Screening the Struggle: Caribbean Activist Cinema Regained

Archived films of protest, resistance and everyday struggle take center stage in this panel discussion examining the role of Caribbean activist cinema as both historical document and call to action. Participants will consider how films from the late 1970s through the mid-1980s reflected the political and social realities of their time, and how those themes continue to resonate today.

Screening the Struggle: Caribbean Activist Cinema Regained takes place Saturday, May 31 at the Koubek Center as part of the 2025 Third Horizon Film Festival. The panel focuses on works featured in the retrospective You Don’t Get Freedom, You Take Freedom: Caribbean Activist Cinema 1978–1985, including Women of Suriname, Bitter Cane, Sweet Sugar Rage and West Indies. Panelists—Luna Hupperetz, Kim Ives, Nadia Tilon and Annabelle Aventurin—bring experience in filmmaking, archival preservation and research. The discussion will be moderated by Terri Francis, Associate Professor of Cinematic Arts at the University of Miami.

The conversation will address collective production methods, the impact of political filmmaking in postcolonial contexts and the ongoing challenges of preserving and restoring radical cinema. This event is presented with support from Dutch Culture USA, The Netherland-America Foundation, the Netherlands Film Fund and Villa Albertine Miami.