Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, students Screened five documentary short films at the 34th Raindance Film Festival in London. a celebration of Black storytelling, the African diaspora, and the multi-faceted arts shaping the next generation.
Some stories aren’t simply told. They are danced, scored, remembered, and reclaimed.
At Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee, inheritance is not passive. It arrives through practice, mentorship, and the accumulated wisdom of a faculty shaped significantly by Black women.
The next generation are inheritors and shapers of something ongoing, finding its way onto screens around the world.
Berklee at Raindance: A platform for independent storytelling
At the 34th Raindance Film Festival in London, five documentary short films by Berklee students took centre stage in a programme dedicated entirely to their work. Four of the five premiered at the festival, with filmmakers Samuel Apoutou and Honor Minors travelling to London to present alongside Africana Studies Chair Dr. Mike Mason and Grammy Award-winning producer, filmmaker and professor Martin Shore, whose mentorship has anchored the programme since 2018.
This is the second consecutive year that Take Me to the River, a capstone course in Berklee’s Africana Studies Department, has been featured at the Raindance Film Festival
Five Films. One Living Archive.
Each film carves a beautiful blend of music, dance and cinema. Taking us into the world of their friendships. The sounds that move them and the inheritance they are receiving and passing on to the next generation through the films. The films screened were as follows:
- Kindness : Produced and Directed by Chloe Smith. Returning to Raindance for a second year, exploring sound and the composition of a jazz piece.
- Out of the Dark : Produced and Directed by Rianne Thomas. An expression of praise and worship through dance.
- Côte d’Ivoire: Produced and Directed by Samuel Apoutou. A blend of the modern and ancestral sounds of jazz piano, fused with West african drumming rhythms and sounds. Complemented with dance from fellow students.
- The Cycle of Kinship: A Portrait of Community: Produced and Directed by Maxwell Pauls. A reflection on community and belonging.
- To Dance, and to Speak : Produced and Directed by Honor Minors: Three vignettes of movement, expression and energy. Influenced by award winning musician Little Simz, and choreographer Shay Latukolan.
Communicating joy through music and movement
These films carry culture across borders, generations delivering joy. The particular joy of a lineage held with care. Of complexity rendered with artistry. Of culture celebrated, extended and made new.
This is what Berklee’s Africana Studies programme makes possible. An institution with deep roots in Black musical and artistic life, tended by educators who educate and empower their students to tell their story to inspire all.
The Future of Black Cinema is here
These filmmakers remind us that preservation lives in sound, choreography and in the heart of an artist with the tools to create something entirely of their own.
The new vanguard doesn’t just inherit the tradition. They are decide what it becomes.
More in the September Print Edition.
More on the Berklee Take Me To the River Capstone