The Luminal Theater

09/04/2026

After a hiatus, The Luminal Theater Film Club returns Oct. 4th at 4pm EDT

This month's pick is Chantal Akerman's Sud (SOUTH).

Inspired by her love of William Faulkner and James Baldwin, renowned director Chantal Akerman planned to produce a meditation on the American South in the summer of 1998. However, just days before she was to begin filming, James Byrd, Jr. was murdered in Jasper, Texas.

A Black family man, Byrd has been severely beaten by three white men, chained to their truck, and dragged three miles through predominately Black parts of the county.

This lynching shook the country, and revealed the intense hate that still lies just beneath the surface of our society. Instead of following the story in a typical American media fashion, Akerman allows the story to slowly unfold on its own. Long, panning shots set the stage, creating the world of Jasper. Patient interviews reveal the thoughts and emotions of the local townspeople. Akerman's access to their lives, including being allowed to film Byrd's funeral, allows her to tell the tale in a pensive and beautiful fashion.

Watch it before we meet... SUD is available for rent on Icarus Films' Vimeo, as well as Ovid, and for request on Kanopy, (there's even a version on YouTube). We’ve also chosen Lynne Sachs' "Sermons and Sacred Pictures," to accompany it, which is freely available on the filmmaker's YouTube and Vimeo, as well as on Ovid.

See y’all on October 4th to discuss. Join the discussion via Streamyard: www.luminaltheater.org/film-club-2

06/30/2026

A huge thank you once more for all those who made it out to our 6/18 screening of VOICES OF THE GODS in Baltimore!

The film’s director Al Santana () was in the house alongside his wife, famed photographer Marilyn Nance, bringing the 2K restoration of their film to our eager Juneteenth week audience, alongside the director of preceding short film A BIRTH OF REMEMBRANCE, Sharayna Ashanti Christmas (), who were In conversation with one another following their films.

Extra special thanks to our co-presenters at Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute () and our venue/screening partners The SNF Parkway Theatre (), and ultimate kudos to our associate programmer Jenné Afiya Matthews () for organizing this all!

Extra thanks to photographer Quintin Parson

06/26/2026

A warm thank you once more to everyone who came out last Saturday to celebrate Juneteenth with us at our screening of TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (TCB - The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing)

First comment as soon as we ended was, "We want to see it again." And that's all we've been hearing since. So we're going to make that happen sometime this Fall. Look out for that.

But back to the day. What a special night, what a special film. Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez...y'all have outdone yourselves. This is an instant classic.

Miss Toni. For those who didn't know you, you are a revelation. Your life and work embodies what we should be doing and how we should be living. We were already grateful for you, now we are even more so.

06/19/2026

Outdoors this Saturday night and in celebration of Juneteenth and liberation, join us for the new documentary TCB: THE TONI CADE BAMBARA SCHOOL OF ORGANIZING, on the groundbreaking writer, filmmaker, cultural worker, and a warrior for social justice who helped define Black Arts and feminist movements through the present day.

We open the screening with an extra-special video introduction by lauded Columbia, SC poet & TCB mentee, the one and only Nikky Finney (who is is also featured in the documentary) and a pre-screening conversation with Dr. Todd Shaw, Associate Professor and Interim Chair, Dept. of African American Studies - Univ. of South Carolina on Bambara’s legacy of cultural grassroots activism.

Tickets are still available so we hope you can join us for this special event underneath the stars.

Go to our Facebook event page or https://www.luminaltheater.org/events

06/18/2026

We are hyped to present Sharayna Ashanti’s A BIRTH OF REMEMBRANCE as the preceding film to tonight’s VOICES OF THE GODS 2k restoration screening in Baltimore.

Sharayna Ashanti Christmas () is a mother , womanist , abolitionist and cultural worker who creates at the center of who she is. As a dancer , producer , filmmaker and assemblage artist, her work explores the movement in relation to how our bodies connect with the subconscious to tell stories of our past , present and unseen.Trained in ballet at the Dance Theatre of Harlem from the age of three, she has performed works by Ulysses Dove, Robert Garland, and Geoffrey Holder, grounding her performance practice in over 25 years of embodied study.

