Sugar Island
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A teenage girl navigates pregnancy and economic uncertainty in a Dominican-Haitian sugarcane community through realistic and Afro-futuristic storytelling. Sugar Island screens Sunday, June 1 at noon at The Koubek Center as part of the Third Horizon Film Festival's final day programming, followed by a discussion with director Johanné Gómez Terrero.
The feature film follows Makenya, who lives in the Batey with her grandfather, a pension rights activist, and her mother, who practices Afro-Dominican spirituality within the 21 divisions tradition. As sugar industry mechanization threatens their community's livelihood, Makenya must abandon her social life to seek employment. The narrative weaves between realistic portrayal of contemporary challenges and an Afro-futuristic dimension where Makenya and her friends examine colonial-era documents and Black resistance movements on the island.
Director Johanné Gómez Terrero positions her filmmaking within Caribbean and decolonial frameworks, building on her 2016 breakthrough short documentary Caribbean Fantasy. The Afro-diasporic artist holds graduate degrees from EICTV Cuba and ESAC Spain, while serving as educator and chair coordinator at the Cuban film school. Her work as producer and consultant spans various development programs, contributing to emerging voices in Caribbean cinema. The screening represents the festival's commitment to showcasing contemporary Latin American and Caribbean perspectives on identity, spirituality and social justice.