AURORA | The world regularly comes to Aurora, this time on the silver screen.

The third Colorado Diasporic Film Festival is coming to Aurora in August. As an initiative of the Askkanwii Filmmaking Incubator Hub, another Colorado-based nonprofit, the festival seeks to foster cross-cultural understanding and connection. 

Askkanwii was founded in 2013 by Ousmane Ndoye, a Senegalese-born filmmaker and educator. Ndoye has spearheaded the Diasporic Film Festival and stewarded it into partnerships with the Sundance Institute and the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media, as well as other film and media affinity groups in Colorado. 

Ndoye said he was inspired to create both Askkanwii and the Diasporic Film Festival as a means of facilitating cross-cultural dialogue. 

“I came here 29 years ago as an immigrant, and as a content creator,” Ndoye told the Sentinel. “My perspective was always to do films, write books, to tell stories. Then, when I came here, I realized that America has people from all over the world.” 

Ndoye said that a common experience for people from diasporic backgrounds was a “fear of being judged and limited.” 

“They stay in their comfort zone rather than coming out and sharing with our neighbors their own stories,” Ndoye said. “When I started college in 1999, to hone my English, I just wanted to write stories and films. That’s when I really observed networking… and realized that this country is built on a lot of immigrants, the diaspora, people from all over the world.” 

Ndoye said it was then he considered using the arts, and film specifically, as a means of community building and allowing people to “tell their own story”. 

“That way, maybe we can build more healthy communities, more understanding, and more bridge building,” Ndoye added. 

“That’s how [Askkanwii] came about, because I grew up in a village,” Ndoye said. “I always think, ‘What made a village strong?’ The village is strong because of its people living together in harmony, with respect, with tolerance, with communication, supporting one another…  What makes a community strong is that people can, regardless of their differences of race, upbringings, or beliefs, we can find ways to create spaces where everyone can feel a sense of belonging.” 

Ndoye said he took that mentality into creating events and activities aimed at cultural diplomacy. He started with diasporic movie nights, showcasing films from people with immigrant and diasporic backgrounds. Askkanwii has been providing filmmaking programs, support projects that range from documentaries to digital media, and hands-on filmmaking education and workforce development programs since 2013. The organization has held cultural exchanges, bringing artists from a variety of African countries to talk to film professionals in America and vice versa. 

Ndoye said that the third edition of this exchange, called the Cultural Diplomacy Beyond Borders-FEST, is planned for this coming December and will take filmmakers and content creators to his native Senegal. 

For the film festival itself, Ndoye wanted to evoke that feeling of community, cultural representation, and job opportunity and will take the form of the Diasporic FilmHub Village. The Colorado Diasporic Film Festival just announced its 2026 return from Aug 6 to Aug.9, with its opening night happening at the Sie Film Center in Denver and events continuing into the weekend across the Aurora Cultural Arts District. 

Many of the events for the film festival are slated for businesses across Aurora along Colfax, including Downtown Aurora Visual Arts, Roshni Healing Arts Sanctuary, Ollin Cafetzin, the Fox Arts Center, the Vintage Theatre, Banh and Butter Bakery Cafe, Society 303 Wine Bar, Cerebral Brewing, Lavictoria Incubator Kitchen, and Mango House Cultural Food Court. 

“Through the Diasporic FilmHub Village, we are creating a welcoming space where every culture has a seat at the table, every story matters, and every community can see itself reflected on screen,” Ndoye said. “By highlighting House of Kodo this year, we are also celebrating local Colorado filmmakers who are showing that powerful storytelling can begin here at home and travel across the world. 

This year, the CDFF will highlight House of Kodō, a Colorado-based film company created by Bruce Tetsuya and Drew Matsushima. The festival will be screening Tetsuya’s new short film, “End of Things”, following an ex-military project and his fears for his daughter’s safety after seeing a vision of the end of the world. 

The programming for the festival features projects from 21 different countries and 18 different languages. This year’s submissions include documentaries, feature films, short films, animation, experimental work, student films, children’s shorts, and web/new media projects. 

IF YOU GO

Dates: Aug 6 to Aug.9 

Place: Multiple venues

Details and tickets: cdfilmfestival.com. Tickets include a $15 food voucher for any of the festival’s partner businesses. 

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