Harlem Stage is thrilled to partner with the Nova Frontier Film Festival!
This timely festival celebrates and showcases films and stories from and about the African Diaspora, the Middle East, and Latin America, showcasing bold and thought-provoking storytellers and filmmakers from across the world.
Tickets will go fast; buy your tickets today!
Enjoy access to all films
and the Opening Night
reception.
Enjoy access to all films
and the Opening Night
reception.
The Films
This year’s festival presents a compelling program of films that delve into the myriad choices, both small and monumental, that shape our paths toward liberation.
THU, JUN 5 I 7PM
The festival opens with four compelling short films that poignantly capture the essence of the Nova Frontier Film Festival. Each work reflects the spirit of the regions represented and the overarching theme of Freedom, offering intimate portraits of people navigating the maelstrom of their seemingly ordinary lives—through dreams, work, rituals, love, and the in-between. Through deeply personal and often poetic storytelling, these films explore both individual and collective experiences, laying a resonant foundation for the diverse and impactful narratives that will unfold throughout the festival.
Everything Is The Fault of The Wind
Director, Shaghayegh Majidi (Iran, Islamic Republic of 2024)
Drama | 18 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
Omid, a child laborer, turns to drug trafficking after discovering his mother’s secret life. Their worlds collide, leading to unexpected consequences they must confront together.
Director, Lucía G. Romero ( Spain) 2024
Drama | 18 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
Jessica and Alma, two sisters in a situation of domestic violence, will begin to treat each other with love instead of violence through one of their routine trips to the food stamp office on the night of San Juan, a Spanish holiday.
Director, Alice Mendy (Switzerland/Senegal) 2023
Documentary | 29:57 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
When a parasite contaminates all the drinking water of Dakar, pills are created to neutralize it. Alioune, a young man, can no longer afford them and is exposed to the symptoms of the parasite: Madness and dementia. As the days go by, he realizes that he has never been so lucid, and he begins a journey of political and spiritual awakening.
Director, Lucía G. Romero ( Spain) 2024
Directors, Harris Elliott and Manuel Dallalba (UK) 2024
Documentary | Experimental | 4:10 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
A symbolic artistic rallying cry in response to the present conflict and humanitarian crises in the DRC, Sudan, and Gaza. Desperate to evolve from these current state urgencies, Elliott and Dllalba felt compelled to create a visual ritual of their own, symbolising the need for protection and camaraderie within a world currently in crisis.Relying on emotive physicality and at times 2000 frames per second, to evoke stillness in motion, to share their response, which felt like one of the only ways to have a voice.
FRI, JUN 6 I 7PM
Souleymane’s Story (L’Histoire de Souleymane)
Director, Boris Lojkine (France) 2024
Drama | 93 Mins | Rated PG
An undocumented Guinean immigrant (Abou Sangare, whose work here won the Un Certain Regard Best Actor prize at Cannes) in Paris tries to juggle his responsibilities as a food delivery bike courier with the preparations needed for his asylum review hearing.
Cannes Film Festival 2024 | Winner: Jury Prize (Un Certain Regard) Toronto International Film Festival 2024 | Official Selection San Francisco International Film Festival 2025 | Official Selection César Awards 2025 | 4 nominations, including: Best Soun,d 2025 | 4 wins, including: Best Editing
SAT, JUN 7 I 1PM – 3PM, 4PM – 6PM, 7PM – 9PM
Director, Yoro Mbaye (Senegal/France/Belgium/Central African Republic) 2024
Drama | 21 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
In his village, where bread is scarce, Ousseynou, a former fisherman and cornerstone of his family, finds modest economic stability by selling stale bread. However, the opening of his sister-in-law’s traditional bakery constitutes an affront to him, leaving a palpable unspoken tension between them (Lees Waxul)and gradually jeopardizing both his business and his role as a family father.
Director, Cansu Baydar (Turkey) 2024
Drama | 20 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
Having fled the war in Syria, Hanna and her young brother Nader find themselves staying in a run-down neighbourhood of Istanbul. Hanna spends her days learning nail design in order to earn a living, while dreaming of finding a way to migrate to Europe. When she meets a Turkish guy, İbo, on a night out, she finds herself trying to balance her identity and desires with the needs of her young brother.
