The Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival (GCUFF) is celebrating its 13th year. 

“It was really inspired by my visit to the Cleveland International Film Festival because I didn’t see enough people of color or films of color,” said GCUFF Executive Director Donna Dabbs. “We started with just an idea to be able to highlight more stories in our community because a lot of the things we see in public and in the media aren’t really highlighting our community in the best light, and we know our community is full of rich stories of joy and laughter and comedy and tragedy.”

The theme this year is Culture Unlocked.

NYU Tisch School of the Arts Senior Jasmine Brooks, 21, is looking forward to the event. Her film, Heaven Nevaeh, has been accepted to the festival. The Elyria native is looking forward to the opportunity.

“Not only is this like a pretty prestigious festival but for it to also be in my hometown, I get to come back and like show my film and share it with the people, honestly that like honestly it’s about is really, really cool, I’m super, super blessed,” she said.

“I wanted to make something that was for people like me which is basically like Black people that grew up in mostly white communities and kind of go into what that feels like, what that can be like and communicating it in a way that everybody could understand.”

The opening night for GCUFF is Thursday, Sept. 19, at Karamu House, but the heart of the festival is Cleveland’s Shaker Square. Closing night is Friday, Sept. 27, at Atlas Lakeshore in Euclid.

More than 60 films will be shown over nine days.