2025 Festival Poster designed by Stanley Roberts, Gordon Design.

THE 27TH ANNUAL ROXFILM SCHEDULE IS NOW LIVE!

We’re beyond excited to share that the 2025 Festival Schedule is now live and ready for you to start adding to your calendar! You can also view the list of all the films screening alphabetically in our Film Guide.

More events will be added to the schedule soon, but with over 100 films screening, Daily Reads, workshops, filmmaker hangouts, and more for our 27th Annual Roxbury International Film Festival, we can’t wait to experience it all with you!

OPENING NIGHT: PAINT ME A ROAD OUT OF HERE

Thursday, June 19, 2025 | 7:00pm | Museum of Fine Arts Boston (465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115) - Remis Auditorium

Paint Me a Road Out of Here

Directed by Catherine Gund (USA, 2024, 90 mins)

Featuring artists Faith Ringgold and Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter, PAINT ME A ROAD OUT OF HERE uncovers the whitewashed history of Faith's masterpiece "For the Women's House" and follows its 50-year journey from Rikers Island to the Brooklyn Museum in a heartbreaking, funny & true parable for a world without mass incarceration.

In association with 7th Sun Productions. Trailer.

Q&A to follow. Then join us at LUCIE (120 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02116) for a post-film opening night party!

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Important Ticket + Entrance Information: This is one of the MFA’s free admission days for Juneteenth so tickets for general admission and this screening are both first come, first serve. General Admission tickets into the museum go on sale at 10am day-of and once you’re in the Museum, you can go to Remis Auditorium to get a film screening ticket which will be available at 6pm. We recommend getting to Remis Auditorium early to get in line.

This film screening is not included in the festival pass.

VILLAGE KEEPER w/ DO YOU REMEMBER ME?

Sunday, June 22, 2025 | 2:30PM | Museum of Fine Arts Boston (465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115) - Remis Auditorium

Village Keeper
Directed by Karen Chapman (Canada, 2024, 80 mins).

Jean is the provider and (over)protector of her two teen children, Tamika and Tristin, and begrudgingly lives with her mother in a crowded Lawrence Heights apartment complex. Despite the kids learning to become more self-sufficient, Jean’s vision is too clouded by the past to see that they're growing. She is haunted by violence in both their past and their present, and must help her children cope. Expertly using sound and flashbacks to construct a layered and full portrait of this woman's life, Chapman reveals the trials and tribulations that women in Jean’s family carry with them. Trailer.

Village Keeper is a 2024 Official Selection of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Preceded by:

do you remember me?
Directed by Tonia M Magras (USA, 2025, 20 mins).

When trust turns into betrayal, you never forget.

"do you remember me?" is based on the director, Tonia Magras's true story and follows 'Nicky' as she faces the one person who tried to destroy her almost 38 years ago. As she recalls and once again lives through the horrific trauma of what happened to her on May 4, 1987, at 18 years old, she remembers the strength and resilience she has found through her faith and love from her husband, Gregory.

Q&A to follow.

DINNER & A MOVIE: THE EBONY CANAL w/ TEDDY

Monday, June 23, 2025 | 7:00pm | Haley House Bakery Café (12 Dade Street Boston, MA 02119) // Seats are limited!

We are excited to bring back the beloved Dinner & A Movie to RoxFilm's lineup this year. This intimate 40 seat experience brings community together to connect and discuss issues that face Black and Brown people, using film as a catalyst for the conversation. This DAAM we discuss Black maternal health with the filmmaker and a panel of experts.

Doors open at 6:30pm. Dinner is included (see event page for menu), cash bar.

This event is not included in the festival pass; you must purchase tickets separately.

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The Ebony Canal: A Story of Black Infant Mortality
Directed by Emmai Alaquiva (USA, 2024, 51:13 mins).

The Ebony Canal is a documentary film narrated by Academy Award-winning icon, Viola Davis. This masterful cinematic poem directed by Emmai Alaquiva examines the HERstoric portal between the disparities of infant mortality and the current state of maternal health orbiting Black and Brown women.

With collaborative insight of Former VP, Kamala Harris, Lamman Rucker, Kimberly Seal Allers, Charles Johnson and some of the top experts, we reveal the hurt, healing and hope of this voyage. Despite the undercurrents, the mission aims to foster a new wave of solution-driven practices. The vision is to move maternal health forward in the journey to save Black and brown mothers and their babies. Trailer.

Preceded by:

Teddy
Directed by Lauren Santucci (USA, 2025, 16 mins).

A verité portrait of a male birth doula working to improve birth outcomes for Black womenin Houston, Texas.

SENIOR LUNCH: HARRIET TUBMAN | FROM THE RAILROAD TO A A SPY w/ SWEET FREEDOM (FREE)

Tuesday, June 24, 2025 | 2:00pm | Hibernian Hall (184 Dudley St., Boston, MA 02119)

Join us for this special afternoon lunch screening for seniors!

Harriet Tubman | From the Railroad to a Spy
Directed by Luana M Graves Sellars (USA, 2022, 57:48 mins).

Harriet Tubman | From the Railroad to a Spy is an epic documentary that tells her complete story. Journey through the events and details of her incredible life story that are seldom told; from the underground railroad, to her work as a Union Army scout and spy in military campaigns from South Carolina to Florida. Trailer.

Preceded by:

Sweet Freedom
Directed by Alyssa Botelho (USA, 2024, 28:29 mins).

