George Takei, Star Trek, and the fans who believed in its bold vision of inclusion long before it was mainstream. Celebrating hope, representation, and imagination, the film honors the fandom that turned a television series into a lasting cultural force.

Q&A with Directors Timour Gregory and Sasha Schneider and Lisa Simmons follows the screening. This event is in partnership with B.A.A.F.F., CineFest Latino, & Roxfilm. Visit Artsemerson.org to get your tickets!!

05/06/2026

You and a guest are cordially invited to a FREE advance screening IS GOD IS! Presented by MGM Screening and .

IS GOD IS!
Tuesday, May 12, 7:00PM
AMC Boston Common, 175 Tremont Street in Boston

Two sisters embark on an epic quest for revenge, confronting a charged family history that will push them to extraordinary lengths. The film is Aleshea Harris’ directorial debut and is based on Harris’ adaptation of her award-winning play of the same name.
Please register to attend at this link: https://mgmscreenings.com/ISGODISBOSTONCOMMON