Navigating grief into comfort. Thank you to our screening partners: <a href="https://www.salttrailsphilly.com/" target="_blank" style="background-color: transparent; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Salt Trails</a> and <a href="https://www.batikhcollective.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Batikh Batikh</a>.

HomeGoing is a collaborative musical tribute by filmmaker Julie Dash and operatic bass-baritone Davóne Tines, created in remembrance of the Emanuel Nine. Through voice, image and ritual, the film honors the lives taken during Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Tines’ performance becomes an offering of grief and resilience, while Dash’s restrained visual language creates a space for reflection, remembrance and dignity.

HomeGoing

Through song and stillness, an operatic bass-baritone pays tribute to the nine lives lost during Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in 2015.

The central protagonist of Voicemail is the phone. A conversation happens between voicemail audio from the artist’s late mother and a transcription of his silent responses in the subtitles. The dialogue centers around missed calls, unanswered texts, busy schedules and the concerns of a loving parent.

Voicemail

Within a bright, colorful surreal dream that eventually turns into a nightmare, the artist responds to voicemail messages from his late mother.

Framed by a speech given by the filmmaker’s brother at their uncle’s memorial service, this doc/fiction hybrid comedy blends archival family photos with surreal animated scripted scenes to explore outsized childhood fears, shifting family dynamics and intergenerational care.

Solace

A short animated film about childhood fears, sibling communication, intergenerational care and family resilience.

Loosely based on the filmmaker’s own experiences, White Musk explores the tension that arises when a child is forced to parent their own parent. When her mother, Suraya, falls gravely ill, 19-year-old Hiba becomes her primary caregiver, while her older brother Hisham moves through the household largely unburdened. We watch Hiba and Suraya love each other and wound each other in equal measure, locked in a push and pull that neither knows how to break. As Suraya’s condition worsens, Hiba must navigate what it means to care for someone who cannot easily receive care, and what it costs her to keep showing up anyway.

White Musk

When teenage Hiba becomes her mother’s primary caregiver, a tense role reversal forces her to grow up too quickly, deepening the fractures in their fragile relationship.

A young Black British man drives his car through a London landscape with skill as his music blares. His old lanyard that exposes his profession as a pharmacist dangles on the rearview mirror, bouncing to the beat of his music. He is willing it to be a good day. But as he approaches his destination, the cracks begin to show. Our lead believes he needs to commit to his job. He wants to be good at his work, so he plasters on his smile and enters his pharmacy. We meet an array of patients of all backgrounds and needs. Ahwan, who’d like a free sample of Viagra. Grace, a patient with an infectious rash she’d like to share with Michael. Literally. And Mrs. Patmore, who swears she’s lost all feeling but probably hasn’t. How apt. As all of these patients and more meander in and out of the pharmacy having their issues solved, one thing remains true: He is a mess. As he tries to push through the day, attempting with the little pockets of time he can slither to make desperate personal calls and practice coping mechanisms, the demands of his day grow and his ability to maintain mental fortitude dissipates. Distance from his family. His partner asking for a divorce. His own depression. All compartmentalized and pushed to the side at the wake of his work. Through the day, as every day, he is supported by his colleague Serina, the dispenser, who sees more of Michael’s pain than she might let on. By the end, however, we realize just how much he has lost in love, in family, in time by choosing to run from what he really needs — to be honest with himself. He’s only human, and sometimes you’re just not OK.

To Run Is To Return

A stoic pharmacist faces a tumultuous 11-hour shift at his demanding job. While he successfully juggles an assorted conveyor belt of patient’s problems, he struggles in desperate slivers of time to fight off the weight of his own festering issues.

After an abrupt encounter at a graveyard, two elderly men form an unexpected bond over the grief and love of their late wives.

When They're Gone

After an abrupt encounter at a graveyard, two elderly men form an unexpected bond over the grief and love of their late wives.

Press & Industry: Lamentations Shorts

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BlackStar Film Festival is an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from around the world. Produced by BlackStar Projects, the 14th edition of the festival takes place July 31- August 3, 2025, both in-person in Philadelphia and online around the world.

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