The San Francisco Black Film Festival will be opening on June 15th and closing on June 18th. One of the dopest documentaries that will be screening is called “BlaxploItalian: 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema,” which looks at the perception of Black people, born in Italy, in the their national media as well as the cultural currents that it took to get them included in working in cinema and today’s fight against type casting, where Blacks are only given certain characters to play. Check out filmmaker Fred Kuwornu as he talks about his SF Black Film Fest officially selected film, and being a Jewish-Ghanian Italian-born filmmaker.

M.O.I. JR: Can you talk about the uniqueness of how you grew up? How did having a Jewish mother and a Ghanaian father in Italy affect you?

Fred Kuwornu: I was born and raised in Italy, in Bologna. When I was really young I was not comfortable with the diverse background of my family because I wanted to look like all the other Italian kids and have the same name italian name. This is because our Italian society was not open to be inclusive and diverse and at the time everything was homogeneous. That’s why I consider diversity in media and in the society as the most powerful tool to help and support the growing of kids’ identities, making them more confident with themselves.