Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival – Essence


Black Storytelling and Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival takes over the snow-covered community of Park City in Utah for 11 days. With a major focus on diversifying event and film programming, festival attendees got a chance to visit a slew of happenings that cater towards and center personal, rich Black storytelling. From January 23 to February 2nd, global peers and film industry workers arrive in Utah to experience early film premieres that look to secure distribution deals with domestic theatres and streaming partners.

In the debut of his new music documentary, Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius), director and musician Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson unveiled the famed life, and struggles of one of Black American music’s flashiest icons, Sly Stone. After his Thursday premiere on January 23, in real Questlove-fashion, the filmmaker DJ’d at World of Hyatt’s space and celebrated the documentary’s festival release. At the new Grand Hyatt Deer Valley hotel, Cynthia Erivo was honored with the Visionary Award for her performance career at the Sundance Institute’s 2025 Gala. There, she discussed how she feels she finally has arrived as her full self at World of Hyatt’s studio and many other Black filmmakers can resonate with this sentiment when debuting their Sundance projects.

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Questlove at the Deadline 2025 Sundance Film Festival Portrait Studio held at the Deadline Studio on January 25, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Deadline/Deadline via Getty Images)

Other slated panels included Jesse Williams discussing his short documentary, Hopes, Hoops, and Dreams. Then, there were premieres for the first-time feature directors of films Opus and Love Brooklyn which are both some of the most exciting features of Black filmmaking showcased at Sundance 2025. Starring Ayo Edebiri and marking Mark Anthony Green’s feature debut, Opus is a horror-comedy film that aims to subvert the genre. The latter, Love, Brooklyn is another feature debut for New Yorker, Rachel Abigail Holder; the romance film includes DeWanda Wise, Roy Wood Jr., Andre Holland, and more who are all a part of the deep-rooted community of Brooklyn as they navigate change and love together. This year, Black live-action storytelling has taken film fests by storm as Ryan DeForeest’s My Brother and Me has become a nominated dramatic hit at the NAACP as well. 

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 27: Ayo Edebiri attends the “Opus” Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 27, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic)

At Sundance and throughout Deer Valley in Utah, Black creativity and passion were uplifted and at the core of many of the fest’s events and cinema programming. Read further to review some of the important Black films that were picked up for theatrical distribution and others that are major contenders for greater future success.

Opus

Mark Anthony Green’s directorial feature debut, Opus, is an original telling of a fabled artist who goes on a multi-decade hiatus. As a burgeoning journalist, Ayo Edebiri embodies Ariel, a writer seeking a world-renowned story to tell and her first big gig is interviewing the eccentric pop icon, Alfred Moretti played by John Malkovich. Releasing March 14 in theaters, Green’s horror film exposes the grim reality and cult-like followings that plague super fandoms while Ayo highly delivers in her first leading performance in the A24 film. Shooting this film in a mere 19 days, the onscreen ensemble is palpably kinetic as Green teeters between comedy and gore to keep audiences on their feet.

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 27: Mark Anthony Green attends the “Opus” Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 27, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images)

Love, Brooklyn

In Rachael Holder’s feature debut Love,  Brooklyn — the NY-native grapples with the idea of an ever-so-changing Brooklyn. Focusing on the colorful and cultural aspects of Brooklyn’s many blocks, Holder employs a stunning cast (DeWanda Wise, André Holland, Nicole Beharie, Roy Wood Jr.). With characters who are all natives of Brooklyn, they each experience massive personal change in their lives whether that is love, loss, or letting go, these artists and dreamers intertwine as their hometown becomes increasingly more unrecognizable. Wood Jr.’s comic delivery with Holland and Wise’s sincerity makes Love, Brooklyn a devoted, poetic visual of heartwarming Black neighborhoods that possess their own unique, special character.

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 27: (L-R) André Holland, DeWanda Wise, Rachael Abigail Holder, Cassandra Freeman, Nicole Beharie and Roy Wood Jr. attend the “Love, Brooklyn” Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Eccles Center Theatre on January 27, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Isaiah Trickey/FilmMagic)

Hopes, Hoops, and Dreams

The documentary short of Hopes, Hoops, and Dreams recounts how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activists used basketball as an effective tool to seek out young voters. With hand-drawn sketch animation and several sit-down interviews, ambassadors like civil rights activist and former basketball point guard, Andrew Young discuss how they took to the courts to spark change. Produced by the likes of Jesse Williams and directed by Glenn Kaino, the short shows how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. scouted Black ballers at Black-only gyms to get the word out about his activism. Filmmaker, Kaino makes the connection between basketball and Black civil justice as leaders like MLK and Barack Obama used basketball courts as grounds for campaigning and community-building.

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 23: Jesse Williams attends the premier of “Hoops, Hopes, & Dreams” during the Shorts Program 1 at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Library Center Theatre on January 23, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Maya Dehlin Spach/Getty Images)

Khartoum

4 Sudanese filmmakers (Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Ahmed) group with British director Phil Cox to tell the story of displacement and violence in their home state of Khartoum. A major state of Sudan that has been threatened and under a military coup attack for more than a year, this animated documentary follows native’s lives. With the displacement of over 10 million Sudanese families, the filmmaking team was forced to relocate due to the coup that occurred in 2023. With beautiful imagery and emotional longing for their peaceful state to return to liveable conditions, the Sudanese filmmaking team tracked the 5 lives of local parents, merchants, and children: Majdi, Khadmallah, Jawad, Lokain, and Wilson who were forced to abandon their country and all they know for survival.

