June 19th, 2025

RoxFilm returns, amplifying Black voices in a climate of erasure and chaos

Olivia Grant

Banner Arts & Culture Sponsored by Cruz Companies

The Roxbury International Film Festival, or RoxFilm, returns for its 27th year on Juneteenth.

Juneteenth, which honors the emancipation of enslaved people, is a day that invites Americans to acknowledge the country’s complex and painful history while reflecting on where we are heading as a society today.

In January, President Trump signed an executive order ending diversity initiatives across the federal government. In February, he signed an executive order banning critical race theory from K-12 schools. In March, the president signed another executive order cutting funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which impacted museums like the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. These sweeping changes happened in just the first three months of his presidency.

Despite efforts by the Trump administration to erase African American history and progress, RoxFilm’s eight-day program of films, panels, workshops and events is sure to engage, educate and entertain festival attendees.

Opening night begins at 7 p.m. with a free screening of Catherine Gund’s documentary “Paint Me a Road Out of Here” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The film follows the history, recovery and reclamation of Faith Ringgold’s 1971 painting “For the Women’s House.” The colorful and dynamic painting is separated into eight sections depicting diverse women in careers that were unavailable to them at the time, like professional basketball players, bus drivers, police officers and presidents. Ringgold created the painting to inspire a sense of possibility among the incarcerated women at the Women’s House corrections facility on Rikers Island, now the Rose M. Singer Center. Ringgold, who died in 2024 at 91, was an artist and activist whose works depicted sobering critiques of American life.

The festival program was curated with a desire to bring different stories to the forefront at a time when many in the community feel silenced and under attack by the current administration. Special attention was also paid to local filmmakers with almost 40 percent making up the festival program.

In a phone interview, Lisa Simmons, executive director of RoxFilm said, “This year felt like we have this sense of obligation to really make sure that we’re bringing forth these untold voices in the current climate where erasure is a thing.”

Simmons said current events, freedom, reparations and genealogy are big themes in the festival this year. “Ebony Canal,” a film about black infant mortality, is the dinner-and-a-movie event screening at Haley House Bakery Cafe on June 23 at 7 p.m. The second annual Senior Lunch will screen “Harriet Tubman: From the Railroad to a Spy,” which explores Tubman’s life and prolific activism beyond the Underground Railroad. Genealogy enthusiasts might enjoy the films “Acts of Reparation” and “Redefining Legacy,” which screen June 22 at 5 p.m. And old Hollywood and Broadway buffs might be interested in “Honoring Frank Silvera: A Pioneer in Black Cinema” on June 26 at 1:30 p.m.

A portion of the festival is virtual including the Daily Script Reads. Script reads are works in progress read by actors that occur every day at noon from June 23-27. Andrea Lyman, a local actress and director of the Daily Script Reads, said the scripts are all different in feeling, tone and subject matter. A script that resonated with her is Louis Johnson’s “Divided,” a story centered on a multiracial couple in the middle of an American race war.

“I am very sad to say that his film seems very realistic and possible in our world. It is kind of a fantasy of a script, not quite a dystopian world, but it’s a world called Divided, where America has been divided, almost like South Africa,” Lyman said. “I’m looking and thinking we’re not quite far from that.”

Some scripts performed at the Daily Script Reads eventually get the greenlight. Simmons said, “[Writer-director] David Curtis did a script read a couple of years ago, got it produced and now is in the festival this year. That’s the kind of full circle that we want to see.” David Curtis’ “Love of a Lifetime” was read in 2023 and will screen at the festival on June 20 at 5:30 p.m.

Lyman said, “What I like about the festival is we have some feature films and a lot of short films. The way it’s put it all together is they may have things in common, but they aren’t the same.” She continued, “It may be these films are about the environment, or community or about finding joy in the world. I just love the variety.”

RoxFilm is a multi-venue film festival and runs June 19-June 27.