Dates & times
All times are local to the venue · America/Chicago
- From 2:15 PM
- From 6:00 PM
Saturday, November 7 at 2:15 p.m.; Sunday, November 8 at 6:00 p.m. The official page lists an 88-minute program; it does not give an end time. Sunday's post-screening conversation is followed by Harvest House in the Siskel Film Center Cafe.
Black Harvest Film Festival’s EVERYDAY PEOPLE: Five Shorts in Chicago
A stolen screenplay, a closely held recipe and a courtroom defense place very different pressures on community in Black Harvest Film Festival’s EVERYDAY PEOPLE. Five short films move from Seattle to Saint Lucia and from sacred spaces to political history, showing belonging through relationships and practices that people carry forward.
Community takes more than one form
The program links stories that do not share a single setting or scale. Some turn inward to faith and family remembrance; others consider political struggle or cultural forms sustained across generations. That range gives the films a useful point of connection: community can be built through a gathering, preserved in a story or expressed through a practice.
Dawit Borrows’s 24-minute SUN OF THE VALLEY begins with a missing script: a young filmmaker searches across Seattle after it is stolen. In Nic Ashe’s 23-minute THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO…, a Black queer and trans community looks to music and sacred space in its pursuit of faith and belonging.
Further reading: EVERYDAY PEOPLE – Black Harvest Film Festival ↗
A recipe held in memory
Cameron Clay’s 15-minute PEPPA SAUCE shifts the focus to Saint Lucia. Oral history and Super 8 imagery honor a St. Lucian matriarch and her secret recipe, bringing family remembrance together with a particular way of recording it. The film is listed in English and Kwéyòl and uses both digital and Super 8 formats.
Across the program, the listed languages are English, Amharic and Kwéyòl, with English subtitles. The overall presentation is digital; PEPPA SAUCE is the exception that also incorporates Super 8.
Further reading: EVERYDAY PEOPLE – Black Harvest Film Festival ↗
From a courtroom to a tradition in motion
The last two shorts put political history and cultural continuity alongside those intimate stories. Dominique R. Draper’s 15-minute THE DAY YOU FIND YOUR NAME centers Afeni Shakur, pregnant and defending herself in court against 189 felony charges at the height of the Black Panther movement.
Nia Rae Lambert’s 11-minute RHYTHMS OF DIVINITY considers stepping and strolling as practices shaped within Black Greek-letter culture, connecting their expression to a longer history that crosses the Atlantic. Its place in the program broadens the idea of remembrance beyond family testimony: here, the subject is a shared form of expression carried through Black Greek-letter traditions.
Further reading: EVERYDAY PEOPLE – Black Harvest Film Festival ↗
Five films, 88 minutes
The shorts range from 11 to 24 minutes. Their subjects connect family memory and spiritual belonging with political history and traditions carried across the Black diaspora.
Saturday, November 7 · Gene Siskel Film Center
- EVERYDAY PEOPLE screening
Sunday, November 8 · Gene Siskel Film Center
- EVERYDAY PEOPLE screening; post-screening conversation with Chi Achebe and Troy Martin, followed by Harvest House in the Siskel Film Center Cafe, hosted by Black Film Club Collective
Choose a screening and plan around the full program
Two dates; Sunday has additional events
The screenings are Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, at 2:15 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. The program runs 88 minutes. Do312 lists a 2:15–4:15 p.m. Saturday event window; the festival schedule gives the screening start times.
On Sunday, a post-screening conversation and a café gathering follow the film. Their additional timing is not listed.
Black Harvest Film Festival: EVERYDAY PEOPLE in Chicago ↗ · EVERYDAY PEOPLE – Black Harvest Film Festival ↗
Compare the listed prices before checkout
The festival’s regular-screening rates are $14 general admission, $9 for non-SAIC students and seniors, $8 for Gene Siskel Film Center members and SAIC staff and faculty, and $5 for SAIC students. Do312 lists $15.50 general admission and a group rate of $11.50 per ticket for groups of at least 15. Because the general-admission prices differ, check the amount displayed for this screening at checkout.
TICKETS & PASSES – Black Harvest Film Festival ↗ · Black Harvest Film Festival: EVERYDAY PEOPLE in Chicago ↗
Passes cover different combinations of films
The six-film pass costs $60 general admission or $36 for members and covers six regular festival screenings, not Opening Night. The Opening Night plus five-film pass costs $80 general admission or $55 for members and covers Opening Night plus five additional screenings.
Each pass is for one person: it can be used for one ticket per title, not multiple tickets to the same screening. Pass holders can reserve online or redeem at the box office without booking in advance; reservations and redemptions cannot be handled by phone. The festival said tickets and pass reservations opened with the lineup on Oct. 17, 2026, and recommends reserving early because it expects many screenings to sell out.
Getting to the Gene Siskel Film Center
Find the event venue
The screenings are at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 North State Street, between Lake and Randolph, across from the Chicago Theatre. The Film Center recommends arriving 20 minutes early. Its box office opens 30 minutes before the day’s first screening and closes 15 minutes after the final showtime begins.
Siskel Film Center | Chicago's Home for Great Cinema | Directions & Parking ↗
CTA and other ways to arrive
The Film Center says it is near major CTA train lines and several bus lines; its directions page recommends using a mapping service for door-to-door CTA directions. Do312’s venue guide identifies the Lake Red Line station as nearby and reports that the State/Lake elevated station was closed for reconstruction as of Jan. 5, 2026, suggesting Clark/Lake or Washington/Wabash for Loop elevated service. Check current CTA information before setting out.
The venue also notes that the neighborhood is served by taxis and that the Film Center is near the Chicago Lakefront Trail and Divvy bike stations. Map links can calculate directions from your own starting point.
Siskel Film Center | Chicago's Home for Great Cinema | Directions & Parking ↗ · Gene Siskel Film Center, Upcoming Events in Chicago on Do312 ↗
Parking
Validated parking is available at InterPark Self-Park, 20 E. Randolph Street, for $20 for up to 16 hours. Get the validation ticket from the Film Center box office before the screening. The venue also lists limited street parking after 6 p.m. on Lake Street and Wabash Avenue.
Siskel Film Center | Chicago's Home for Great Cinema | Directions & Parking ↗
Before you make a plan
How long is EVERYDAY PEOPLE?
The five-film program is listed as 88 minutes. Do312 gives the Saturday event a 2:15–4:15 p.m. window; the festival schedule lists the screening start times.
EVERYDAY PEOPLE – Black Harvest Film Festival ↗ · Black Harvest Film Festival: EVERYDAY PEOPLE in Chicago ↗
What happens after the Sunday screening?
A post-screening conversation with Chi Achebe and Troy Martin is followed by Harvest House, a café celebration hosted by Black Film Club Collective.
Are there open captions?
No. The Film Center says this presentation will not have open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped, and accessibility requests can be sent to [email protected].
Can a festival pass be shared?
No. Each pass is for one person and covers one ticket per title; it cannot be used to reserve multiple tickets to the same screening.
Location & Google Maps
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 North State Street, Chicago, IL 60601
Map search by venue and address. Check the organiser’s entrance details before travelling.