The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is back for its 24th edition from Nov. 25 to Dec. 11 with a total of 66 films from 30 countries including 34 US and NY Premieres. You still have an entire week of screenings left, of some wonderful films, right here in NYC. The Festival - which runs until Dec. 11 - will present quite a few very strong and exciting New York and US Premieres over the next few days at Teachers College, Columbia University, Cinepolis Chelsea Cinemas and MIST Harlem.

The films in ADIFF 2016 – some coming directly from important international film festivals such as Toronto, Cannes, Vancouver, Montreal or Rotterdam - illustrate the diversification of the global film industry, from impressive epic dramas (93 days, 76) to intimate stories that will touch the audience in many ways (While We Live, Sins of the Flesh, Montreal White City, Jerusa’s Day).

National and international celebrities as well as award-winning filmmakers are celebrated in ADIFF this year including Zeinabu Irene Davis, Jimmy Jean Louis, Dani Kouyaté, Eugene Corr, Danny Glover, O.C. Ukeje, Ramsey Nouah, Rita Dominic, Khaled El Hagar and Darlene Jonhson.

As shared with myNewYorkeye by Dr. and Mrs. Spech, Co-Directors of ADIFF

"It is always very satisfying for us to be able to showcase new films that are both very entertaining and revealing. Our goal is for our audience to come out of the theater richer with knowledge, understanding and well being than when they come in. We think the selection of ADIFF 2016 is a crowd pleaser! "

SOME OF ADIFF 2016 HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:

Spotlight on Nigerian Cinema
Directly from TIFF comes a selection of four Nigerian films (93 days, 76, the Arbitration & Taxi Driver) by a new generation of filmmakers who both advance and challenge Nollywood with bigger budgets and greater artistic ambition. In 93 Days by Steve Gukas, Danny Glover leads a team of doctors fighting a potential Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. In historic drama 76 by Izu Ojukwu the pregnant wife of a young soldier accused of complicity in the abortive coup of 1976 helps him prove his innocence.

Aboriginal Australian filmmaker Darlene Johnson in NY for ADIFF
The Aboriginal Australian experience is at the center of Ms. Johnson’s work. She will attend the festival to present seven of her films and discuss with the audience Australia’s colonial past and how arts and culture are agents of change in the life of Australian Aboriginal people.

Jimmy Jean-Louis, an International Actor
Jimmy Jean Louis is well known for his role as the Haitian in the Heroes series. With a rich acting career domestically and internationally, Mr. Jean-Louis is a guest of the festival in his capacity of actor, producer and Ambassador at large of his native country, Haiti. Jimmy Jean-Louis will present Opening Night romantic comedy Everything But a Man by Nnegest Likké.

Also part of ADIFF 2016 Double Feature Opening Night event is Black British romantic comedy The Naked Poet by Jason Barret, a sharp, witty, sexy, deep and quite emotional exploration of the complexities of love presented from a Black male’s perspective in contemporary London.

Zeinabu Irene Davis, filmmaker of the “L.A. Rebellion”
The need to have an alternative voice is the aim of Closing Night film Spirits of Rebellion, black cinema from UCLA, a documentary that tells the story of a small group of critically acclaimed, but relatively unknown black filmmakers who wanted to change the black film narrative in the USA.

ADIFF Gala Screening While We Live
Sweden based Burkinabe filmmaker Dani Kouyaté (Keita, The Heritage of the Griot, Sia, The Dream of the Python) will present his latest fiction film While We Live, an entertaining and thoughtful family drama that travels between Sweden and Gambia to explores issues of family dynamics and identity.

ADIFF Centerpiece Screening Gang of the French Caribbean / Le Gang des Antillais
Jean-Claude Barny, a French director originally from Guadeloupe and Trinidad & Tobago will attend the Red Carpet Centerpiece screening of his hot new crime-drama Gang of the French Caribbean.

USA/Cuban documentary Ghost Town to Havana
There is much talk about Cuba lately. However, the films coming out of this new interaction between Cuba and the USA are still limited and often plagued by clichés. Not so with Ghost Town to Havana by Eugene Corr, an incredible social commentary that explore through the game of baseball how both Cuba and the USA nurture their youths.

Sneak preview screening of TIFF 2016 selection Mali Blues
This musical documentary by Lutz Gregor follows Malian Global Pop stars Fatoumata Diawara, Bassekou Kouyaté Master Soumy and Ahmed Ag Kaedi fighting against Radical Islamists in Mali with music. Other highlights include Khaled El Hagar’s Sins of the Flesh, a love story set in the backdrop of the Egyptian Revolution; Paul Sapiano’s Driving While Black, a dark comedy about the troubles and tribulations of a young Black pizza delivery man; Death by a Thousand Cuts by Jake Kheel and Juan Mejia Botero, a suspenseful documentary that explores the tensions at the Dominican/Haitian border; the first fiction film by documentarian Jawad Rhalib Rebel / Insoumise about a young woman seeking social justice in Morocco and Belgium; the identity documentary Invisible Roots: Afro-Mexicans in Southern California by Tiffany Walton and Montreal White City by Bachir Bensaddek about an Algerian taxi driver in Montreal who picks up a former pop star whom he thought was dead.

ABOUT THE AFRICAN DIASPORA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Described by film critic Armond White as “a festival that symbolizes diaspora as more than just anthropology,” ADIFF has managed to increase the presence of independent Afrocentric films from all over the world in the general American specialty movie scene by launching films such as The Tracker by Rolf de Heer (Australia), Kirikou and the Sorceress by Michel Ocelot (France), Gospel Hill by Giancarlo Esposito (USA), Darrat/Dry Season by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (Chad), The First Rasta by Helene Lee (France/Jamaica), The Story of Lovers Rock by Menelik Shabazz (UK) Scheherazade, Tell Me a Story by Yousry Nasrallah (Egypt), and The Pirogue by Moussa Touré among others.

Attracting a wide cross-section of cinephiles and audiences of African-American, Caribbean, African, Latino and European ethnic backgrounds who share a common interest for thought provoking, well crafted, intelligent and entertaining stories about the human experience of people of color, ADIFF is now a national and international event with festivals held in New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, and Paris, France.

ADIFF 2016 FACT SHEET

WHAT: 24th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival
WHEN: November 25 to December 11, 2016
WHERE:
* MILBANK CHAPEL, TEACHERS COLLEGE, CU - 525 W 120th St.- 125 Zankel
* COWIN CENTER, TEACHERS COLLEGE, CU - Entrance between 120th and 121th St. On Broadway
* CINEPOLIS CHELSEA CINEMAS - 260 W 23rd St. (Betw. 7th and 8th Aves.)
* MIST HARLEM - at 46 W 116th St (at Malcolm X Blvd)
TICKETS: From $11 to $65 depending on screening/event.
4 GALA SCREENINGS:
Opening, Gala, Centerpiece, Closing
10 PROGRAMS:
Meet Jimmy Jean-Louis; Black Australia; Spotlight on Nigerian Cinema; Meet David Dontoh; Senegal Connection; Dancing While Black; ADIFF Cinematheque; Afro-Latino Program; Public Award for the Best Film Directed by a Woman of Color; ADIFF School Program.
66 FILMS IN 30 COUNTRIES:
Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Uruguay, USA.
34 PREMIERES
20 SPECIAL GUESTS
17 DAYS

http://www.nyadiff.org/