Black Harvest Film Festival

CTL-E-6239 · Event · other · 1994–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07433 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6239.

The Black Harvest Film Festival is Chicago's annual showcase for films that celebrate, explore, and share the Black, African American, and African Diaspora experience, presented by the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1994. This is a Chicago record: the festival was created to answer a cultural need in Chicago, in the words of its longtime programming leadership, and it remains centered on Chicago premieres, local filmmakers, and community programming alongside international Black cinema. Its 30th annual edition ran in person at the Film Center from November 8 to 21, 2024, curated by Jada-Amina and Nick Leffel. The festival's 20th edition ran August 1–28, 2014, with a strong slate of Chicago-made work. Following the death in 2022 of co-founder and consultant Sergio Mims, the Film Center established the Sergio Mims Fund for Black Excellence in Filmmaking to support the next generation of Black filmmakers. Across three decades the festival has functioned as the Midwest's principal theatrical home for Black independent film.

The record

• Also known as: Black Harvest

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 6 — 747 Program, Wave 13; sixth Scan Tail packet at the founder’s 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (script + hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Black Harvest Film Festival entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities). The screen’s one containment hit — American Black Film Festival (CTL-E-5637) — was hand-resolved as a false positive: a different festival; Black Harvest is the Gene Siskel Film Center’s Chicago festival. ID CTL-E-6239 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — scan string #2525 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json), banked in the Scan Tail Wave 5 reserve (Appendix E), re-screened CLEAR against the live graph at 3,910 entities by this wave. The supply supplied the name only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: CHICAGO record — founded and housed in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center; Chicago-first scope is the record's basis (PLACE-001 alongside MEDIA-001). Vital status: Active recurring festival — 30th annual edition held November 8–21, 2024 at the Gene Siskel Film Center (Film Center's own About page, opened 2026-10-16). Founding year 1994 is stated by both opened sources. STATISTICS — Editions counted from the opened sources: 20th annual in 2014 (Reel Chicago, Aug. 1–28, 2014); 30th annual in 2024 (Film Center). CONFLICT SHOWN, NOT BLENDED: founding credit differs by source — the Film Center names Sergio Mims as co-founder and consultant, while Reel Chicago credits programming director Barbara Scharres with launching/founding the festival in 1994. Both attributions are recorded; the record asserts only the shared facts (1994, Film Center) without choosing a sole founder. MEDIA: photo HELD (HELD — candidate: the 30th Annual Black Harvest Film Festival key art / program imagery published on the Gene Siskel Film Center's festival About page. No image file was read at file level and NO license is claimed — PHOTO-001 verification deferred.); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6239-black-harvest-film-festival.svg); video HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (233 rows, grepped 2026-10-16). Near-miss named: Short #141, 'Negril Universal Film Festival: 34 Films on Seven Mile Beach' — a different festival in Jamaica, not Black Harvest.); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Non-place record; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record’s sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (233 rows, grepped 2026-10-16). Near-miss named: Short #14) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Relationships

• Chicago — held at
  The festival is held in person at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago and is described by the Film Center as Chicago's annual showcase (Film Center About page). Event→Locality is an allowed held_at pairing.

Sources

• Gene Siskel Film Center (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) — Black Harvest Film Festival, About (accessed 2026-10-16) — since 1994 the festival has been Chicago's annual showcase for films celebrating the Black, African American, and African Diaspora experience; 30th Annual festival held in person at the Gene Siskel Film Center November 8–21, 2024; co-founder and consultant Sergio Mims died in 2022 and the Sergio Mims Fund for Black Excellence in Filmmaking was established; 2024 curators Jada-Amina and Nick Leffel — https://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/blackharvest/about (primary source · build store)
• Reel Chicago — Siskel's Black Harvest, Aug. 1-28, best ever at 20 (July 31, 2014) (accessed 2026-10-16) — 20th Annual Black Harvest Film Festival ran Aug. 1–28, 2014 at the Siskel Center; programming director Barbara Scharres launched the festival in 1994 after the 1982–1993 Blacklight Film Festival dissolved; philosophy of presenting films of the African Diaspora with growing focus on Chicago and African American independent work — https://reelchicago.com/article/siskel-s-black-harvest-aug-1-28-best-ever-20140731/ (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6239 · Combined Graph record U-07433 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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