This year’s Vancouver International Black Film Festival will present 35 films from around the world. And it will open on Friday (December 5) with a critically acclaimed documentary set in a remote Congolese village.
Jean-Gabriel Leynaud’s Of Mud and Blood tells the story of a miner, Ujumbe Sabahutu Claude, who digs for coltan in Numbi in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This grey-gold ore is vital in cellphones and laptops, as well as in jet engines, medical devices, and other high-tech products. But it comes at a high price for workers, who must use their hands to extract this mineral.
Of Mud and Blood will be screened oat the Vancity Theatre in the VIFF Centre.
This year’s Vancouver International Black Film Festival runs until December 9 and will also include the VIBFF Black Market. Moreover, there will be an in-person screening of Adze Ugah’s Sierra’s Gold, a 2025 comedy-thriller about a Johannesburg Black visual artist.
In addition, the festival will present an in-person screening Snake, which is an adaptation of Tracy Farren’s novel. Farren, a South African, wrote the screenplay for the 2024 film, which was directed by Meg Richards.
On top of all that, the Vancouver International Black Film Festival will offer a short film program called Being Black in Canada. The Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Festwave Institute launched this series “to address the blatant lack of Black People in front and behind the camera in Canada,” according to the festival website.
Quebec-based Order of Canada member, actor, and entrepreneur Fabienne Colas has long championed underrepresented voices. She has launched 12 festivals across North America, the Caribbean, and Brazil, including this on in Vancouver. Collectively, they have showcased more than 5,000 artists.
“Celebrating five years in Vancouver is a powerful milestone—not just for us, but for the city and for Black storytelling in Canada,” Colas said in a news release. “The Vancouver International Black Film Festival (VIBFF) continues to shine a light on bold, authentic, and necessary voices that are too often overlooked on screen. We are proud to amplify Black talent from here and around the world, championing diversity in front of and behind the camera.”
For more information about the Vancouver International Black Film Festival, visit the website. Follow Pancouver on X @PancouverMedia and Bluesky @pancouver.bsky.social. The publication is also on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
