BlackStar Film Festival

Press & Industry: Volition Shorts

Available in 23d 15h 54m 42s
Available August 3, 2026 12:00 PM UTC
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5 films in package
Revival 24
Revival 24 captures an immediate moment within the third space in which, through the spirit, the Black male body transcends a singular notion of masculinity and the constraints of linear time. The film reflects an alternative tangible reality, where, through nonlinear time, the contemporary and the archival exist simultaneously.
Closed captions available
Our Bodies Ours
Our Bodies Ours is a short poetic animated film that explores the nuance and beauty of trans becoming from a diasporic lens. Leaning on the music of lyric, it reframes gender-affirming care as an intricate, intimate and meandering act.
Closed captions available
Glass Bricks
Deconstructing what it means to be a man, Glass Bricks challenges the outward presentation of gender conformity through self-expression. Giving us a peak behind the curtain, Finessa Jawn walks us through the process of what it takes to get into drag and shows us that community building and self-love should be felt regardless of how you identify.
Free Lyric
Reliving one of the first viral social media moments in rap culture, when a 17-year-old female rapper’s life was turned upside down by admitting to having an orgy, Free Lyric explores the experience of online callout culture, gender and consent.
Closed captions available
I Got My Brother
Two brothers reflect on their candid and often humorous memories of surviving the foster care system and prison, realizing along the way that their path to healing has always been each other.
Closed captions available
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Claiming our bodies for ourselves.


Thank you to our screening partners: Twelve Gates Arts, me too. International, and Galaei.

Reliving one of the first viral social media moments in rap culture, when a 17-year-old female rapper’s life was turned upside down by admitting to having an orgy, Free Lyric explores the experience of online callout culture, gender and consent.


With the rise of social media as the backdrop, this film follows the journey of a young woman named Niki, who was cancelled before being cancelled was a thing, and how she survived a sex scandal.


Told as an unfolding narrative, Free Lyric reconstructs the investigation of digital sleuths as they worked to reveal the identity of the girl behind the sexcapade and troll her.


In the 15 years since the freestyle went viral, so much has changed. The #MeToo movement casts a different shadow on her sexual experience as we explore whether it was truly consensual. Songs like “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion highlight how much women taking ownership of their sexuality is celebrated.


Bringing together dramatizations, archive and observational material as Niki attempts a comeback, the film challenges our assumptions and complicity in social media scandals.

  • Year
    2026
  • Runtime
    23 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Country
    United States, United Kingdom
  • Premiere
    North America
  • Genre
    Short Documentary
  • Content Warning
    Discussions of sexual assault
  • Social Media
  • Director
    Cherish Oteka
  • Screenwriter
    Cherish Oteka
  • Producer
    Charlie Phillips, Cherish Oteka
  • Executive Producer
    Charlotte Cook, Sam Cryer, Derren Lawford, Rebecca Lichtenfeld
  • Cinematographer
    Damian Paul Daniel
  • Editor
    Maria Marrone
  • Sound Design
    Aiwan Obinyan
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