Shorts Program 3: The Art of Protection
New York African Film Festival 2026
May 6 - 12
Defense is key to evolution in this selection of short films. This program includes Nimco Sheikhaden’s Exodus; Shiloh Tumo Washington’s Bailey’s Blues; Justice Rutikara’s Ibuka, Justice; Aminata Drynie Bockarie’s Where the Water Meets Us; Klein Ongaki’s The Land Smiles Back; Abdelkrim Boughoud’s Eauquation – Water Distribution at Douiret-Sbâa; Catherine McKinley, Mamadou Tapily, and Marc Lesser’s Keïta La; and Marwa Eltahir’s 99 Names: My Liberation Is Tied to Yours.
Bailey’s Blues
Shiloh Tumo Washington, 2025, U.S., 11m
English and French with English subtitles
New York Premiere
In 1960s France, a Chicago-born jazz bassist is pulled into an impromptu filmed interview during a festival. What begins as a routine exchange quickly shifts into a tense confrontation between subject and camera. Bailey’s Blues unfolds as an unfinished document, where jazz becomes a conduit for deeper truths about resistance and identity.
Ibuka, Justice
Justice Rutikara, 2024, Canada, 23m
French and Kinyarwanda with English subtitles
New York Premiere
During the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Valentine and Jean-Claude risk everything to flee with their newborn, a journey captured in this poetic animated odyssey.
Keïta La
Catherine McKinley, Mamadou Tapily, Marc Lesser, 2025, U.S./Mali, 10m
English, French, and Bambara with English subtitles
Named after photographer Seydou Keïta’s family compound established in Bamako-Coura, Mali, in the early 1900s, on the edge of which stood his famous studio, Keïta La offers a glimpse into the world of Keïta’s artistry and his family’s efforts to steward and preserve his legacy.
Where the Water Meets Us
Aminata Drynie Bockarie, 2026, Sierra Leone, 10m
English, Mende, Krio, and Shebro with English subtitles
World Premiere
The film shines a light on the long and rich history of Bonthe, a town on Sherbro Island, and the island’s immense contribution to the formation of Sierra Leone. Beyond celebrating its heritage, the film addresses the ongoing challenges threatening the island’s survival—climate change, mangrove loss, and rising sea levels—while highlighting a new generation rising to find solutions and safeguard its future.
Exodus
Nimco Sheikhaden, 2025, U.S., 35m
English and Spanish with English subtitles
Exodus is a portrait of two women granted release after decades of incarceration, navigating the uncharted terrain of freedom and facing both its promise and its barriers in their efforts to build a dignified life.
The Land Smiles Back
Klein Ongaki, 2025, Kenya, 4m
Samburu with English subtitles
North American Premiere
For generations, the Samburu people and their livestock have had a deep connection with water, depending on the rains for their survival. The Land Smiles Back is the story of the Samburu community in Westgate Conservancy, who made the land “smile” again by returning to ancient hydrotechnology.
Eauquation – Water Distribution at Douiret-Sbâa
Abdelkrim Boughoud, 2023, Morocco, 5m
Darija and Amazigh with English subtitles
This documentary explores the ancient water system of Douiret-Sbâa, Morocco, a remarkable network fed by a local spring that has sustained the community for centuries. Highlighting the ingenuity of traditional hydro-technologies, the film examines how these systems continue to shape life in arid lands today.
99 Names: My Liberation Is Tied to Yours
Marwa Eltahir, 2025, Sudan/U.S., 11m
English and Arabic with English subtitles
New York Premiere
99 Names is an immersive, audio-visual story that combines sonic rituals of oral storytelling, recitation of the Quran, and calling on the 99 names of Allah to venerate the Divine. The film asks audiences to sit with the grief of colonization within the Afro-Arab diaspora and invites them to imagine how we can collectively hold, transmute and release this weight.
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