The free film festival runs through Sunday, June 8. It celebrates African American filmmakers across the QCA region, nation and even globe. Here’s the schedule.
DAVENPORT, Iowa — The Pulling Focus African American Film Festival of the Quad Cities kicked off its third annual celebration Thursday night, bringing four days of cinema and community engagement to several venues across the region.
The festival runs from June 5 to June 8 and showcases short films created by local, regional, national and international filmmakers representing the Black Diaspora. It opened with a reception and filmmaker meet-and-greet at The Last Picture House, a boutique theater in downtown Davenport.
Founded by the Azubuike African American Council for the Arts, the festival grew out of the organization’s longstanding Urban Exposure Independent Film Project, a summer program that teaches filmmaking to underrepresented and at-risk youth.
“Our parent company, Azubuike, we’ve always had a film program called Urban Exposure,” Gaye Shannon-Burnett, co-founder of the festival, said. “We’ve had that for the last nine years. We’re going into our tenth year this summer, and we just thought it was time to offer something else—have a film festival as part of our platform.”
The first Pulling Focus festival was held in 2023 and continues to be offered free to the public, thanks to grant funding.
This year’s program features films in eight categories, including Best Short Film, Best Student Film, Best First-Time Filmmaker and a newly added Best Animated Short category. Organizers also introduced a new Open Competition Showcase, replacing the former Out-of-Competition section. Another highlight is the “Real Impact” category, which includes films that tackle important social messages.
“People have different interests,” Shannon-Burnett said. “We’ve gotten a lot of films and they’re pretty diverse, so you just kind of have to come out and see.”
Saturday’s screenings will include a special appearance by filmmaker David Fortune, recipient of the AT&T Tribeca Film Award. His film Color Book, about a father raising his son with Down syndrome, will be shown at the festival.
While opening night usually draws a large crowd, organizers hope to maintain turnout across the weekend.
“It’s a challenge to get them to turn out past opening night,” Shannon-Burnett said. “But we have five venues this year—the Last Picture House, TMBC Lincoln Center, Figge, Putnam Museum, and Seam on Wheels over in Rock Island.”
The festival closes Sunday with an awards ceremony honoring standout filmmakers. Held annually during the first full weekend in June, the event is timed to commemorate Juneteenth and celebrate the stories, creativity and resilience of the Black Diaspora.
You can find the full schedule here.
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