One of the highlights of this year’s shorts program is black enuf* by Carrie Hawks. An amalgam of traditional documentary type interviews, archival images and animation, black enuf* does a skillful job of simultaneously exploring what it means to be Black, bisexual and gender fluid in today’s society. Comments Hawks, ”I’m really happy that AfroPop is not only showing different [sexual] orientations but also different ways of being Black because one thing I noticed when I started doing this project is that a lot of people identifying that there is not one type of Blackness. We all are solid and have different ways of expressing ourselves.” black enuf* is the latest in AfroPop’s growing library of LGBT films that focus on queer lives in every corner of the globe. Others include the utterly charming Tchindas from season eight, that looks at the transgender community on the island of Cape Verde, off the northwest coast of Africa, as they and the rest of the town get ready for the annual Carnival. Season seven’s Abominable Crime takes a heartbreaking look at the daily violence gay people in Jamaica face. Abominable Crime also interestingly sheds light on the role that LGBT identity plays in many people deciding to leave their native lands and immigrate into North America and Europe where though there is still intolerance, there are laws on the books which aim to protect LGBT individuals. Other films in this season’s shorts program include Swimmin’ Lesson in which a young father recalls the fate of his son during Hurricane Katrina and Dressed Like Kings, an exciting examination of the male oswenka pageant in South Africa on the tenth anniversary of the abolishment of apartheid. The AfroPop shorts program premiered Monday, February 18 on the World Channel, but viewers can also stream the season finale and other AfroPoP episodes on worldchannel.org, PBS.org and PBS apps for iOS, Android, Apple TV and more.

Swimmin' Lesson