What happens when a film festival programs two shorts about memory side by side? At Chicago's Black Harvest Film Festival, the answer is MEMORY & STYLE: SOJOURN & CANDY PAINT, a single-ticket program screening November 14. According to Choose Chicago, the pairing brings together two formally inventive works that explore identity, memory, and the ways Black life is archived through personal and collective expression.
The program runs 92 minutes, is in English, and screens in digital format. It is part of the festival's 32nd year, held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center from November 6–15, 2026. General admission costs $15.50, with a group rate of $11.50 per ticket for parties of at least 15 guests. For related coverage, see Project Hail Mary (film) showtimes: how the theatrical release unfolded.
What is the Black Harvest Film Festival?
Black Harvest is Chicago's annual showcase for Black film across the diaspora. Per Choose Chicago, it was born from an urgent need to celebrate the Black experience, uniting filmmakers and audiences around the power of Black cinema. The festival curates both short and feature-length films, presenting influential auteurs and emerging filmmakers of color side by side. It highlights emerging and established talents as well as historical narratives.
For a newcomer, that mix matters. A festival ticket can sit a veteran director next to a first-time filmmaker on the same calendar, which is exactly what this November 14 program does with its two directors.
What is SOJOURN about?
SOJOURN is directed by Allen-Golder Carpenter. According to Choose Chicago, it follows a protagonist who awakens without memory and embarks on a journey across worlds to recover the fragments of their identity. The premise turns memory into structure: the film's drama comes from what is missing, and from the search to piece a self back together. This connects to our earlier piece, Iron Lung (film) showtimes: the self-distributed horror run explained.
That makes SOJOURN the program's narrative half. It asks a question through story — who are you when the record of yourself is gone?
What is CANDY PAINT about?
CANDY PAINT is co-directed by Nia Imani and Adeshola Makinde. Choose Chicago describes it as an exuberant archival collage celebrating Black style, adornment, and creative expression. Where SOJOURN works through a protagonist, CANDY PAINT works through assembled images: style itself becomes the archive.
Put the two together and the program's idea comes into focus. Choose Chicago states that the pairing considers memory as something continually reconstructed through culture, community, and self-definition. Memory here is not a fixed record. It is rebuilt every time a community dresses, gathers, and makes images of itself.
Why the pairing works as an argument
The festival's own framing, via Choose Chicago, is that together these films reveal the power of image-making to preserve history, honor lineage, and imagine new futures. That is the explainer's key term: the archive. One film dramatizes losing it; the other celebrates building it. The 2026 program is credited to directors Allen-Golder Carpenter, Nia Imani, and Adeshola Makinde, made in the USA.
Readers following the broader premiere calendar can find more seasonal coverage in our premieres section, and readers tracking festival lineups beyond Chicago can browse our festivals coverage.
How to get tickets and passes
Individual tickets and festival passes are available for purchase, according to Choose Chicago. Two pass options are listed:
- Opening Night plus five screenings: $80 for the general public, $55 for members.
- Six regular screenings: $60 for the general public, $36 for members.
For a single visit, the November 14 program's $15.50 general admission is the straightforward choice, and the $11.50 group rate rewards larger parties.
Who this program is for
This pairing suits viewers who like films that announce their form — a memory quest on one side, a collage on the other — and who want to see how two young directors answer the same question from opposite directions. It also suits anyone curious about what a 32-year-old festival looks like in the present tense: new work, new names, and a audience that keeps the tradition of Black cinema in continuous circulation.
What remains unknown from the available materials is the exact runtime split between the two films and any further festival lineup details beyond the dates, venue, and pass structure listed above. For scheduling decisions, the festival's own listing is the source to check.
