Films

1975 · Feature film

1 Berlin-Harlem

Lothar Lambert

Critical perspectives on the representation of an African American man in Berlin.

Discussed in Priscilla Layne’s presentation · BGHRA 2011

2020 · Short film

90%

Jerry Hoffmann

A short listed in Hoffmann’s selected directing filmography by Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

2009 · Feature film

A Brand New Life / Une vie toute neuve

Ounie Lecomte

A child’s experience of an orphanage and overseas adoption is told through fiction informed by the director’s own history.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.walmart.com · Image source ↗

2016 · Docufiction

A Moving Image

Shola Amoo

A young artist returns to Brixton as gentrification reshapes its communities.

2016 · Feature film

A United Kingdom

Amma Asante

A marriage becomes entangled with British imperial and racial politics.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.20thcenturystudios.com · Image source ↗

2020 · Short documentary

A Way of Breathing

Brenda Akele Jorde

A portrait of an Afghan artist living in Tehran.

BGHRA 2023 · Filmmaker biography

Official festival film still / Brenda Akele Jorde, Take One Action Film Festival · Image source ↗

2015 · Short documentary

Abandoned, Adopted, Here

Lucy Sheen

A Hong Kong adoptee filmmaker examines British East Asian identity and transracial adoption.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2012 · Documentary

Adopted ID

Sonia Godding-Togobo

Judith Craig Morency returns to Haiti in search of original family. Adoptee testimony is central; the director is credited separately.

1999 · Documentary

Adwa: An African Victory

Haile Gerima

An account of Ethiopian resistance to Italian colonial conquest.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.sankofa.com · Image source ↗

1992 · Documentary

Africa, I Will Fleece You / Afrique, je te plumerai

Jean-Marie Teno

A critical exploration of colonial and postcolonial power in Cameroon.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: africultures.com · Image source ↗

2001 · Short film

Afrodeutsch

Director: Ayassi · Writer / performer: Tyron Ricketts

An anti-racist short rooted in Tyron Ricketts’s song and the Brothers Keepers movement.

2012 · Animated documentary

Approved for Adoption / Couleur de peau: miel

Jung and Laurent Boileau

Jung’s autobiographical animation follows a Korean child growing up in a Belgian family.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1996 · Feature film

Aristotle’s Plot

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

A satire of film culture and the competition between imported and African stories.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: boutique.laterit.fr · Image source ↗

1982 · Feature film

Ashes and Embers

Haile Gerima

A Black Vietnam veteran searches for political and personal direction.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2012 · Feature film

At Second Glance / Auf den zweiten Blick

Writer / director: Sheri Hagen · Equality Film / filmmaker catalogue

Relationships and unexpected encounters unfold in contemporary Berlin.

BGHRA 2018 · Toronto screening

Film artwork from the linked film and viewing sources.

2019 · Feature film

Atlantics / Atlantique

Mati Diop

Love, unpaid labour and migration take a haunting form in Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.themoviedb.org · Image source ↗

2012 · Documentary

Audre Lorde – The Berlin Years 1984–1992

Dagmar Schultz

Audre Lorde’s Berlin relationships and the emergence of Black feminist networks.

BGHRA 2012 · Barnard College screening

Film artwork from the linked film and viewing sources.

2011 · Short film

Auf dem Weg nach oben

Sarah Blaßkiewitz

Sarah Blaßkiewitz’s early short, mentioned in her filmmaker biography.

BGHRA 2022 · Filmmaker biography

2025 · Short film

Auf Noahs blutigem Regenbogen tanzen wir

Writer / director: Lara-Sophie Milagro · Label Noir

A murder investigation exposes colonial structures within the justice system.

Featured film · BGHRA 2026

Film artwork from BGHRA programme / original film rights holders

2004 · Television film

Baal

Director: Uwe Janson · Contributor connection: Sheri Hagen (see source for credits)

Named in Sheri Hagen’s acting credits; she plays Sophie.

BGHRA 2026 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.safeshellvpn.com · Image source ↗

1970 · Medium-length film

Badou Boy

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A young outsider moves through an irreverently portrayed Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2025 · Documentary series

Ballroom

Amandine Gay

A documentary series follows members of the House of Revlon and racialised queer ballroom communities.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2019 · Documentary

Becoming Black

Writer / director: Ines Johnson-Spain

The filmmaker revisits family silence, her East German childhood and Togolese connections.

Film artwork from the linked film and viewing sources.

