Pumzi is a 23 minute long science fiction film about futuristic Africa, 35 years after World War III, dubbed “The Water War.” Nature is extinct. Asha lives and works as a museum curator in one of the indoor communities set up by the Maitu Council. When she receives a box in the mail containing soil, she plants an old seed in it and the seed starts to germinate. Asha seeks permission from the ruling Council to investigate the possibility of life on the outside, but her request is denied. She breaks out of the inside community and enters the dead and derelict outside to plant the growing seedling and possibly find life on the outside.

A special reading and discussion with Nnedi Okorafor, a Nigerian American author of science fiction novels for young adults will follow the screening of the film.

This is the third screening in The African Jubilee Film Festival, curated by Lynette Jackson and Floyd Webb, which runs from June 27 to December 5.

Learn more about the film festival. 

This event is co-sponsored by portoluz, The DuSable Museum of African American History, the African American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies departments at UIC, and The Public Square. portoluz is producer of the African Jubilee Film Festival.

Free and open to the public. For more information, call 312.413.2457. 

If you need a sign interpreter or require other arrangements to fully participate, please call 312.422.5580. For parking locations near the facility, please visit ChicagoParkingMap.com.