Alma Film Festival Joins Daily Border Crossings Podcast for Global Dialogue on Storytelling, Identity, and “The Necessity of Something New”
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Festival Director Anthony R. Page leads conversations with international filmmakers and cultural leaders from across 52 cities in 35 countries.
Atlanta, GA / Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic — The Alma Film Festival recently joined journalist and educator CS (Samantha) Fletcher’s podcast Daily Border Crossings for a special set of conversations exploring storytelling, identity, and the evolving role of cinema in shaping cultural dialogue across the world.
The discussions were guided by Anthony R. Page, Founder and Festival Director of the Alma Film Festival, who set the tone for both sessions by framing the conversations within the festival’s growing global network and its central theme: “The Necessity of Something New.”
The Alma Film Festival community now connects collaborators across 52 cities in 35 countries, bringing together filmmakers, scholars, artists, and cultural leaders committed to expanding how stories are told and who gets to tell them.
Hosted by Fletcher, Daily Border Crossings is a storytelling platform devoted to exploring the experiences of people who navigate identity and belonging in environments shaped by dominant cultural expectations. Through personal narratives and candid discussions, the podcast creates space for voices that are often overlooked or “othered,” while encouraging empathy, dialogue, and reflection.
The Alma Film Festival conversations reflected the festival’s broader mission: to build bridges between cultures through cinema and creative exchange.
Daily Border Crossings - Alma Film Festival Episode 1
The first conversation featured filmmakers and collaborators representing multiple regions of the Global South and diaspora communities.
Tumeli Tuqota, a filmmaker from Suva, Fiji, serves as President of the Fiji Film Collective and advocates for the growth of Fiji’s emerging film industry and opportunities for storytellers across the South Pacific.
Kurt Wright, a writer, director, and cinematographer from Kingston, Jamaica, brings a multidisciplinary approach to filmmaking rooted in Caribbean cultural storytelling traditions.
Katrin Kocsis, a documentary filmmaker and photographer originally from Toronto, Canada, has lived in Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic for seven years. During the Alma Film Festival, she is organizing a community walking tour designed to help visitors connect more deeply with the local culture and daily life of the Samaná Peninsula.
Ohema Divine, originally from Augusta, Georgia, and now based in The Gambia, serves as a trusted executive assistant and organizational lead supporting both the Alma Film Festival and the Afro-Mosaic Cinema Journal, helping coordinate communications and initiatives across the festival’s global network.
Daily Border Crossings - Alma Film Festival Episode 2
A second conversation brought together filmmakers, actors, and cultural leaders whose work bridges cinema, performance, and international creative collaboration.
Sydney Bryant, an award-winning filmmaker and founder of the production company Shades of Cinema, discussed a new global storytelling initiative inspired by Swiss filmmaker Rachel M’Bon’s film Je Suis Noire (Becoming a Black Woman). Bryant is directing an expanded project that will capture community conversations in multiple cities around the world, inviting women to reflect on what it means to be Black, Brown, or a woman of color within their cultural environments.
Diana Lynch-Grissett, founder and CEO of Soule Resort, spoke about the development of Grand Cay, a multi-use beachfront golf resort community in El Limón, Dominican Republic, scheduled to break ground later this year. Her company serves as a cornerstone partner of the Alma Film Festival, supporting the festival’s long-term cultural and economic engagement in the region.
Chike Ohanwe, an actor based in Helsinki, Finland, shared his experience becoming the first Black actor to win Finland’s prestigious Jussi Award, the country’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. Ohanwe also serves on the board of the Actique Global Performance Circle, an international creative laboratory exploring new approaches to acting and character development across cultures.
Khotso Maphathe, a filmmaker and arts advocate from Lesotho, discussed his work across Southern Africa as both a documentary and narrative filmmaker. He is also the founder of Space Agency, a multimedia company producing creative storytelling and branding projects for organizations throughout the region.
A Global Conversation
For Page, the conversation on Daily Border Crossings reflects the broader philosophy guiding the Alma Film Festival and its expanding global coalition.
“Our work is built on the belief that meaningful dialogue leads to meaningful change,” Page said. “When voices from different cultures sit together in conversation, we begin to see new possibilities for storytelling and collaboration. That is what we mean when we say there is a necessity for something new.”
