Reel Sisters Tea and Cinema Presented by African Voices with image of a cup of tea
National Endowment for the Arts

Reel Sisters Tea & Cinema Series is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, New York State Council on the Arts, City Council members Laurie Cumbo and Farah Louis.

Welcome to our Reel Sisters Tea & Cinema Series™

African Voices is launching our popular Reel Sisters Tea & Cinema Series online! Tea & Cinema is a curated series created by Reel Sisters to showcase films at different venues such as libraries, art galleries and community centers. Our live screenings and talks offer intimate settings where people can chat with the directors and cast of independent films while enjoying tea and pastries.

We are inviting you to join us online and share your favorite cafe or tea spot in the comment section below. Please leave comments on the film and any questions you have for the directors and producing teams of Al-Sit, Heading South and The Girl Who Burned The Night.

Thank you for joining our Tea & Cinema Chat on Sept. 22, 2021. If you missed the event, the chat is posted above!

Al-Sit

Director: Suzannah Mirghani
Narrative, 20 min.
In a cotton-farming village in Sudan, 15-year-old Nafisa has a crush on Babiker, but her parents have arranged her marriage to Nadir, a young Sudanese businessman living abroad. Nafisa’s grandmother Al-Sit, the powerful village matriarch, has her own plans for Nafisa's future. But can Nafisa choose for herself?

Heading South

Director: Yuan Yuan
Narrative, 20 min.
Eight years old girl Chasuna travels from her home on grassland to visit her father who lives in the big city. However, during her father’s birthday party, Chasuna finds out he has remarried to a Chinese woman. Chasuna has to learn how to accept her as part of the family.

The Girl Who Burned The Night

Director: Sara Mesfer
Narrative, 24 min.
In an engagement night, a denied request pushes two sisters to their edge. Salsabel, a 13 years old Saudi girl who fights to go to the grocery shop in a city where it’s socially unacceptable experiences hardship in her relationship with her older sister Wasan who the fear of the night's darkness and refuses to go. Later that day, the two sisters find a way to their desires by burning the night.

About our Filmmakers

Sara

Sara Mesfer

Sara Mesfer is Saudi filmmaker based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia who has a bachelor degree in Visual and Digital Production from Effat University, a female-only university provides the first filmmaking program in the country. Sara worked on different local shorts and features that participated in local and international festivals. Her produced short “Sadeya Left Sultan” won the jury award in Saudi film festival in (2019), and screened in Malmo Arab film festival. After that, Sara wrote/directed her first short “The Girls who Burned the Night” in (2019).

Suzannah

Suzannah Mirghani

Suzannah Mirghani is a writer, researcher, and independent filmmaker. She is a media studies and museum studies graduate. Mixed-race Sudanese and Russian, she is interested in stories about the complexity of identity. Suzannah is the writer, director, and producer of AL-SIT (2020, Sudan/Qatar), which won 18 international awards, including three Academy Award qualifying prizes in 2021: Best of Fest at LA Shorts; Grand Prix at Tampere Film Festival; and Best Short Film at Bronze Lens.

YuanYuan

Yuan Yuan

Yuan Yuan is a Chinese writer and director, currently a thesis MFA student at New York University, where she is an Ang Lee Scholar and Spike Lee Film Production Follow. Yuan’s short films has screened at many festivals worldwide, and won Grand Prize at 25th DGA Student Film Award, Jury Award at HKIFF, and Best Student Film at Aspen ShortsFest and Palm Springs International Film Festival etc. Currently, Yuan Yuan is developing her first feature script.

Please leave comments on the short films and any questions you have for the directors and producing teams of Al-Sit, Heading South and The Girl Who Burned The Night.

1 thought on “Tea & Cinema – 2021”

  1. Hello:

    There is a grave typo in your website’s copy. Please see below:

    Reel Sisters Tea & Cinema Series is supported, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council, New York State Council on the Arts, City Council members Laurie Cuomo….

    It should read Laurie CUMBO, not Cuomo. Just letting you know so that this is corrected.

    Thank you.

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