Underground Railroad station master Polly Johnson confronts the risk of her dearest friend's re-enslavement as encroaching slave-hunters threaten the safety of everyone under her protection

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Boxed lunches will be provided. They will contain a sandwich, bag of chips, pickle, macaroni salad, fruit salad and a cookie. You can choose either chicken salad, seafood salad, or turkey and cheese for your sandwich when you register for the event. If you have any severe allergies, please note that in your registration and when you arrive to the event.

SHORTS: GLOBAL COMMUNITIES AT JUSTBOOK-ISH

Wednesday, June 25, 2025 | 5:30PM | JustBook-ish (1463 Dorchester Avenue, Boston, MA, 02124) // Seats are limited!

RoxFilm and JustBook-ish presents Shorts: Global Communities!

This event is not included in the festival pass; you must RSVP separately.

Food and drinks will be available for purchase.

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Boston Carnival
Directed by London Parker-Mcwhorter (USA, 2025, 5:00 mins).

Filmed in 2017, a dazzling, slow motion portrait of Roxbury's Caribbean Festival & Carnival, Boston's largest annual parade.

Kluskap Meets Summer
Directed by Natasha Ramsay (Canada, 2024, 2:39 mins).

Kluskap Meets Summer is a charming animated tale narrated in Mi'kmaw. Kluskap, the legendary Wabanaki hero, battles icy and powerful Apuknajit, attempting to protect his starving people from never ending cold and darkness. Unable to conquer Apuknajit alone, Kluskap is overcome by the magician's winter sleep spell. As Kluskap dreams, Loon speaks through the spell and implores him to travel South in search of a beautiful and resilient maiden known as Summer. With the help Summer's warmth and restorative power, Kluskap will be able to defeat Winter, restore balance to the land and bring abundance back to the people.

Janke
Directed by Jordan Hendrickson (USA, 2025, 20:00 min)

In 2020 my mother left her career and life in America, and moved to the Gambia. I decided to visit her and film our experience with each other, and ended up meeting other Black Americans who had similar stories of re-patriation in Africa."Janke" is a compilation of those stories in a blend of documentary filmmaking and vivid animated retelling.

Kanenon:we - Original Seeds
Directed by Katsitsionni D Fox (USA, 2024, 26:46 mins).

Kanenon:we - Original Seeds carries viewers into the grassroots Indigenous seed sovereignty movement led by Haudenosaunee women. Prior to European contact there was a rich and vibrant diversity of foods, with women primarily responsible for caretaking of the seeds. Genocidal practices including, boarding schools, land theft, forced relocation, imposed religion and even food warfare contributed to a disconnection from our traditional foods and seeds. Indigenous seed keepers are vigilantly protecting the biodiversity of seeds under threat of Agro-Chemical Giants that currently control over sixty percent of seeds worldwide. As these Haudenosaunee women step back into their sacred responsibility as seed keepers they offer a powerful view of what is possible in Indigenous communities working towards food sovereignty.

The Last Dance
Directed by Hayden Mclean (United Kingdom, 2024, 16:39 mins).

The final chapter of a famous East London haunt and the brainchild of successful club owner/promoter Linford “Fox” Wilson. Fox’s world tailspins, as his iconic “LA bar” is compulsory purchased by the council, forcing him and his patrons out, leaving his life in disarray. A staple for the Caribbean community, a home of Reggae music and a hub for the Windrush generation. We witness a community rise up against the onrushing tide of gentrification, that threatens to tear them apart. Culminating in a final “dance” that will be remembered for the ages.

Q&A to follow.

CLOSING NIGHT: MAY THE LORD WATCH

Friday, June 27, 2025 | 7:30pm | Museum of Fine Arts Boston (465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115) - Remis Auditorium

RoxFilm and BAMS Fest co-present:

May the Lord Watch

Directed by Holland Randolph Gallagher (USA, 2024, 100 min.).

May the Lord Watch is the definitive story of Little Brother, the North Carolina rap group comprised of members Phonte and Big Pooh (and formerly producer 9th Wonder). This legendary underground duo bridged the gap between the Roots and Kendrick Lamar, A Tribe Called Quest and J. Cole, De La Soul and Drake. The film follows the rise, breakup, and reunion of the preeminent 2000s group, but the heart of the documentary lies in the unfolding relationship between Phonte and Big Pooh, which began at the historically Black North Carolina Central University in Durham, strained while the two came of age together in the music industry, and resolved with an enduring friendship as the two men reunited and made their 2019 album, May the Lord Watch.

Q&A to follow with members of Little Brother, moderated by Dart Adams.

Then join us a post-film closing night party at Artists For Humanity (100 W 2nd St, Boston, MA 02127)!

SHARE SCRIPT SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!

DEADLINE: JUNE 1, 2025 AT 11:59PM EST 

Calling All Filmmakers!

Submit your feature-length script for a chance to be produced through SHARE, a groundbreaking platform built by filmmakers, for filmmakers. 

What is SHARE? It’s a creative ecosystem that gives artists full control over their projects, providing essential production tools like equity crowdfunding, vendor partnerships, and streamlined distribution. By democratizing the filmmaking process, SHARE empowers creators to fund, produce, and profit from their work.

TCGT Entertainment is partnering with Roxbury International Film Festival and the Secret Society of Black Creatives to produce a feature film in Boston sometime in 2026.  We are accepting scripts! Yours could be selected!  If you have a production-ready feature-length screenplay ready to go all the way, submit it NOW and let the voting begin!!!

Submit your scripts here.

Note that the form allows a maximum file upload size of 10MB. If your file is bigger than that, please email us at roxfilmfest@gmail.com.