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 27: (L-R) Philip Good, Giovanna Stopponi, Yousef Hayyan Jubeh, Talal Afifi, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy Ahmad, Phil Cox and James Preston attend the “Khartoum” Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Egyptian Theatre on January 27, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

How To Build A Library

A Nairobi library becomes the basis of social change for two courageous Kenyan women, Shiro and Wachuk. Carrying a foundation of strong friendship, Nairobi’s McMillan Memorial Library which used to be just for White guests has transformed into a landmark Black, cultural center under these women’s formidable guidance. Filmmakers, Maia Lekow and Christopher King uplift this journey of reclamation for Shiro and Wachuk in their How To Build A Library documentary. The historic library is reinvented and reinvigorated from its divisive colonial history to a modern place for intellectual inspiration and safety. Libraries store such important history and Shiro and Wachuk make it their life’s goal to preserve what is humane, just, and impactful for Kenya’s greater modern community.

Lurker

Alex Russell’s feature debut, Lurker, seeks to unravel the relationship between stardom and proximity to fame. Starring Nigerian British actor, Archie Madekwe (Saltburn), his character Oliver is a music artist on the rise who allows fan, Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) to infiltrate his entourage of friends. The film’s pulsating, slow pace and suspense make the twist of near-death experiences a thrill. Russell, who has written for The Bear and Beef, merges the worlds of modern celebrity and super-obsession to criticize what we will do to get close to “greatness”. This dramatic satire on stan culture delivers an engaging conversation about what we will do to maintain relevance in the digital age.

Move Ya Body — The Birth Of House

On January 26, filmmaker Elegance Bratton celebrated the world premiere of his house documentary, Move Ya Body — The Birth Of House. Paying homage to the Black gay house music renaissance in Southside Chicago, Bratton centers the doc around Vince Lawrence, the lead innovator of creating the warehouse music scene in Chicago. Highlighting the thumping, liberating sounds of synthesizers and soul electronic beats, Move Ya Body goes straight to the source. Bratton emphasizes the fact that house music’s history is Black queer history and how the genre birthed other Black genres (hip hop, soul, disco) and battled with Rock music in the 70s and 80s — house dominated the charts and freed queer folks. Archival footage and artists’ interviews displayed many scenes with raised fists, larger-than-life fros, and freedom; house music is a Black movement that supported civil rights and celebrated the best of Black creativity.

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 26: (L-R) Jessica Betts, Elegance Bratton and Niecy Nash-Betts attend the “Move Ya Body: The Birth Of House” Premiere during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival at Ray Theatre on January 26, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)

Ricky

A feature of redemption and self-revival, 30-year-old Ricky experiences release and real freedom after being incarcerated for 15 years. Actor, Stephan James fills Ricky with glimmering eyes of hope and love as he navigates his new life as a grown adult. His parole officer, Joanne, played by Sheryl Lee Ralph supports Ricky’s efforts to return to normalcy. Ralph’s fiercely commanding performance adds depth to the relationship and power dynamic she shares with Ricky. She knows she has to do her job of uplifting the law while simultaneously, relating to the young man, Ricky, who is attempting to start fresh in a world and system that deems him unworthy. Caribbean director, Rashad Frett showcases the humanity and emotional conflicts between two figures who are on opposite sides of judicial power.

Black Storytelling And Programming Take Over The 2025 Sundance Film Festival
Rashad Frett, Stephan James at the Deadline 2025 Sundance Film Festival Studio presented by Casamigos held at the Deadline Studio on January 25, 2025 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Deadline/Deadline via Getty Images)

Seeds

In Brittany Shyne’s directorial debut, Seeds is a candid portrayal of generational Black farmers, togetherness, and families sowing the seeds and reaping the benefits of their fertile land. Through Black-and-white cinematography, Shyne films the pain and labor elder Black farmers experience while trying to keep their land alive and continue their family’s farming lineage. In Sundance 2025’s U.S. Documentary Competition winning submission, the filmmaker advocates for Black farmers who are often forgotten in the moral disgraces that systematically push Black farmers out of their claimed farmland. Following Black farmers and their families in the rural South, this documentary paints the historical significance of Black farming, their lineages, and legacies. As the backbones of American cuisine and agriculture, generationally Black-owned farming lands are dwindling and these farmers are going to endure even if they feel back-breaking hurt and exhausted.

SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)

In Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s new music documentary, SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius), the award-winning filmmaker/musician teaches viewers about the impactful life of a real-life legend. The late 60’s San Francisco band, Sly and the Family Stone changed music forever and the key singer, Sly Stone became known as America’s Black Elvis. Premiering on Hulu on February 13th, the Questlove jawn focuses on these Black musical pioneers who created modern psychedelic funk, soul, and rock. Interviews by nonconforming artists like Andre 3000 are seen in SLY Lives as they pay their respects to the Black genius, Sly. Questlove reframes America’s idea of fame by revealing that the plight of fame is an unconquerable monster that even a living legend can struggle with handling. Organizing family interviews and never-before-seen archival footage of Sly’s famed soul performances, Questlove is on a mission to make Black music lovers remember the funky, flashy source of it all.



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