2007 · Short film

Beento

Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye

An autobiographical short about Sammy and Katharina, a Ghanaian man and a German woman who meet in the GDR in 1963. The film brings an intimate family perspective to Black German history and life in East Germany.

2013 · Feature film

Belle

Amma Asante

A historical fiction about Dido Elizabeth Belle, race, class and family.

Official Belle poster / Searchlight Pictures · Image source ↗

2024 · Documentary

Between Goodbyes

Jota Mun

A queer Dutch Korean adoptee and her original family work through reunion over time. Adoptee filmmaker Jota Mun brings lived experience to this story of lasting reconnection.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2025 · Feature film

Billie

Writer / director: Sheri Hagen · Equality Film / filmmaker catalogue

Two friends take control of their lives during an unexpected bank confrontation.

BGHRA 2026 · Special screening

BGHRA conference artwork / Equality Film

2021 · Feature film

Binti

Seko Shamte

Four women in Dar es Salaam negotiate overlapping pressures and possibilities.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2006 · Documentary

Black Deutschland

Oliver Hardt

Black voices challenge images, assumptions and everyday representations of Germany.

BGHRA 2024 · Screening

Film artwork from the linked film and viewing sources.

1966 · Feature film

Black Girl / La Noire de…

Ousmane Sembène

A Senegalese domestic worker in France confronts exploitation and racial dehumanisation.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.jeuneafrique.com · Image source ↗

1992 · Short documentary

Black in the Western World

Director: Wanjiru Kinyanjui · Kenyan filmmaker working in German cinema

A Kenyan filmmaker’s German film-school work examines racist imagery and Black experience in Germany.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2016 · Medium-length film

Blank

Sarah Blaßkiewitz

An independently made mid-length fiction work; Blaßkiewitz is credited as director, co-writer, cinematographer and producer.

1963 · Feature film

Borom Sarret

Ousmane Sembène

A cart driver’s working day exposes social inequalities in Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2010 · Documentary

Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story

Regina Griffin

People born to German mothers and African American servicemen recount postwar separation, racism and adoption.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

1995 · Feature film

Bunte Hunde

Director: Lars Becker · Cast: Tyron Ricketts (Medjoub)

A crime film included for Tyron Ricketts’s screen performance. This is an acting credit, separate from his work as a writer and producer.

1981 · Feature film

Burning an Illusion

Menelik Shabazz

A young Black woman’s relationships develop alongside a political awakening.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1976 · Feature film

Bush Mama

Haile Gerima

A Black woman’s struggle in Los Angeles becomes a demand for political agency.

1977 · Feature film

Ceddo

Ousmane Sembène

A historical drama about religious authority, resistance and cultural autonomy.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2013 · Video installation

Christa/Christopher

Branwen Okpako

A two-screen imagined dialogue between Christa Wolf and Christopher Okigbo, documented by the DEFA Film Library.

1988 · Short film

Coffee Coloured Children

Ngozi Onwurah

An autobiographical short examines childhood, racism and mixed-race identity.

1969 · Short film

Contras’ City

Djibril Diop Mambéty

An early cinematic portrait of Dakar’s contrasting spaces.

2014 · Documentary

Curse of Medea / Fluch der Medea

Branwen Okpako

Christa Wolf’s Medea opens questions about migration and memory.

Branwen Okpako film programme · BGHRA 2022

2024 · Documentary

Dahomey

Mati Diop

The return of royal treasures from France to Benin opens questions of restitution and self-determination.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2026 · Feature film

Das Geheimnis der gestohlenen Maske / The Secret of the Stolen Mask

Director: Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye · Cast includes Lara-Sophie Milagro and Malick Bauer

Featuring Malick Bauer and Lara-Sophie Milagro. Johanna and her friends investigate the disappearance of a Makonde mask connected to her grandfather’s family history.

Film artwork from the linked film and viewing sources.

2006 · Feature film

Das Leben der Anderen / The Lives of Others

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck · Contributor connection: Sheri Hagen (see source for credits)

Referenced in Sheri Hagen’s acting biography.

BGHRA 2026 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.cinema.nl · Image source ↗

2002 · Documentary

Daughter from Danang

Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco

A Vietnamese Amerasian adoptee and her original mother reunite across cultural and economic differences.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.rottentomatoes.com · Image source ↗

2015 · Documentary

David Adjaye – Collaborations

Oliver Hardt

An architectural portrait discussed in Oliver Hardt’s filmography.

