Hayti Heritage Film Festival Hayti Heritage Center

The mission of Hayti Heritage Center (HHC) is to preserve and advance the heritage and culture of historic Hayti in Durham, North Carolina and the African American experience through arts programs that benefit the broader community nationally and globally. HAYTI FILM consists of the Hayti Heritage Film Festival (HHFF) and year-round film programming. HHFF is the premier festival for Black Southern media makers, presenting and celebrating films and supporting them through professional programs.

HAYTI FILMS consists of both the Hayti Heritage Film Festival (HHFF) and the Hayti Film Next Level (HFNL) series at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, NC. HHFF serves regional audiences with a selection of the latest films by and about African Americans in the American South, selected for both their artistic merit and cultural relevance. An emphasis on Black, Southern stories connects filmmakers to audiences who are eager for storytelling centering the powerful, complex, and important history of the African American experience. HFNL is a quarterly series featuring great films, panel discussions, and workshops. The series culminates with a fundraiser in June supporting Hayti Films programming. In addition, Hayti Films provides professional workshops and year-round support for media artists through the Hayti Black Filmmakers Collective. The Hayti Heritage Film Festival team and our colleagues in the Hayti Black Filmmakers Collective believe in the power of story to transform communities and enrich culture. Stories inform our sense of home and place. Centering the Black Southern experience connects us to the richness of our first homeland in America, the South. Honoring what we built here, the culture, and the land invites us to envision a world where we can be our authentic selves. HHFF provides a creative and caring space that is intergenerational, intersectional, and serves to strengthen community. The festival takes place over five days and includes upwards of 30 films - feature-length and short, dramatic, and non-fiction works. The curation team is supported by a screening committee of industry professionals connected to the region, such as George Alexander, Sherard Duvall, and Tyra Dixon. There is an open submission process with the team reviewing approximately 70 films. HHFF also curates films via relationships with distribution executives, and by covering other festivals. Historically the program has balanced high-profile screenings for well-known artists such as Sam Pollard, Lisa Cortes, and Byron Hurt with presentations of work by emerging artists. The festival is headquartered at Hayti Heritage Center, an important historic landmark of Black Southern culture. The primary screening space is a 400-seat theater; a spacious interior lobby accommodates box office, check-in, and display cases for posters and artwork; a large outdoor patio provides space for networking, live music and dancing; onsite classrooms are used for workshops. The Center has ample parking and is accessible by public transportation; as local food is available for refreshment many participants spend the day at Hayti, attending multiple events and connecting with their community.