Retrospective: Sweet Sugar Rage & Women of Suriname

Explore the role of grassroots activism and labor organizing through two documentaries that highlight the struggles and resilience of Caribbean women confronting exploitation and inequality. Both films offer a rare window into feminist and anti-colonial movements of the late 20th century, blending personal narratives with collective calls for justice.

Retrospective: Sweet Sugar Rage & Women of Suriname screens Friday, May 30 at the Koubek Center as part of the Third Horizon Film Festival. This installment features Sweet Sugar Rage (1985), a Jamaican documentary by Honor Ford-Smith and Harclyde Walcott, which follows the Sistren Collective as they use theater to amplify the voices of working-class women. It is paired with Oema Foe Sranan (Women of Suriname) (1978), directed by At van Praag, Nadia Tilon and Luna Hupperetz, which documents the experiences of Surinamese women facing racism, colonial legacy and political struggle in both Suriname and the Netherlands.

The screening is part of the retrospective series You Don’t Get Freedom, You Take Freedom: Caribbean Activist Cinema 1978–1985, presented in partnership with Miami Workers Center. The series focuses on recently restored Caribbean activist films centered on labor and resistance. Additional titles will be shown at other times during the festival.