Black Harvest Film Festival: Ancestral Futures

About this event

November 12 | ANCESTRAL FUTURES traces a lineage of Black speculative cinema that reaches backward as much as it imagines forward. Rooted in ritual, folklore, spirituality, mythology, and cosmology, these films reject the notion that the future exists apart from the past. Instead, they position ancestral knowledge as a living technology capable of preserving cultural memory, sustaining communities, and imagining liberated futures. Through mythic storytelling, sacred practice, and ceremonial imagination, the program affirms that Black speculative traditions have always been sites of innovation, resistance, transformation, and world-building.

2025–2026, France, USA, Brazil, 76 min.

In Various languages with English subtitles | Format: Digital

General Admission - $15.50

Group Rate - $11.50 (Groups can save $4 off per ticket - minimum of 15 guests required)

Celebrating its 32nd year in 2026, the Black Harvest Film Festival is Chicago’s annual showcase for Black film across the diaspora. Born from an urgent need to celebrate the Black experience, the Black Harvest Film Festival unites filmmakers and audiences to showcase the power of Black cinema. This annual festival highlights emerging and established talents and historical narratives, enriching the landscape of Black culture. The festival curates both short and feature length films, proudly presenting influential auteurs and emerging filmmakers of color side by side.

The film festival will be held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center November 6–15, 2026.

Festival passes and individual tickets are available for purchase.

Audiences additionally can choose from two Festival pass options:

Opening Night plus five screenings: $80 general public / $55 members

Six regular screenings: $60 general public / $36 members