“An Afrofuturist reality where power, pleasure and resistance collide” – Melbourne News
Rashaad Newsome’s feature-length documentary Assembly will make its Australian premiere at the Sydney Film Festival on June 12th and 15th, 2025!
The 72nd Sydney Film Festival has unveiled its full 2025 lineup, featuring 201 films from 70 countries—including the Australian premiere of Assembly, directed and produced by Rashaad Newsome and Johnny Symons.
At the heart of Assembly is Newsome’s most ambitious exhibition to date, originally staged at New York’s iconic Park Avenue Armory. The film offers a behind-the-scenes look at the monumental creative journey—from choreographing with international dancers who merge voguing with traditional movement, to a spiritual pilgrimage to Ghana to commune with ancestors. The result is an immersive Black queer utopia that brings together poets, musicians, dancers, and the exhibition’s striking centerpiece: a 30-foot-tall non-binary AI named Being.
Merging documentary, performance, art, and activism, Assembly defies easy categorization. It is a joyful, defiant tribute to Black trans women and to voguing as a global art form—an electrifying vision of liberation, collaboration, and radical imagination.
Rashaad Newsome’s feature-length documentary Assembly will make its Canadian premiere at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto, Canada on April 29th and May 2nd, 2025!
From April 24 to May 4, the 2025 Hot Docs Festival will present 113 documentaries from 47 countries to audiences in Toronto cinemas. The 11-day festival will feature 169 live screenings on 5 screens at two venues across the city, with over 100 live filmmaker Q&As. For more info, click here!
Rashaad Newsome’s Assembly, will have its international premiere at the BFI Flare Film Festival in London on March 22nd and 23rd, 2025, at BFI Southbank.
BFI Flare is London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival showcasing the best new queer cinema from around the globe.
The 39th edition of BFI Flare takes place March 19-30, 2025, at BFI Southbank. For more info, click here!
Rashaad Newsome’s feature length documentary film Assembly makes its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival
Directors/Producers/Screenwriters: Rashaad Newsome, Johnny Symons
Visionary artist Rashaad Newsome merges art, AI, and performance to transform a former military facility into a Black queer utopia. Through immersive storytelling and visuals, the film explores how creativity can heal, unite, and spark liberation.