At twentysomething, Clairandean Humphrey is the youngest filmmaker involved in the second annual Mpenzi: Black Women’s International Film and Video Festival this Friday at the Medical Sciences Building.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” she says. “I’m not used to public speaking, which we’ll be doing, so I’ll be challenging myself in that way.”

The festival, which is sponsored in part by U of T’s Women and Gender Studies Institute, will showcase seven short films by black women, with several of the filmmakers in attendance and a panel discussion. Humphrey will be showing a three-minute film entitled Connect the Dots.

“It’s [about] coming of age and realizing, are you doing things for yourself, or are you doing things for other people?” she says. “Am I really here because this is what I believe, or am I here because someone else told me this is how to be?”

Humphrey decided that she wanted to be part of the festival when she attended its first edition last year. She made her film over the summer, and thinks it is her most developed piece so far.

“Most of the stuff I did before is more experimental,” she says, “experimenting with different effects, editing styles.”

Humphrey, who considers herself more of a video artist than a filmmaker, funds her work with a part-time job.

“I haven’t applied for grants,” she says. “I try to keep them as low-budget as possible.”

The festival also includes an “alternative creation myth” called Lullaby, made by Sharon Lewis, former co-ordinator of the U of T Women’s Centre. d’bi young, a rising local actor (she was recently picked to join Soulpepper Theatre’s apprenticeship program) and dub poet, contributed Blood, a piece about a meeting in Havana between herself, activist Nehanda Abiodun and a Cuban hip-hip group called Las Krudas.

The final and longest film in the program is Breakin’ In: The Making of a Hip-Hop Dancer, by Elizabeth St. Philip. The documentary follows three aspiring dancers, and explains why women should study math and sciences more and pursue non-traditional trades.

Mpenzi starts at 6:30 (doors open at 5:30) p.m. The four-hour program includes a panel discussion and Q&A with the filmmakers in attendance. Tickets are $12 at the door or $10 in advance at several independent bookstores, including the Toronto Women’s Bookstore (73 Harbord St.).

For more info about the festival, see mpenzifilmfestival.tripod.com.