Dialogue: Director C.S. Nicholson in attendance for post-screening Q&A. 

Sunday, September 27, 7:00 p.m. | The 33rd Chicago Underground Film Festival closes with the World Premiere of A STRANGER HAS NO EYES, an extraordinary new documentary from C. S. Nicholson, whose acclaimed short The Discoverer of the Discoverers screened at CUFF30.

A descendant of one of history's most notorious slave traders publicly confronts the legacy of her own family while navigating inherited power, contested land, and the unresolved wounds of colonial violence in contemporary Benin. When Martine de Souza unexpectedly becomes second-in-command of the powerful de Souza dynasty, she is forced to choose between protecting a legacy built on slavery or challenging it from within.

Structured through mesmerizing Vodun possession ceremonies in which ancestors and the enslaved return to inhabit the living, the film allows history, ritual, politics, and spiritual experience to occupy the same space. Rather than explaining the afterlife of empire, it inhabits its contradictions, revealing how power, memory, belief, and identity continue to shape the present.

A haunting and formally adventurous work that transforms documentary into an experience as mysterious as its subject, A STRANGER HAS NO EYES is a powerful meditation on inheritance, history, and the enduring ghosts of colonialism.

"The aim is for the films to be open and inquisitive. I'm not interested in presenting a hypothesis." – C.S. Nicholson

Chicago Underground Film Festival Select Screenings | September 23–27, 2026

As the longest-running underground film festival in the world, CUFF continues to be one of the most innovative and accessible platforms for those interested in making, experiencing, and discussing underground art. Curated by CUFF. Film synopses provided by CUFF unless otherwise noted. Learn more and get tickets at cuff.org

The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu