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The 32^nd annual edition of the Massachusetts Multicultural Film Festival (MMFF), presented by the Interdepartmental Program in Film Studies, will kick off more than two months of films under the program “Documenting Dissent” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 19 with “Borderland: The Line Within” at Amherst Cinema. Admission is free, and director Pamela Yates and producer Paco de Onís will be present for the introduction and Q&A following the film.

Screening the best of new fiction, documentary and experimental filmmaking by national and international filmmakers, the MMFF is one of the nation’s longest-standing university-based, grant-funded film festivals. The festival seeks to cultivate an appreciation of film and the moving image, to inspire audiences to a deeper understanding of the world’s cultures through film, and to celebrate past, present and future achievements of international filmmaking within a university setting.

The festival’s slate of culturally diverse films is screened for the benefit of students, faculty and the interested public, with critical introductions by scholars and filmmakers. Including the Feb. 19 presentation of “Borderland” the 2025 edition of the festival will showcase a total of 10 films from around the world through April 26.

The guest curator of the 2025 MMFF is Jim Hicks, senior lecturer in comparative literature at UMass Amherst, and the assistant curator for the festival is Celia Sainz, a doctoral student in Spanish and Portuguese at UMass Amherst.
 

Schedule of Films

Feb. 19, 7 p.m. – Amherst Cinema
“Borderland: The Line Within”
2024; Directed by Pamela Yates – U.S. and Mexico, 110 min., English and Spanish w/ English subtitles

Feb. 26, 6:30 p.m. – ISOM 137 (Double feature)
“Pouring Water Over Troubled Oil”
2023; Directed by Nariman Massoumi – U.K. and Iran, 26 min., English

“Life at the Stream” 
1989; Directed by Peter Rocha – German Democratic Republic, 30 min., German w/ English subtitles

March 5, 6:30 p.m. – ISOM 137
“No Other Land”
2024; Directed by Basel Adra – Palestine and Israel, 92 min., Arabic, Hebrew and English
w/ English subtitles

March 19, 6:30 p.m. – ISOM 137
“Anima: My Father’s Dresses”
2022; Directed by Uli Decker – Germany, 95 min., German w/ English subtitles

March 26, 6:30 p.m. – ISOM 137
“My Imaginary Country”
2022; Directed by Patricio Guzman, Chile, 83 min., Spanish w/ English subtitles

April 2, 6:30 p.m. – ISOM 137
“Green Border”
2023; Directed by Agnieszka Holland, Poland and Belarus, 152 min., Polish, Arabic, English and French w/ English subtitles

April 9, 6:30 p.m. – ILC S240
“Dahomey”
2024; Directed by Mati Diop, France and Benin, 68 min., French, Fon and English w/ English subtitles

April 16, 6:30 p.m. – ISOM 137
“Sugarcane”
2024; Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat & Emily Kassie, Canada and the U.S., 107 min., English and Secwepemctsin w/ English subtitles

April 23, 6:30 p.m. – ISOM 137
“Selfie”
2019; Directed by Agostino Ferrente, Italy, 76 min., Italian w/ English subtitles
 

Major sponsors for the 2025 MMFF include the College of Humanities and Fine Arts; the UMass Art Council; the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences; the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; Amherst Cinema; and the Five College Film Council. Additional support is provided by the Amesbury Fund for Polish Language, the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies; the Edwin C. Gentzler Translation Center, the Department of Anthropology, the DEFA Film Library, the Five College French Faculty Seminar, the Five College Italian Faculty Seminar and UMass Repatriation.

More information about the festival can be found at websites.umass.edu/mmff.