The Alma Film Festival’s approach is grounded in its guiding framework:
Conversation → Connection → Community → Collaboration → Cultural Diplomacy → Collective Growth
Through platforms such as Daily Border Crossings, the festival continues to extend its reach—connecting artists and audiences across continents while exploring how cinema can serve as a bridge between cultures.
About the Alma Film Festival
The Alma Film Festival is an international gathering of filmmakers, scholars, and cultural leaders dedicated to showcasing cinema from the Global South and across the diaspora. Emphasizing deep engagement between filmmakers and audiences, the festival highlights stories that explore identity, culture, innovation, and social relevance.
About Daily Border Crossings
Daily Border Crossings (DBC) is a storytelling platform created by journalist and educator CS Fletcher. Drawing on nearly two decades of work in journalism, education, and race and identity dialogue, Fletcher uses the platform to amplify personal stories about navigating cultural expectations and identity in everyday life.
Through candid conversations and shared experiences, Daily Border Crossings creates space for empathy, reflection, and meaningful dialogue across communities.
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About the Alma Film Festival
The Alma Film Festival was created in response to structural gaps in the global film ecosystem. By design, it is a next-generation destination, experience-based film festival and cultural convening—one that functions as a cultural intelligence engine, bringing together filmmakers, scholars, technologists, artists, institutions, and audiences from across the Global South and its diasporas.
Rooted in scholarship, innovation, and deep audience engagement, Alma prioritizes fewer films with greater intentionality, creating space for meaningful dialogue, relationship-building, and long-term collaboration. With up to 80% of the program dedicated to Global South cinema, the festival showcases narrative features, documentaries, shorts, animation, experimental works, audio storytelling, and new media—centering films that engage cultural memory, social relevance, and creative innovation.
Programming is curated in partnership with global entities and agencies, reinforcing Alma’s role as a platform for shared authorship rather than extraction. Through this approach, the festival has cultivated a global community of stakeholders spanning more than 51 cities across 35 countries.
Beyond screenings, Alma integrates fellowships, symposia, performance laboratories, editorial platforms, and emerging technologies—positioning the festival not simply as an event, but as an ecosystem. Guided by the principle “The Necessity of Something New,” the Alma Film Festival advances cultural diplomacy, fosters cross-regional collaboration, and contributes to the development of sustainable creative economies worldwide.
At its core, the Alma Film Festival is a global gathering designed to nurture both ideas and people. It embraces a kaleidoscope of cultures while intentionally shifting the social dynamic from competition to connection—creating space for collaboration, understanding, and shared growth. Alma moves us from extraction to exchange, from visibility to value, and from presence to purpose.
We are doing something new.
There is a necessity for something new.
#AlmaFilmFestival
Festival Dates: March 17–22, 2026Location: Las Terrenas, Dominican RepublicFor more information, visit: www.almafilmfestival.com
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The Alma Film Festival was created in response to structural gaps in the global film ecosystem. By design, it is a next-generation destination, experience-based film festival and cultural convening—one that functions as a cultural intelligence engine, bringing together filmmakers, scholars, technologists, artists, institutions, and audiences from across the Global South and its diasporas.
Rooted in scholarship, innovation, and deep audience engagement, Alma prioritizes fewer films with greater intentionality, creating space for meaningful dialogue, relationship-building, and long-term collaboration. With up to 80% of the program dedicated to Global South cinema, the festival showcases narrative features, documentaries, shorts, animation, experimental works, audio storytelling, and new media—centering films that engage cultural memory, social relevance, and creative innovation.
Programming is curated in partnership with global entities and agencies, reinforcing Alma’s role as a platform for shared authorship rather than extraction. Through this approach, the festival has cultivated a global community of stakeholders spanning more than 51 cities across 35 countries.
Beyond screenings, Alma integrates fellowships, symposia, performance laboratories, editorial platforms, and emerging technologies—positioning the festival not simply as an event, but as an ecosystem. Guided by the principle “The Necessity of Something New,” the Alma Film Festival advances cultural diplomacy, fosters cross-regional collaboration, and contributes to the development of sustainable creative economies worldwide.
At its core, the Alma Film Festival is a global gathering designed to nurture both ideas and people. It embraces a kaleidoscope of cultures while intentionally shifting the social dynamic from competition to connection—creating space for collaboration, understanding, and shared growth. Alma moves us from extraction to exchange, from visibility to value, and from presence to purpose.
We are doing something new.
There is a necessity for something new.
#AlmaFilmFestival
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