In 2004, Christmas founded Muse 360, a youth development organization that has shaped two decades of intergenerational cultural work through Rayn Fall Dance Studio, New Generation Scholars Institute, and the Spark of Genius program. Expanding her vision in 2017, she launched Necessary Tomorrows, a platform supporting Black and POC artists through advocacy, curation, and funding. Both initiatives reflect her commitment to cultivating spaces that bridge history and futurity while nurturing collective imagination.

Her work has been recognized nationally and internationally, and she continues to create from a place rooted in womanist practice, abolitionist values, and cultural regeneration. Christmas holds a degree in Finance and Business from Morgan State University.

06/16/2026

It'll be a grand night of culture at our VOICES OF THE GODS screening this Thurs 6/18 in Baltimore, made extra special with our main guest Al Santana, the director of “Voices…” (tix still available at https://snfparkway.org/)

Over the past 40+ years, Al Santana has worked as a visual artist, independent filmmaker, cinematographer, and still photographer on numerous award-winning documentaries, public affairs films and videos including In The Spirit of Peace (2002) Military Option (2005), One People (2007), Blues People (2007), and Salty Dog Blues (2012).

His feature documentary “Voices of The Gods” (1985) premiered at the 1985 Margaret Mead International Film Festival and went on to screen at festivals in France, Italy, Burkina Faso, Canada, and is currently housed in the permanent collection of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Research Center in Black Culture and numerous colleges, universities and museums.

Al holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the CUNY BA program in Sociology and Film, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from National University in Digital Cinema. Alongside his wife, the illustrious photographer Marilyn Nance - whose work also appears in “Voices…” he has also raised two talented artistic children whose work is experimental, eclectic and fun. We featured the entire family in our 2023 program Kindred Conversations: THE SANTANA PROJECT.

06/12/2026

Join us Sat. June 20 for "TCB - The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing", the new documentary that explores the life and legacy of writer and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara.

Her groundbreaking literary works, including The Black Woman (1970), Gorilla, My Love (1972), and The Salt Eaters (1980), helped define Black Arts and feminist movements through the present day.

The documentary film is structured as a series of lessons on cultural organizing, gleaned from Bambara's life through archival footage and shared by her friends, colleagues and students through personal testimonies.

We'll be outdoors for this S.C. premiere done at and in conjunction with ; we'll be having a pre-screening discussion on art and activism with locals from both disciplines, as well as an extra-special video intro by one of the notables (a local!) who appears in the film!

This is the perfect way to celebrate Juneteenth this year.

Tix available at LuminalTheater.org/events

06/11/2026

Very important event regarding the future of our media landscape. Voice your concerns and learn more at the Atlanta roundtable.
Only a few tickets left!

Join us for a roundtable discussion where you can learn more about Paramount/WBD merger and what it will do to your job or business.

06/10/2026

On June 18th in Baltimore, join us for VOICES OF THE GODS - presented in remastered 2K - the 1985 documentary that explores the preservation of Yoruba and other West African religious traditions among descendants of enslaved Africans here in the USA. The film focuses on how these belief systems were preserved within the African diaspora despite centuries of suppression and misunderstanding.

A significant portion of the documentary was filmed at Oyotunji African Village, a Yoruba-inspired community in South Carolina that has played an important role in reviving traditional African religious practices in the U.S.

“Voices…” is notable because it presents African spiritual traditions from the perspective of practitioners themselves and critiques how mainstream American media historically portrayed religions such as Vodun, Yoruba religion, and related traditions.

But don’t believe us…get a peek through this trailer and in-person on June 18th at the SNF Parkway Theatre in Baltimore. Tix available at https://snfparkway.org/ (and via our bio link) and director Al Santana will be present alongside some special guests.

Presented by The Luminal Theater alongside the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute () and our venue/screening partners The SNF Parkway Theatre, and preceded by Baltimore filmmaker Sharayna Ashanti’s BIRTH OF REMEMBRANCE.

06/05/2026

We're proud to host the South Carolina premiere of "TCB - The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing", a new documentary that explores the life and legacy of writer and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara.

Our June 20th outdoor screning will be at and in conjunction with ; we'll be having a pre-screening discussion on art and activism with locals from both disciplines, as well as an extra-special video introduction that we'll announce next week!

This is the perfect way to celebrate Juneteenth this year.

Tix available at LuminalTheater.org/events