Hard Light Cinema Presents: Atlantics (2019)

Come to the ICA auditorium for a screening of Atlantics from director Mati Diop. Using entirely nonprofessional actors, Diop’s debut film is a supernatural romance set in present-day Senegal, where Ada and her partner Souleiman navigate class struggle, unreliable employment, migration, refugee crises, family strife, and hauntings from the past. This modern masterpiece explores a West African perspective on the Black Atlantic, casting the Atlantic Ocean itself as a phantom character that drives the plot of the film. In 2019, Diop became the first Black woman director to compete in the Cannes Film Festival, ultimately winning the Grand Prix for Atlantics and setting the stage for the success of her following efforts, including last year’s hit documentary Dahomey (2024).

Doors 6 p.m. | Screening 7 p.m.

Series Description:
More than twenty years have passed since the scholar Paul Gilroy coined the framework of the “Black Atlantic” to describe a counterculture within modernity emerging from Black American, European, and African diasporic cultures. Given that these hybrid cultures feature prominently in the ICA’s exhibition offerings this season, the institute has partnered with the Hard Light Cinema collective to present four films that contextualize and deepen our understanding of Black Atlantic aesthetics and experience.

Additional screenings: Wednesday, October 22, Babylon, directed by Franco Rossi (1980); Tuesday, December 2, Lovers Rock, directed by Steve McQueen (2020); Wednesday, December 10, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, directed by Madeleine Hunt Ehrlich (2024).