Season 17 of the acclaimed series AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, the Peabody Award-winning series by Black Public Media(BPM) and WORLD, opens this June 9 with an evocative exploration of the history of Suriname and the story of one woman who bears witness to a changing nation.
Through narration and archival footage, the documentary Mother Suriname, from director Tessa Leuwsha, details the complex and often overlooked history of the former Dutch colony through the story of Leuwsha’s grandmother, Fancelyne Cummings, and other Surinamese women like her. Premiering on June 9, Mother Suriname will be followed by The Changing Same by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster. A documentary short, The Changing Same captures the story of Marianna, Florida resident and poet L. Lamar Wilson as he mounts a marathon run in an attempt to call further attention to a 1934 lynching of a Black farmhand named Claude Neal.
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Mother Suriname launches a new and exciting season of AfroPoP which will include documentary and narrative films. This season’s lineup also includes Neptune Frost, an Afrofuturistic musical co-directed by actor-poet-musician Saul Williams (who can currently be seen in the blockbuster Sinners) and Anisia Uzeyman; Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night), an award-winning documentary by Nelson Makengo about residents in the Democratic Republic of Congo fighting to survive amidst the uneven distribution of electricity; and a special encore presentation of filmmaker Luchina Fisher’s Mama Gloria, a powerful documentary tracing the trailblazing life of transgender activist Gloria Allen.
Check out the season trailer here:
This 17th season includes four episodes comprising three documentaries, one narrative feature and two shorts (one short is a documentary, the other isa narrative film). All focus their lenses on people whose creativity, innovation and refusal to accept the status quo leads to new possibilities. The stories will transport public media viewers to remote regions of the African continent, rural and urban areas of the United States and Europe and imagined lands of the future.
Season 17 lineup also includes:
- Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night), an award-winning documentary feature by Nelson Makengo, on Monday, June 16. The film brings viewers to Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where residents are fighting to survive the turmoil and violence rising from the uneven distribution of electricity.
- Neptune Frost, an award-winning narrative feature by Uzeyman and Williams, on Monday, June 23. Set in the hilltops of Burundi, this Afrofuturist sci-fi musical follows a hacker collective led by an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner as they fight government profiteering off their nation’s natural resources. The film is followed by Tsutsue, a narrative short by Amartei Armar about two Ghanaian boys grappling with the drowning death of their beloved big brother.
- As a special bonus, WORLD will broadcast and stream on its website and YouTube channel an encore presentation of Mama Gloria (US documentary feature, 2020), directed by Luchina Fisher, on Monday, June 30. The film is an insightful portrait of Gloria Allen, a trailblazing Black transgender woman from Chicago, who started a charm school for young transgender people and fought to live a life of joy.
The series is executive produced by BPM Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz and WORLD (at GBH) Executive ProducerNina Chaudry. Denise A. Greene is series producer/director, Carol Bash is series co-producer/director and Ashton Pina is the series writer.
Viewers may also stream AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchangeon WORLD’s YouTube channel and on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS App.
Check out the season trailer here:
