Nou Akoma Nou Sinèji Haitian Dominican Transnational Film Festival

Nou Akoma Nou Sinèji Haitian Dominican Transnational Film Festival returns for its third annual celebration. Running from October 9 to 12, 2025, this vital cultural event amplifies voices that mainstream media often overlooks, presenting authentic stories from the communities that live them. “Nou Akoma Nou Sinèji” translates to “our hearts, our synergy”—a fitting motto for a festival that refuses to let political borders divide shared Caribbean experiences. While Haiti and the Dominican Republic occupy the same island, their stories rarely intersect in contemporary cinema. This festival changes that narrative.

IMPORTANT – VENUES
Screenings are hosted at either
CCCADI, 208 E 126th St #3, New York, NY 10035
or
Maysles Documentary Center, 343 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10027

 

Four Days of Transformative Cinema

🎬 Thursday Opening Night: Shorts Program 1 – Looking Within

October 9, 2025 | 5:00–8:00 PM EDT
CCCADI – ILE OYIN | 208 E 126th St #3, New York, NY 10035
Entrance at E. 126th Street

🕔 5:00 PM – Light Reception

🕕 6:00 PM – Film Screenings Begin

🎤 Talkback to follow the program

We open the 3rd Annual Nou Akoma Nou Sinèji Haitian Dominican Transnational Film Festival with a powerful collection of short films that ask us to reflect deeply on legacy, identity, and inherited values.

Shorts Program 1: Looking Within
This program examines the subtle forces that shape us: traditions, gender roles, family expectations, and the unspoken codes passed down through generations. From the feminine and masculine perspectives, we examine—not just accept—the legacies we carry. What beliefs and behaviors are inherited? What do we choose to keep, and what do we question or release?

Through these stories, we ask:

How does legacy shape who we are and guide how we show up in the world?
What values—silent or spoken—form the foundation of our humanity?

Featured Films:

🔹 Making of A Matriarch (Documentary)
A third-generation Dominican-American filmmaker crafts a tender “love letter to grandma,” uncovering the matriarchal strength and migration story that shaped her family. A personal journey into memory, lineage, and womanhood.

🔹 Victorine (Narrative)
On the one-year anniversary of her mother’s passing, a Haitian-American dancer returns home. What unfolds is a moving meditation on grief, memory, and reconnection with cultural and familial roots.

🔹 Papi Chulo (Narrative)
After getting kicked out of his girlfriend’s apartment, Yani—a smooth-talking Afro-Dominican playboy—navigates a chaotic day in Washington Heights trying to win her back. A witty, layered story about masculinity, pride, and love in the diaspora.

 

🌀 FRIDAY WORKSHOPS

Workshops at CCCADI – ILE OYIN

October 10, 2025 | 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
CCCADI – ILE OYIN
208 E 126th St #3, New York, NY 10035
Entrance at E. 126th Street

Workshop #1: The River Within – A Tapestry of Healing

10:00-12:00pm

Facilitated by: Clarivel Ruiz
Art-Based Meditation

In this grounding, art-based meditation workshop, the body becomes a living allegory for the island of Ayiti/Kiskeya—one land, divided by history, yet deeply connected at its roots. Participants will be guided through a journey of movement, reflection, and creation that flows from individual healing to collective expression.

Using simple materials and intentional practice, we will physically and symbolically weave our fragmented stories into a unified whole. This is a space for restoration, release, and reclamation.

Open to all bodies, all stories. 

Workshop #2: Love Letters to the Future

1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

In partnership with CCCADI Archives

This is a space for storytelling, dreaming, remembering, and reclaiming.

What wisdom will we carry forward? What dreams do we pass on?

In this intimate, creative workshop, participants will explore the powerful relationship between memory, legacy, and imagination. Drawing inspiration from the rich archives of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI), we’ll reflect on the stories, images, and voices that connect our past to our present—and use them to craft personal “love letters to the future.”

These letters may be addressed to future generations, to community, to self, or to the cultural legacy we hope to shape. Through guided prompts and group dialogue, we’ll honor the resilience, creativity, and spirit found in the archives, while using our own words and vision to plant seeds for what comes next.

No prior writing experience needed. Just bring your voice.

🎥 Panel Discussion: Cinema for Liberation

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Sponsored by Third World Newsreel

What does “Cinema for Liberation” mean to you?

