Event details

screening of the internationally acclaimed film Sugar Island, followed by a conversation with its award- winning director, Johanné Gomez Terrero. Sugar Island is among the most important films produced in the Caribbean over the last decade, winning numerous awards worldwide since its 2024 release. It is a coming- of- age story that explores the realities faced by girls forced into adulthood through teenage pregnancy. The film follows 14- year- old Makenya, who lives in a batey (sugarcane community) as she navigates her community's struggles for labor rights. The film offers a powerful meditation on labor, Black life, spirituality, and the afterlives of slavery and colonialism in the Caribbean, resonating deeply with ongoing scholarly conversations in Women' s, Black, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies.

The post- screening discussion will offer a unique opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and the broader community to engage directly with Gomez Terrero's creative process, interdisciplinary approach, and the film's significant contributions. Additionally, it will serve as a forum to foster dialogue on Black diasporic histories, aesthetics, and resistance across time, while spotlighting one of the most accomplished and creative Caribbean and Afro- diasporic voices in visual media.