BGHRA 2024 · Filmmaker biography

2021 · Documentary

Delphine’s Prayers

Rosine Mbakam

An intimate documentary portrait of a Cameroonian woman recounting her life.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.ovid.tv · Image source ↗

2025 · Feature film

Der Medicus 2 / The Physician II

Director: Philipp Stölzl · Contributor connection: Malick Bauer (see source for credits)

Named in Malick Bauer’s acting biography.

BGHRA 2026 · Contributor biography

Official promotional poster © Constantin Film / Zeitsprung Pictures / UFA Fiction · Image source ↗

2014 · Documentary

Die Arier / The Aryans

Mo Asumang

Mo Asumang questions racist ideology through encounters in Germany and the United States. This excerpt comes from the filmmaker’s own channel.

Hanfgarn & Ufer / MA Motion

2014 · Feature film

Difret

Zeresenay Berhane Mehari

A girl and a lawyer challenge forced marriage and the legal treatment of self-defence.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2000 · Documentary

Dirt for Dinner / Dreckfresser

Branwen Okpako

Sam Meffire’s life illuminates racism and the politics of representation.

Branwen Okpako film programme · BGHRA 2022

Dreckfresser film still © Katja Clos / Branwen Okpako, Arsenal Filminstitut · Image source ↗

1971 · Feature film

Emitaï

Ousmane Sembène

A wartime story of resistance to French colonial requisitioning in Senegal.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.moviemeter.nl · Image source ↗

In production · Feature project

Emmett Till – German History X (working title)

Writer / co-director: Lara-Sophie Milagro · Co-director: Dela Dabulamanzi · Producers: Julia Peters and Jutta Feit / Jippie Film

A separate feature project following Label Noir’s earlier theatre film. The February 2026 funding decision lists Lara-Sophie Milagro as writer and co-director with Dela Dabulamanzi.

2022 · Theatre film

Emmett – Tief in meinem Herzen

Director / editor / performer: Lara-Sophie Milagro · Label Noir

Label Noir’s theatre film retells Emmett Till’s story through a Black German and Afrodiasporic ensemble.

Film artwork from BGHRA programme / original film rights holders

2024 · Short film

Exploring Roots in Shaolin & African Yoga

Evangelista Sie

One of the three pre-circulated short films listed for the conference panel “From Archives to Flesh”.

BGHRA 2026 · Panel 2; pre-circulated short film

2001 · Feature film

Faat Kiné

Ousmane Sembène

A woman’s independence challenges expectations of gender, family and respectability.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.filmposter-archiv.de · Image source ↗

1979 · Documentary

Fad’jal

Safi Faye

Village histories are carried through memory, daily work and oral narration.

2025 · Television film

Fang mich doch

Director: Ester Amrami · Contributor connection: Lara-Sophie Milagro (see source for credits)

Named in Lara-Sophie Milagro’s biography; the biography references festival recognition in 2025.

BGHRA 2026 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

In financing · Short film project

Farewell

Production project: Sheri Hagen’s Equality Film

Equality Film lists this short drama as an upcoming project in financing. Individual directing credits are not specified on the project listing.

2022 · Feature film

Father’s Day

Kivu Ruhorahoza

Interwoven stories in Kigali question grief, obligation and patriarchal family bonds.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2021 · Documentary

Faya Dayi

Jessica Beshir

A poetic documentary follows khat, labour, longing and everyday life in Ethiopia.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.primevideo.com · Image source ↗

2017 · Feature film

Félicité

Alain Gomis

A singer in Kinshasa struggles to secure treatment for her injured son.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.senscritique.com · Image source ↗

2016 · Feature film

Fenster Blau / Blue Window

Writer / director: Sheri Hagen · Equality Film / filmmaker catalogue

A search for an absent father brings buried family history to the surface. Directed and co-written by Hagen; produced by Equality Film. Company catalogue year: 2016; festival screening recorded in 2018.

Filmography · Sheri Hagen

Equality Film · film poster

2000 · Documentary

First Person Plural

Deann Borshay Liem

Liem revisits her Korean adoption, family histories and reunion.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2024 · Short film

Fleuri La Belle: Afrofuturism and Congo’s Cosmology in Jewelry

Evangelista Sie

One of the three pre-circulated short films listed for the conference panel “From Archives to Flesh”.

BGHRA 2026 · Panel 2; pre-circulated short film

2024 · Short film

Foremost Human

Evangelista Sie

One of the three pre-circulated short films listed for the conference panel “From Archives to Flesh”.

