Afro-Punk

<div>Afro-Punk (2003, dir. James Spooner)</div><div>The Afro-Punk documentary was the first film to ask Black punks about their lives. The</div><div>conversation hasn't ended since. Directed by James Spooner and released in 2003, the film</div><div>follows Black punks and hardcore kids who existed at the margins of two worlds, invisible in</div><div>mainstream Black culture and uncentered in the predominantly white alternative scenes they</div><div>pioneered. Through intimate interviews, personal testimony, and four protagonists whose lives</div><div>anchor the film, the film asks a simple question with no simple answer: what does it mean to</div><div>be Black and punk?</div><div>The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen at more</div><div>than 300 festivals, colleges, and community spaces worldwide. It was made without</div><div>institutional backing on a self-financed budget, driven entirely by the communities it</div><div>documented. That DIY origin became part of its identity.</div><div>Afro-Punk did not just document a subculture, it named one. The film is widely credited with</div><div>galvanizing a dispersed community into a recognizable movement, and directly inspired what</div><div>would become the AFROPUNK Festival, one of the largest celebrations of Black alternative</div><div>culture in the world. Spooner has since departed from the festival, but the film that started it</div><div>all remains his.</div><div>In 2026, more than two decades after its release, a Kickstarter campaign to restore Afro-Punk</div><div>surpassed its funding goal by more than three times, a measure of how much the film still</div><div>means to the people who grew up with it. The restoration completes the professional color</div><div>correction and sound mix that were financially out of reach during the original production,</div><div>realizing the presentation the film always deserved while preserving the rawness that made it</div><div>matter.</div><div>This is Afro-Punk as it was always intended to be seen.</div><div><br></div><div>Presented by Pleasure Savior.</div>DocumentaryPT1H6M2026-12-02USen
Ralph Darden
Matt Davis
Maya Glick
James Spooner
Ayanna Mackins
Afro-Punk"Afro-Punk"

Showtimes

The Broad Theater