Friday, November 9th at 1PM, Media City Film Festival sheds light on Windsor-Detroit’s incredible history of abolitionist activity, welcoming New York filmmaker Ephraim Asili back to Windsor directly from engagements at the Smithsonian Museum’s African American Film Festival, and Washington’s National Gallery of Art.
Screening at one of Windsor’s most historically significant landmarks, Sandwich First Baptist Church, HOME COMING: THE DIASPORA SUITE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD features Asili’s internationally acclaimed, made in Windsor-Detroit film, Fluid Frontiers. Local cast members including, Leslie McCurdy, Irene Moore Davis, Kim Duane Elliott, Marsha Battle Philpot and others feature prominently in the film.
Recently described by the Brooklyn Museum of Art as “A revelatory Cycle of five short films collapsing time and space to reveal hidden resonances…The Diaspora Suite is by turns playful, surprising, moving, and a radical interrogation of colonialism’s legacy in its construction of a one-of-a-kind, global vision of pan-African identity.”
Sandwich First Baptist Church is recognized as the first black church in Canada. Built in 1851 by fugitive slaves with clay gathered from the Detroit riverbanks, this internationally significant terminal on the Underground Railroad helped protect freedom seekers escaping the shackles of slavery.
Many of the cast members from Windsor are direct descendants of original freedom seekers, representing an invaluable living history. The cast will join Ephraim Asili in a public discussion, introduced and moderated by Greg de Cuir Jr. (Belgrade, Serbia), following the screening.
Fluid Frontiers was made by Asili as a filmmaker-in-residence for Media City’s Mobile Frames program. It has since played numerous reputable international festivals since its World Premiere in Windsor last year, including TIFF, New York Film Festival. This screening and context represents a once in a lifetime chance to see this important set of films, with the director and cast in-person at Windsor’s hidden historical gem.
Additional guests will be present from around the world to share in this unique experience; limited seating available. This event is Pay What You Like. All donations go to the church for the building’s preservation.
Learn more about the Media City Film Festival at mediacityfilmfestival.com