All filmmakers get a live Q&A at the Black August Film Festival
About Black August Film Festival
The Black August Film Festival is more than a film exhibition—it is a platform for education, dialogue, and cultural preservation. Rooted in the legacy of Black August, the festival honors history while uplifting contemporary narratives that explore social justice, identity, resilience, and creativity. Each year, the festival brings together filmmakers, artists, community leaders, youth, and audiences from across the region and beyond.
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Dates commemorated during Black August include:
August 1: Emancipation Day in several Caribbean nations and Canada.
August 5: Nelson Mandela’s arrest and imprisonment in 1962.
August 7: Death of Jonathan P. Jackson at San Quentin State Prison in 1970.
August 9: Killing of Mike Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, leading to the Ferguson Uprisings in 2014.
August 10: The Attica Prison Rebellion is remembered as part of Black August, with some arguing that the revolt began on August 10, 1970, in Manhattan’s House of Detention, and continued through the official rebellion dates of September 9-13, 1971.
August 11: Watts riots, also known as the Watts Uprising, which occurred from August 11-16, 1965.
August 14: Bois Caiman Vodou ceremony, which sparked the Haitian Revolution.
August 17: Birth of Pan-Africanist leader Marcus Garvey in 1887.
August 21: Beginning of Nat Turner’s Rebellion (August 21-23, 1831) and death of George Jackson at San Quentin State Prison in 1971.
August 22: Start of the Haitian Revolution in 1791.
August 23: Uprising in Saint Domingue and the start of the Haitian Revolution, commemorated by UNESCO as the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.
August 30: Birth of Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Party Deputy Chairman, who was assassinated by the FBI.