World Premiere The 81st annual Venice International Film Festival Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica – Orizzonti Short Films Competition 2024, Italy, Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival
Director, Sahar Sotoodeh (Germany/Iran, Islamic Republic of) 2024
Drama | (20 Mins | Rated PG
Yasi, a determined 16-year-old girl, has made it to the Capital from her hometown with the excuse of the IELTS exam, to illegally terminate her unwanted pregnancy before time runs out.
International Young Audience Film Festival Ale Kino! 2024, Poland – World Premiere
Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2025, USA — Best Live-Action Short Film Award; Fribourg International Film Festival 2025; Switzerland – Best International
Festival International Music & Cinema Marseille 2025, France; Brussels Short Film Festival 2025, Belgium
Director, Lisette Ma Neza (Belgium) 2024
Documentray | 18 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
A collective poem about the burning of home countries, about the fire and the smoke of armed conflict; which transforms humans to ‘refugees’. A conversation with five women from different diasporas: about leaving… and (never) arriving. An ode to the displaced woman.
2 OR 3 Things I Don’t Know About Her
Director, Sabrina Idiri Chemloul (France) 2024
Drama | 22 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
Lila is an 18-year-old girl living in Brest, France. She recently decided to wear a veil, to the dismay of her family. After an argument with her boyfriend, Lila does not feel like celebrating Eid at home and decides to slip away.
Director, Al’Ikens Plancher( Haiti) 2024
Drama | 22 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
Inspired by true events, a Haitian refugee fights to survive the inhumane conditions at Guantánamo Bay.
Oscar-qualified ‘24, Best Narrative Short – BlackStar Film Festival ‘24, Best SAG Indie Nominee – HollyShorts Film Festival ‘24, Official Selection – LA Shorts International Film Festival ‘24, Official Selection – Essence Festival ‘24, Official Selection – Third Horizon Film Festival ‘24
First It Was My Dream
Shaena Golden (USA) 2025
Documentray | 20 Mins | Rated PG
In the ring, Mexican boxer Andy Dominguez fights for glory—but outside of it, he battles for something even greater: identity and belonging.
First, It Was My Dream follows Andy’s gripping journey as he chases a shot at the world title while navigating the harsh realities of living undocumented in America. The film opens with Andy recalling his harrowing journey across the border—a desperate attempt to reunite with his mother after five years apart. The unforgiving terrain, the constant fear of being caught, and the resilience required to survive shaped his understanding of struggle long before he ever set foot in a boxing ring.
Growing up in the Bronx, Andy wrestled with a deep sense of displacement. With little interest in school and a mother working multiple jobs, he felt unmoored, often seeking belonging in the wrong places—flirting with gang culture and risky choices. Everything changed, however, when he stepped into a small boxing gym just down the block from where he lived. It was there he discovered his passion and began honing his craft.
Director, Raoul Peck (France) 2024)
Documentary | 105 Mins | Rated PG I Watch the Trailer
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Raoul Peck’s ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND is a powerful new documentary chronicling the life and work of Ernest Cole—one of the first Black freelance photographers in South Africa. His early images, shocking at the time of their publication, exposed to the world the brutal realities of Black life under apartheid. Forced into exile in 1966, Cole fled to the United States, where he continued to document life through his lens—capturing scenes in New York City and the American South. He was struck by how America could be, at times, vastly different from South Africa, and at others, eerily similar in its segregationist echoes.
During this period, Cole published House of Bondage, a landmark book of photographs condemning apartheid. Though banned in South Africa, the book cemented his legacy as one of the great photographers of his generation—at just 27 years old.
Following his death, more than 60,000 of his 35mm film negatives—long presumed lost—were discovered in a Stockholm bank vault. Among them were thousands of unseen images from his time in the U.S.
Told through Cole’s own writings, the memories of those who knew him, and the uncompromising beauty of his work, ERNEST COLE: LOST AND FOUND reintroduces a pivotal Black artist to a new generation.