Celebrating its 20th annual festival, the Seattle Black Film Festival (SBFF) returns to Seattle for another year of Black Brilliance in film! After a pandemic, a name change, and a virtual festival, SBFF returns to bring local, national, and international films to the area, from April 22nd-30th. SBFF is a program of LANGSTON and is held at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, which recently celebrated its 50th year as a Black cultural hub in the historic Central District.

SBFF (formerly known as the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival) will be a hybrid film festival held virtually and in person over nine days at LANGSTON. The festival will present screenings, workshops, and features Opening Night, Centerpiece, and Closing Night special events.

Opening the festival, on Saturday, April 22nd, will be a preview of Rick DuPree’s upcoming documentary of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party, Seattle Black Panthers. Along with the director, we will host several esteemed members of the Party to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the chapter’s history. On Thursday, April 27th, Seattle artist Tariqa Waters (of Martyr Sauce) will host a screening of her film THANK YOU MS. PAM, along with live performances. The closing night screening of What the Funk: A Love Letter to the POC Community, a documentary about the Pacific Northwest’s first all-POC burlesque festival, will culminate in a burlesque show by Mx. Pux A Plenty on Sunday, April 30th.

The nine-day festival from April 22-30th features a diverse lineup of over 50 films made by local and international filmmakers, West Coast premieres, an all-ages selection for families, an LGBTQ block co-presented with Three Dollar Bill Cinema, and plenty of talkbacks with visiting filmmakers. SBFF continues a long tradition of bringing brilliant Black films to the Pacific Northwest as no other film festival can. Continuing with a hybrid model of the festival, SBFF will make all films available to watch online as well.