BGHRA 2026 · Panel 2; pre-circulated short film

2019 · Documentary

Forget Me Not

Sun Hee Engelstoft

A Korean-Danish adoptee filmmaker follows unmarried mothers facing decisions about parenting and relinquishment.

Autlook Filmsales · video thumbnail

2021 · Documentary

Found

Amanda Lipitz

Three Chinese American adoptees discover they are cousins and travel to China seeking their histories.

Official Found documentary website · Image source ↗

2019 · Documentary

Geographies of Kinship

Deann Borshay Liem

Adult Korean adoptees recover histories shaped by Korea’s international adoption system.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2013 · Documentary

Girl, Adopted

Melanie Judd and Susan Motamed

An Ethiopian teenager’s move to the United States raises questions of race, belonging and family change.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

1992 · Feature film

Gito, the Ungrateful / Gito, l’ingrat

Léonce Ngabo

A graduate returns from France with grand expectations and faces a different reality.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: en.unifrance.org · Image source ↗

2010 · Documentary

GO-BAMA: Between Hope & Dreams

A. Rahman Satti

German-Sudanese filmmaker Satti follows Barack Obama’s campaign while reflecting on hope and his own experience of belonging.

Further viewing

1992 · Feature film

Guelwaar

Ousmane Sembène

A funeral dispute becomes a political argument about dependence and dignity.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.moviemeter.nl · Image source ↗

1986 · Documentary

Handsworth Songs

John Akomfrah / Black Audio Film Collective

An essay film challenges conventional explanations of unrest and Black British life.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: diaspora-artists.net · Image source ↗

1976 · Feature film

Harvest: 3,000 Years

Haile Gerima

Rural exploitation and resistance in Ethiopia.

2022 · Feature film

Hawa

Maïmouna Doucouré

A teenager fears separation from her ailing grandmother and imagines an unconventional future.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

1997 · Documentary

Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story

Maria Binder

A portrait of poet, scholar and activist May Ayim.

Screening · BGHRA Barnard 2012

Orlanda Frauenverlag, via AAIHS · Image source ↗

1992 · Feature film

Hyenas / Hyènes

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A wealthy returnee offers a community a devastating bargain.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: tv-programme.com · Image source ↗

2021 · Short film

I AM

Writer / director: Jerry Hoffmann · Cast includes Sheri Hagen

A grieving woman encounters an android, unsettling the boundaries of identity.

BGHRA 2024 · Screening

© Lena Katharina Krause / Hamburg Media School

2016 · Documentary

I Am Not Your Negro

Raoul Peck

James Baldwin’s unfinished writing becomes a film essay on race, memory and resistance.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2023 · Short documentary

I Choose You

Dulcinea Harrison

An Ethiopian adoptee filmmaker traces her own journey from Addis Ababa to Colorado Springs.

1980 · Documentary

I, Your Mother / Man Sa Yaay

Safi Faye

A Senegalese student’s life in Berlin is framed through letters from his mother.

2010 · Documentary

In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee

Deann Borshay Liem

Identity substitution in adoption records leads Liem to search for the woman whose name she received.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2020 · Documentary

Into the Light / Sortir de l’ombre

Gentille M. Assih

African women in Quebec recount rebuilding their lives after domestic violence.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2021 · Feature film

Ivie wie Ivie / Precious Ivie

Writer / director: Sarah Blaßkiewitz · Cast includes Sheri Hagen

Two sisters’ meeting reshapes identity, family and belonging.

BGHRA 2022 · Screening

Film artwork from the linked film and viewing sources.

In development · Feature project

Jumoke (project)

Oliver Hardt

Screenplay project named in Oliver Hardt’s biography in connection with the 2023 Hessian Film Prize. Release not established.

BGHRA 2024 · Filmmaker biography

2000 · Feature film

Kanak Attack

Director: Lars Becker · Cast: Tyron Ricketts (Mehdi Jamal)

An adaptation of Feridun Zaimoglu’s Abschaum. Included for Tyron Ricketts’s performance as Mehdi Jamal; the film’s director is Lars Becker.

In development · Series project

Kehinde

Production project: Sheri Hagen’s Equality Film

A mystery thriller series in development with Equality Film; Hagen’s company biography records support from Hessenfilm & Medien.

2015 · Feature film

Lamb

Yared Zeleke

A boy sent to live with relatives tries to protect his sheep and find a place for himself.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.cine-feuilles.ch · Image source ↗

1994 · Medium-length film

Le Franc

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A struggling musician pins his hopes on a lottery ticket.