This interactive lecture and conversation invites you to explore the radical potential of film as a tool for truth, resistance, and imagination. Drawing on the ideas of Stuart Hall, the legacy of Third Cinema, and the revolutionary vision of Toni Cade Bambara, we’ll examine how filmmakers challenge systems of oppression and envision freer futures.

Expect film clips, cultural theory, and real-world experience connecting media, movement, and liberation.

Featured Speaker: Anjanette Levert
An award-winning documentary producer, filmmaker, curator, and professor, Anjanette Levert brings decades of experience bridging Black Southern storytelling, education, and community. Her work—including The Only Doctor (Hot Docs, PBS Reel South, Al Jazeera Witness)—centers underrepresented voices and real-world impact. As a professor at Spelman College, she’s shaped a new generation of truth-tellers, earning accolades for her teaching and mentorship. She is a sought-after speaker and cultural strategist dedicated to connecting art, activism, and media.

🤝 Networking Opportunity

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Stick around after the panel for light refreshments and informal networking. Meet filmmakers, thinkers, and fellow attendees passionate about cinema, culture, and change. Build connections, spark collaborations, and keep the conversation going.

 

📅 FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 – MAYSLES EVENING PROGRAM

Location: Maysles Documentary Center | 343 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, NY 10027
Time: 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

🎥 7:00 PM – 8:30 PM

 

🎤7:15 pm-8pm Filmmaker Talk Back

 

🎥8:00 pm Screening

Feature Film: At All Kosts
Runtime: 1 hr 24 min
Director: Joseph Hillel

Set in Haiti during a time of cholera outbreaks and gang violence, At All Kosts follows a group of artists who turn to theater as a powerful form of resistance. Through hunger, fear, and political instability, they use performance to reclaim space, voice, and dignity. Interweaving fiction with reality, the film captures how theater is woven into everyday life—from Vodou ceremonies to protests—and reveals the resilience of Haitian communities facing daily crisis.

📅 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 – FILM MARATHON

Location: Maysles Documentary Center | 343 Lenox Ave, Harlem, NY

🕙 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Shorts Program 2: Fractals of Immigration
In this short program, we witness the often-hidden and emotionally complex stories of immigrants who confront painful and often unspoken worries and concerns about family members left behind, as well as the instability of their country of origin. With the ever-present unanswered question of can I and will I ever be able to go back?

• Home (Documentary)
  Through interviews and personal reflection, this film follows the director’s mother’s ocean crossing from the Dominican Republic and explores what “home” means for those who leave and those who don’t make it.
• One (Documentary)
  Michley Nelson, a Haitian-American who grew up without his parents, interviews his family for the first time about being sent to the U.S. as a child. A raw and emotional reckoning with distance and love.
• Making of A Matriarch (Documentary)
  [Repeat Screening] A granddaughter uncovers the powerful legacy of her grandmother’s migration to the U.S.
• Home, Sick Home (Narrative)
  A spirited Dominican teen wins a scholarship to study in Canada—only to find herself battling homesickness and emotional isolation.

Total Running Time: 57 min
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Discussion
12:00 PM – 12:15 PM – Break

🕛 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM

Shorts Program 3: Speculations of Space and Body
In Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology suggests that the body is not merely an object in space but is “of it”. Our physical form anchors our perspective, creating the depth and dimensions through which we perceive our surroundings. In this short program, our forms are both trappings but also places of liberation when we move beyond the body and into space. 

• The Adventures of Angosat (Narrative)
  A musical one-shot fiction inspired by Angola’s lost satellite and the dreams of Man Ré, a young man from Luanda who wants to go to space.
• The Most Quiet Noise (Narrative)
  A young woman glued to her phone discovers she has a supernatural ability—an awakening that shifts her worldview.
• Masisi Wouj (Documentary)
  Haitian artist Sanba Yonel pays tribute to queer identity and Vodou, exploring how LGBTQ+ individuals find safety and power in spiritual spaces.
• Victorine (Narrative)
  [Repeat Screening] A dancer reconnects with her mother’s memory one year after her passing.

Total Running Time: 59 min
1:15 PM – 2:15 PM – Discussion
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM – Break

🕝 2:30 PM – 3:45 PM

Shorts Program 4: To Care – Power and Domination
The relationship between care and domination is a central concern within the ethics of care, which recognizes that caring relationships—from personal to institutional—are often shaped by and vulnerable to power imbalances. While caring implies benevolence, it can also become a tool for control, manipulation, and the oppression of others. Through these short programs, we examine care in various settings with a critical eye, unpacking how our society maintains unjust social hierarchies.

