This June, AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange returns to WORLD! On the heels of a Peabody Award win, a new slate of films – three documentaries and one narrative film, plus two new shorts – tells stories of Black communities refusing to accept the status quo and instead making their mark on the world through art, innovation, and activism. From the shores of Suriname to Kinshasa and even an imagined future Rwandan landscape, the 17th season of AfroPoP reflects the spirit, ingenuity and audacity found among the African diaspora.
Mother Suriname / The Changing Same | Premiering June 9
By Tessa Leuwsha / By Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster
Mother Suriname: A deeply evocative portrayal of Suriname's history woven through the personal story of a woman reflecting on her life. The film uses captivating, colorized archival footage to illustrate the lives of Surinamese women, including filmmaker Tessa Leuwsha's grandmother, who was a washerwoman.
The Changing Same: In the Florida Panhandle lies the provincial town of Marianna, where resident and poet L. Lamar Wilson runs a particular marathon in hopes of lifting the veil of racial terror caused by the town’s buried history.
Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night) | Premiering June 16
By Nelson Makengo
In Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the government's plans to build a large hydroelectric power plant leave many residents in darkness and insecurity. The city’s uneven distribution of electricity causes many locals to navigate life after sunset using torches and other means to provide their own infrastructure and security amid constant violence.
Neptune Frost / Tsutsue | Premiering June 23
By Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams / By Amartei Armar
Neptune Frost: This Afrofuturist romantic musical, executive produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is set in a post-civil war Rwanda and spans past, future and present times. It follows the relationship between Neptune, an intersex hacker, and Matalusa, a coltan miner. The story unfolds in a village made of computer parts, where Neptune and Matalusa join a hacker collective to challenge the authoritarian regime exploiting their region's natural resources. The film uses music, African oral tradition and song-poetry to explore themes of patriarchy, feminism and liberation.
Tsutsue: In this Afrofuturistic narrative film set in a small Ghanaian town at the edge of an oceanside landfill, two sons of a fisherman – Sowah and Okai – struggle to cope with the death of their eldest brother who drowned during a fishing expedition.
Mama Gloria | Encore June 30
By Luchina Fisher
The life story of the late Gloria Allen, a Black transgender woman from the south side of Chicago. Explores Gloria's journey, through growing up with a supportive family, her realization that she was a girl, time on the drag ball scene, and her coming out and gender reassignment surgery, and follow her later-in-life career as the proprietor of a charm school for young trans people. The film highlights Gloria's resilience and the unconditional love she received from her family, as well as the love she gave to her chosen children.
Watch season 17 of AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange
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