2013 · Feature film

Le Président

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

A political fiction work in Bekolo’s filmography.

1975 · Docufiction

Letter from My Village / Kaddu Beykat

Safi Faye

Rural life, economic pressures and community knowledge in a Serer village.

Kaddu Beykat film still © Arsenal Filminstitut / Zeïba Monod · Image source ↗

2015 · Documentary

Liebe und Wut / Love and Rage

Jule Ritter

Andreas Nakic’s life and reunion connect adoption with transatlantic family history.

Screening and family discussion · BGHRA 2018

2020 · Poetry and dance film

Live, Chile

Director: Black Brown Berlin / Rhea Ramjohn · Contributor connection: Rhea Ramjohn, Femi Oyewole, Chanel Knight, Tristan Littlejohn (see source for credits)

A film by Black Brown Berlin drawing on Rhea Ramjohn’s poetry; discussed in the arts program.

BGHRA 2023 · Program presentation

Official Live, Chile video still / Black Brown Berlin, HKW CC: World · Image source ↗

2001 · Feature film

L’Afrance

Alain Gomis

A Senegalese student in France confronts precarious status and divided attachments.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: filmlifestyle.com · Image source ↗

2019 · Short film

Mall

Jerry Hoffmann

A father and son’s shopping trip becomes a story about gender expectations and acceptance.

2023 · Feature film

Mambar Pierrette

Rosine Mbakam

A seamstress sustains her family and neighbourhood while facing mounting pressures.

Icarus Films · video thumbnail

1968 · Feature film

Mandabi / The Money Order

Ousmane Sembène

A money order brings bureaucracy and competing expectations into one man’s life.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.criterion.com · Image source ↗

2018 · Documentary

Milli’s Awakening / Millis Erwachen

Natasha A. Kelly

Black German women of different generations speak about art, resistance and representation.

Courtesy Natasha A. Kelly / 10th Berlin Biennale

2024 · Short film

Mkokoteni

Jordan Rita Seruya Awori

A short film featured in the 2025 conference filmmaker session.

BGHRA 2025 · Film presentation

2004 · Feature film

Moolaadé

Ousmane Sembène

A woman invokes sanctuary to protect girls resisting genital cutting.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: medium.com · Image source ↗

1996 · Feature film

Mossane

Safi Faye

A young Serer woman challenges a marriage arranged against her wishes.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.festival-cannes.com · Image source ↗

In development · Feature project

Motherhood (working title)

Writer / director: Sheri Hagen · Equality Film / filmmaker catalogue

An episodic feature project from Equality Film. Listed separately from the 2018 companion film.

Equality Film · project artwork

2018 · Companion film

Motherhood (working title) — companion film

Writer / director: Sheri Hagen · Equality Film / filmmaker catalogue

A film accompanying the Motherhood treatment, made with the Gunda-Werner-Institut. This is separate from the feature project in development.

Equality Film · Motherhood companion film image

2011 · Documentary

My Quarter Century / Mein Viertel 100

Julie G. Rivera

A film about a generation of Black German community and connection.

Trailer excerpt in Noah Sow’s keynote · BGHRA 2011

2016 · Feature film

Naked Reality

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

A speculative feature in Bekolo’s filmography.

2021 · Feature film

Neptune Frost

Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams

An Afrofuturist musical connects an intersex runaway, a miner and a community of hackers.

© Chris Schwagga / SWAN Films · film still

2021 · Documentary

Nous / We

Alice Diop

A documentary portrait follows lives connected by the RER B. Premiered in 2021; French theatrical release 2022.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: boutique.arte.tv · Image source ↗

2024 · Film

Nuhmibeeuhn

Kavena Hambira

Kavena Hambira’s film addressing Namibia’s colonial history and genocide, connected to restitution, ancestral ground and the archive of the body. Pre-circulated for the BGHRA 2026 presentation.

BGHRA 2026 · Panel 8; pre-circulated film

Official Nuhmibeeuhn promotional banner / Kavena Hambira · Image source ↗

2023 · Feature film

Omen / Augure

Baloji

Four people labelled as witches seek ways beyond the roles imposed on them.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2012 · Feature film

On the Inside

Director: Uwe Janson · Contributor connection: Sheri Hagen, Tyron Ricketts (see source for credits)

Sheri Hagen stars as a Congolese teacher. Filmportal lists production in 2011/2012; other credit lists use 2010.

