Who Will Start Another Fire is a collection of nine films by emerging filmmakers from underrepresented communities around the world, presented by the new distribution initiative Dedza Films. Each of these stories is personal and distinctly told, but unified by themes of rebirth and growth. These films reject the idea of art for art's sake and do not exist in self-designed aesthetic vacuums. Their creation represents a necessary reckoning for their makers and so perhaps, too, their viewers. These are growing films by growing filmmakers, made for the future and the past, presented for you to experience for the first time now and again and again afterwards.

The title Who Will Start Another Fire alludes to Malawian poet Jack Mapanje’s 'Before Chilembwe Tree' (1981), in which he asks, “Who will start another fire?” By omitting the question mark and retaining his language, we propose an answer to his question.

Like Flying 

15 Minutes / USA / 2020

Directed by Peier Tracy Shen

A young Chinese-American girl navigates her childhood through her parents’ broken relationship.

*Directed by NFFTY 2020 Alum*

Family Tree 

17 Minutes / Uganda / 2020

Directed by Nicole Amani Magabo Kiggundu

We meet Nagawa, an 8 year old, whose day is almost like any other. When her mother Margaret picks up Nagawa from school, she doesn't have the heart to tell her daughter that her beloved father has been in a terrible accident.

Troublemaker 

11 Minutes / Nigeria / 2019

Directed by Olive Nwosu

Obi is hot, bored, and desperate for something to do. When his best friend, Emeka, gives him a packet of firecrackers, the boys decide to have some fun.

Polygraph

20 Minutes / Israel / 2020

Directed by Samira Saraya

Based on a true story, Yasmine, an openly lesbian Arab nurse living in Tel Aviv, finds out that her lover Or, an intelligence officer in the Israeli army, has been reporting on their relationship. 

The Lights Are On, No One’s Home 

10 Minutes / USA / 2020

Directed by Faye Ruiz

Mar, a trans woman who left home years ago, returns to her old neighborhood to find her childhood home. Upon her return, she’s confronted with the changes that gentrification has brought to the place she once knew so well. 

By Way of Canarsie

14 Minutes / USA / 2020

Directed by Lesley Steele & Emily Packer

A wandering portrait of an oft-neglected shoreline community, By Way of Canarsie imagines possible futures at odds with a peaceful present. 

The Rose of Manila

12 Minutes / Philippines / 2020

Directed by Alex Westfall

An imagining of the formative years of Imelda Marcos, who, as one half of the Marcos regime, would become infamous for embezzling billions from the country to sustain her extravagant lifestyle.

*Official Selection - NFFTY 2020*

Slip 

11 Minutes / USA / 2019

Directed by Nicole Otero

A woman arrives home at the end of a regular day, but as she begins to turn in for the night, she is overcome with a sense of restlessness. 

Not Black Enough 

19 Minutes / USA / 2020

Directed by Jermaine Manigault

A young African-American man struggling to find his identity within his community meets a persuasive relic of the past.