The Houston Cinema Arts Festival has become a proving ground for filmmakers determined to make art rooted in community rather than industry trends.
This year, under the theme HERE, the festival turns its focus toward the voices shaping Houston’s evolving identity, especially Black filmmakers and creatives who use film as a means to reclaim home, heritage, and self-definition.
Katie Creeggan-Ríos is Executive Director of the Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS). She says the theme explores the concept of being present, influenced by experience and navigating uncertainty, pushing boundaries, challenging conventions, and embracing the unexpected.
“We live in such a chaotic time,” she said. “It’s hard to remember to be present and grounded. HERE asks how we can let our art speak through the chaos.”
As national film centers like Los Angeles and New York struggle with access and gatekeeping, Houston’s creative ecosystem offers something different: Openness.
“We’re scrappier, more community-focused,” Creeggan-Ríos said. “In Houston, we lift each other up. We might be a scenic painter, a props person, and a photographer, all at once. We wear many hats, and that’s what sets this city apart.”
It’s a mindset that has produced a network of storytellers who thrive on collaboration and cultural exchange. HCAS has leaned into that culture through community partnerships that anchor the festival in historically Black neighborhoods. One example is the organization’s deep relationship with the DeLUXE Theater in the Fifth Ward, where HCAS helped raise funds for new projection equipment, allowing the restored theater to host film screenings again.
In Houston, we lift each other up. We might be a scenic painter, a props person, and a photographer, all at once. We wear many hats, and that’s what sets this city apart.
Katie Creeggan-Ríos
But the work continues long after the festival ends. The society co-founded the Houston Media Conference and now hosts a monthly local filmmaker showcase at River Oaks Theatre, providing Houston artists with steady opportunities to screen their work and connect.
“We started the monthly showcase because so many locals asked where they could show their films,” she said. “We realized it couldn’t just happen once a year. It had to be constant.”
That sense of continuity is also central to Autumn Johnson’s curatorial vision. As a Marketing Associate and curator for this year’s festival, Johnson brings a fresh perspective through her short film block, What Color Is the Soil?: Reclaiming Home Through the Arts. The program showcases short films that explore the intersection of culture, identity, and land, and how art can serve as a tool for resistance and renewal.
“In this politically and socially tense moment, I wanted to explore how our relationship to home influences what we create,” Johnson said. “Houston is a place where people come, leave, and return. I wanted to show how that cycle shapes our art.”
This year’s festival features over 50 events, workshops, short film blocks, live music, an arts market, and a photography exhibition, including poet and cultural worker KB Brookins, who will lead the Freedom House Workshop in collaboration with the ACLU of Texas. The session invites participants to map their activism as a “house,” using art as the foundation of each room.
Johnson’s programming also highlights the work of Black filmmakers whose films push against the boundaries of conventional storytelling. Among them are Kahlil Joseph’s Black News: Terms and Conditions, and Brittany Shine’s Seeds, both of which examine culture, identity, and media through distinctly Black perspectives.
She started as a programming assistant last year, Johnson said the festival’s openness to emerging voices mirrors the community it serves.
“You don’t need to leave Houston to make an impact,” she said. “This festival shows that your story matters, right where you are.”
For more information:
Houston Cinema Arts Society (HCAS)
Date: November 6–16, 2025
Location: Various locations
Website: www.cinemahtx.org/hcaf/