BGHRA 2026 · Contributor biography

1999 · Feature film

Otomo

Frieder Schlaich

Discussed in BethAnne Dorn’s paper on the colonial gaze; not listed as a conference screening.

BGHRA 2018 · Scholarly presentation

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: filmfriend.at · Image source ↗

2017 · Documentary

Ouvrir la voix / Speak Up

Writer / director / producer: Amandine Gay

Black women in France and Belgium speak about racism, gender, art and reclaiming narration.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

1990 · Documentary

Paris Is Burning

Jennie Livingston

Referenced in Sophie Yukiko’s biography in relation to ballroom history; not listed as a conference screening.

BGHRA 2023 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.1stdibs.com · Image source ↗

1986 · Feature film

Playing Away

Horace Ové

A cricket match sets contrasting communities and colonial assumptions in motion.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.rottentomatoes.com · Image source ↗

1975 · Feature film

Pressure

Horace Ové

A British-born young man encounters racism and conflicting generational expectations.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.renegade-films.co.uk · Image source ↗

1992 · Feature film

Quartier Mozart

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

Gender and urban power are unsettled through a magical transformation.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: africultures.com · Image source ↗

Year unconfirmed · Short film

Raw

Jordan Awori

Listed in the conference programme as “Raw: A Short Film”.

Film presentation · BGHRA 2022

Work in progress · Documentary project

Relative Strangers

Deann Borshay Liem

Mixed-race Korean adoptees trace original families and transnational connections. Release remains unconfirmed.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2009 · Documentary

Resilience

Tammy Chu Tolle

A Korean adoptee and his original mother navigate reunion and the ongoing work of becoming family.

2019 · Short film

Respringendo

Denise Ekale Kum

A young woman’s withdrawal is interrupted by family, friendship and the memory carried by a guitar.

2023 · Feature film

Return to Chibok

Branwen Okpako

A dramatic reconstruction of a journey to Chibok, adapted from Helon Habila’s account of the aftermath of the schoolgirls’ abduction.

2007 · Documentary

Roots Germania

Mo Asumang

Mo Asumang investigates ancestry, German identity and belonging.

Pre-conference screening and filmmaker Q&A · BGHRA 2011

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.tvtoday.de · Image source ↗

2009 · Documentary

Sacred Places / Lieux Saints

Jean-Marie Teno

A neighbourhood, its workers and a small cinema illuminate the social life of film.

2022 · Feature film

Saint Omer

Alice Diop

A writer attending a trial confronts unsettling connections between motherhood, race and narrative.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.ashleyhajimirsadeghi.com · Image source ↗

2023 · Series

Sam – A Saxon / Sam – Ein Sachse

Directors: Soleen Yusef and Sarah Blaßkiewitz · Co-creator / executive producer / writer / actor: Tyron Ricketts

Malick Bauer stars as Sam Meffire; Tyron Ricketts is a creator, producer and cast member.

© Stephan Burchardt / The Walt Disney Company

1993 · Feature film

Sankofa

Haile Gerima

A confrontation with enslavement links historical resistance to diasporic consciousness.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.sankofa.com · Image source ↗

2024 · Series

Schwarze Früchte / Black Fruit

Creator / head writer / co-producer: Lamin Leroy Gibba · Directors: Elisha Smith-Leverock and David Uzochukwu · Creative producer: Raquel Dukpa

Black queer friends Lalo and Karla navigate loss, ambition, intimacy and belonging in Hamburg.

ARD Degeto / Jünglinge Film / Studio Zentral / David Uzochukwu

1992 · Short film

Schwarzfahrer / Black Rider

Director: Pepe Danquart · Performer: Paul Outlaw

Pepe Danquart’s short film places everyday racism in the confined space of a tram. Paul Outlaw plays the passenger targeted by another traveller’s abuse, while those nearby remain largely passive. A teaching entry could examine bystander behaviour, the racialized assumptions carried by the title, and the way humour changes the balance of power in the final encounter.

KurzFilmAgentur, via DFF / filmportal.de · Image source ↗

1998 · Short documentary

Searching for Go-Hyang

Tammy Chu Tolle

The filmmaker and her twin return to Korea and reconnect with original family, language and memories.

1983 · Short documentary

Selbé: One Among Many

Safi Faye

A rural woman’s labour and responsibilities place her own voice at the centre.

2015 · Short film

Simply Different / Einfach anders

Writer / director: Sheri Hagen · Equality Film / filmmaker catalogue

Hagen’s short film explores an unfulfilled wish for a child.

Filmography · Sheri Hagen

Equality Film · film poster

1970 · Feature film

Soleil Ô

Med Hondo

A West African migrant in Paris confronts racism and labour exploitation. Distributor restoration catalogue year: 1970; some records give 1967.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: cinematheque-ideale-des-banlieues-du-monde.com · Image source ↗

2019 · Music video

Somewhere in Between Us

Denise Ekale Kum

A music video for Cloudy June, directed by Ekale Kum.

Jan Klein · video thumbnail

2007 · Short film

Stella und die Störche / Stella and the Storks

Writer / director: Sheri Hagen · Equality Film / filmmaker catalogue

A children’s short written and directed by Sheri Hagen. Biography and completed-project listing give 2007; the company’s trailer heading uses 2009.

Filmography · Sheri Hagen

Equality Film · film poster

2020 · Short documentary

Stick of Joy

Brenda Akele Jorde

An exploration of playfulness, physical experience and trust. The conference press kit dates the film to 2020; some filmographies list 2021.

BGHRA 2023 · Filmmaker biography

Stick of Joy film still / Brenda Akele Jorde, Beijing Queer Film Festival · Image source ↗

2017 · Feature film

T-Junction

Amil Shivji

Shivji’s feature debut, documented in the festival’s director biography.

2023 · Animated feature

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Director: Jeff Rowe · Contributor connection: Malick Bauer (see source for credits)

Malick Bauer’s German-language dubbing credit; not a BGHRA screening.

BGHRA 2025 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.rottentomatoes.com · Image source ↗

2012 · Feature film

Tey / Aujourd’hui

Alain Gomis

A man spends a final day among people and places that have shaped him.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: es.unifrance.org · Image source ↗

2008 · Feature film

Teza

Haile Gerima

An Ethiopian doctor returns from Germany, confronting political violence, displacement and memory.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2018 · Documentary

The Black Museum

Oliver Hardt

An exploration of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Screening · BGHRA 2024

Film artwork from BGHRA programme / original film rights holders

2005 · Feature film

The Bloodettes / Les Saignantes

Jean-Pierre Bekolo

An Afrofuturist thriller confronts corrupt power through two women’s insurgent alliance.

1990 · Short film

The Body Beautiful

Ngozi Onwurah

A personal work reconsiders beauty, the body and the filmmaker’s relationship with her mother.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: docuseek2.com · Image source ↗

2004 · Documentary

The Colonial Misunderstanding

Jean-Marie Teno

Missionary archives and African testimony interrogate Germany’s colonial history.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2011 · Documentary

The Education of Auma Obama

Branwen Okpako

A portrait of Auma Obama and intergenerational life in Kenya.

Branwen Okpako film programme · BGHRA 2022

Filmkantine · official English poster

2021 · Feature film

The Gravedigger’s Wife

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed

A gravedigger struggles to secure life-saving care for his wife.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2022 · Documentary

The Homes We Carry

Brenda Akele Jorde

Family connections stretch between Germany, Mozambique and South Africa.

BGHRA 2023 · Screening

BGHRA conference film still / Film Five

1999 · Medium-length film

The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun / La Petite Vendeuse de Soleil

Djibril Diop Mambéty

A girl insists on earning her living selling newspapers in Dakar.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.c-and-co.com · Image source ↗

1979 · Feature film

The Marriage of Maria Braun / Die Ehe der Maria Braun

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Named in Priscilla Layne’s research biography; not listed as a conference screening.

BGHRA 2022 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: filmartgallery.com · Image source ↗

2007 · Film

The Pilot and the Passenger

Branwen Okpako

Listed in Arsenal’s 2014 filmmaker filmography. Conference screening is not established for this title.

2018 · Docufiction

The Return

Malene Choi

An adoptee filmmaker’s debut feature explores Korean adoptees returning to their country of birth.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1995 · Documentary

The Snake in My Bed

Ijeoma Iloputaife / Omah Diegu

A Nigerian mother confronts racism, marriage law and her son’s recognition.

Featured film · BGHRA 2025

The Snake in My Bed film still / Ijeoma Iloputaife, UCLA Film & Television Archive · Image source ↗

2013 · Documentary

The Stuart Hall Project

John Akomfrah

Archival images and sound trace Stuart Hall’s life and political thought.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: shop.ihrc.org · Image source ↗

2012 · Documentary

The United States of Hoodoo

Oliver Hardt

A journey into African American spiritual traditions. The BGHRA biography uses 2011; theatrical release is 2012.