*Trigger Warning
Trigger Warning: sensitive content

• Not Your Barbie: More Than a Fantasy (Documentary)
  Youth producers unpack the fetishization of Black and Asian women in media and its real-world harm, including sexual violence.
• Papi Chulo (Narrative)
  [Repeat Screening] A charming Afro-Dominican playboy tries to fix his mistakes with his girlfriend in Washington Heights.
• Ker (Narrative)
  A young man hides his lover inside a mosque he guards. Their relationship—and their sanctuary—exist in fragile secrecy.
• Troubled Water (Narrative)
  Lila’s weekend with her cousin Maxime turns traumatic, forcing her to confront a rupture in their once-close relationship.

Total Running Time: 71 min
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM – Discussion
4:45 PM – 5:00 PM – Break

🕔 5:00 PM – 6:20 PM

Feature Film: The Strong Man of Bureng
Dir. Mauro Bucci | Gambia/Finland
Former UN soldier Essa has fled the Gambia for Finland, where he has successfully set up a business that provides for his family. Back in his hometown Bureng, he is celebrated as a hero. During a visit home, world events catch up with him: The coronavirus outbreak jeopardises Essa’s return to Europe and his application to renew his residence permit, plunging him into one of the most serious crises of his life.

“The Strong Man of Bureng” is both a contemporary odyssey and an intimate story of the deep motivations that have brought a person to leave his own country in an effort to satisfy universal needs. 

6:20 PM – 7:20 PM – Discussion
7:20 PM – 7:30 PM – Break

🕢 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Feature Film: Calle 42
Dir. José María Cabral | Dominican Republic
A sensory dive into the lives of dancers and artists hungry for fame, clashing with police tactics and unorthodox views. 42nd Street unveils a defiant counter-culture in the Dominican urban scene—all unfolding on a bold, unrelenting 600-meter 42nd street.

9:00 PM – 10:00 PM – Discussion

🎉 After Party Suggestions:
The Shrine Harlem | Red Rooster Harlem

📅 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12 – CLOSING DAY

Location: Maysles Documentary Center
Theme: Reflection & Call to Action

🕐 1:00 PM – 2:10 PM

Shorts Program 5: PRESENCE – Hearing Others
How do we hear each other and alter our experiences to build empathy and compassion? To build a bridge towards harmony, even when there are significant differences in opinion, allowing our guards to lower their defenses and hear. We live among millions of people on the planet, yet do we hear? Do we share? Do we love?

• The Most Quiet Noise (Narrative)
  [Repeat Screening] A digital distraction becomes a moment of awakening.
• Tabula Rasa (Narrative)
  A young Black man returns home after his brother’s overdose, only to confront a broken relationship with his father—who was part of the MK ULTRA experiments.
• The Meteorites (Narrative)
  Two Haitian-Canadian sisters placed in a white foster home in Quebec navigate the complexities of race, belonging, and identity.
• Reclaiming Success (Documentary)
  NYC’s Transfer Schools are lifelines for marginalized students—but are being threatened by harmful education policies. Told through the voices of youth demanding to be heard.

Total Running Time: 68 min
2:10 PM – 3:10 PM – Discussion
3:10 PM – 3:20 PM – Break

🕞 3:30 PM – 5:10 PM

Feature Film: 1964: simitye Kamoken
Dir. Rachèle Magloire | Haiti
In 1964, following the embarkation of around thirty men intent on overthrowing him, the Haitian dictator Duvalier launched a campaign of terror to deter peasants from joining the rebellion, composed of men from the Southeast region where they had settled. Over 50 years later, the peasants recount their story for the first time.

5:10 PM – 6:10 PM – Discussion
6:10 PM – 6:20 PM – Break

🕡 6:20 PM – 8:00 PM

Feature Film: Twice Into Oblivion
Dir. Pierre Michel Jean | Haiti/Dominican Republic
In 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo ordered the massacre of over 20,000 Haitian immigrants living in the Dominican Republic. Daphné Ménard, a Haitian theater director, brought together actors from both parts of the island to work on this event.

8:00 PM – 9:00 PM – Discussion

🕘 9:00 PM – 9:45 PM

🎉 Closing Ceremony & Awards