Coming to The Criterion Channel in July, “Blackstar Film Festival presents” is a curated selection of features and shorts showcasing one film from each year of the festival’s 15-year history. Streaming on Criterion through the end of December 2026, the selection includes two WMM-distributed films – LANDFALL (2020), directed by Cecilia Aldarondo, and THE PASSION OF REMEMBRANCE (2011), directed by Maureen Blackwood and Isaac Julien – and two films made with the support of our Production Assistance Program – FAYA DAYI (2021), directed by Jessica Beshir, and A FIRE THROUGH DRY GRASS (2023), co-directed by Alexis Neophytides and Andres “Jay” Molina.
An intimate and lyrical portrait of trauma, resilience, and resistance in post-Hurricane María Puerto Rica, LANDFALL exposes the island’s deepening economic and environmental crises and its fraught colonial relationship with the United States.
THE PASSION OF REMEMBRANCE – the Sankofa collective’s influential first film and a landmark of British avant-garde cinema (recently remastered in 4K by the BFI National Archive) – explores racism, homophobia, sexism, and generational tension within a Black British family over a span of years.