BGHRA 2024 · Filmmaker biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2022 · Documentary

The Wound Is Where the Light Enters

Director: Dheeraj Akolkar · Artistic direction and choreography: Darrel Toulon

Children born of conflict in Uganda create a performance from their memories through Darrel Toulon’s artistic direction and choreography. Documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar.

Screening · BGHRA 2023

Film artwork from BGHRA programme / original film rights holders

1973 · Feature film

Touki Bouki

Djibril Diop Mambéty

Two young people in Dakar imagine escape to France.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.rottentomatoes.com · Image source ↗

1952 · Feature film

Toxi

Robert A. Stemmle

A historical fiction film for critical discussion of postwar racial representation.

Screening and Angelica Fenner Q&A · BGHRA 2013

2021 · Feature film

Tug of War / Vuta n’kuvute

Amil Shivji

A political romance in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar. Included through the filmmaker’s Tanzanian connection, not a claim that Zanzibar was a German colony.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.kijiweniproductions.com · Image source ↗

2015 · Documentary

Twinsters

Samantha Futerman and Ryan Miyamoto

Twin sisters adopted separately to France and the United States discover one another.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

1999 · Documentary

Und wir waren Deutsche / And We Were Germans

John A. Kantara

Hans-Jürgen Massaquoi and Ralph Giordano revisit their Hamburg histories.

BGHRA–Davidson teaching and filmmaker conversations

2023 · Feature film

Under the Hanging Tree

Perivi John Katjavivi

A Namibian detective confronts crimes haunted by German colonial violence.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2021 · Documentary

Une histoire à soi / A Story of One’s Own

Writer / director / co-producer: Amandine Gay · Black French adoptee filmmaker

Five adult adoptees from Brazil, Sri Lanka, Rwanda, South Korea and Australia narrate the intimate politics of transnational adoption.

Film artwork from the linked official film, producer or festival source

2018 · Short documentary

Va-Bene (crazinisT artist)

Brenda Akele Jorde

A portrait of Ghanaian performance artist Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi.

BGHRA 2023 · Filmmaker biography

Va-Bene film still / Brenda Akele Jorde, XPOSED Queer Film Festival · Image source ↗

2003 · Feature film

Valley of the Innocent / Tal der Ahnungslosen

Branwen Okpako

A detective searches Stasi records for her own family history.

Branwen Okpako film programme · BGHRA 2022

1995 · Feature film

Welcome II the Terrordome

Ngozi Onwurah

A dystopian feature explores racism, confinement and the afterlives of enslavement.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.cineamo.com · Image source ↗

2016 · Feature film

White Colour Black

Joseph a. Adesunloye

A London photographer journeys to Senegal after his father’s death.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

2014 · Short film

Winter Solstice / Wintersonnenwende

Writer / director: Denise Ekale Kum

A short exploring inward fear and its effect on emotion and action.

Denise Ekale Kum · video thumbnail

2022 · Feature film

Wir könnten genauso gut tot sein / We Might as Well Be Dead

Director: Natalia Sinelnikova · Contributor connection: Lara-Sophie Milagro (see source for credits)

Named in Lara-Sophie Milagro’s acting credits.

BGHRA 2022 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1993/1994 · Documentary

Women with Open Eyes / Femmes aux yeux ouverts

Anne-Laure Folly

Women speak about rights, work, health and political participation across West Africa. Sources date production to 1993 and circulation to 1994.

2026 · Feature film

Woodwalkers 2

Director: Sven Unterwaldt · Contributor connection: Lara-Sophie Milagro (see source for credits)

Named in Lara-Sophie Milagro’s acting biography.

BGHRA 2026 · Contributor biography

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.kino.de · Image source ↗

1975 · Feature film

Xala

Ousmane Sembène

A satire of elite power, corruption and patriarchal authority after independence.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: www.imdb.com · Image source ↗

1991 · Feature film

Young Soul Rebels

Isaac Julien

Music, race, sexuality and friendship intersect in 1970s Britain.

Promotional film poster / still. Original film rights holders. Artwork source: princecharlescinema.com · Image source ↗

2000 · Feature film

Zurück auf Los! / Return to Go!

Pierre Sanoussi-Bliss

A tragicomedy about Sam, a Black East German singer, and a circle of friends negotiating love, illness and the creation of a chosen family in Berlin.