From Portland Community College: The worldview of many Americans is shaped in large part by what they see on the evening news — but the news can be an imperfect lens that provides an incomplete picture of peoples, events, and cultures. And too often, where the nations of Africa are concerned, the picture is even less complete.

In Portland, though, there is a remedy: the Cascade Festival of African Films (CFAF). Now in its 28th year, the festival offers audiences the rare and edifying opportunity to see Africa through the lenses of its own people. As always, the festival is free and open to the public.

The film festival features an exciting slate of new films, 25 in total, from across the African continent. The longest-running African film festival in the United States draws in excess of 4,000 attendees each year, and has become a fixture of Portland's cultural calendar. For complete screening information and director appearances, visit www.africanfilmfestival.org.

This year's festival opens with back-to-back screenings of "'76" (Nigeria, 2016), with visiting Nigerian director Izu Ojukwu in attendance. "'76" is a political thriller and love story — inspired by true events — set against the backdrop of an attempted 1976 military coup. It will show twice at the festival's opening-night gala at 6 and 9 p.m., Friday, Feb. 2, at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 N.E. Sandy Blvd.

Each screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director, and to cap off the opening night gala in style, a '70s-style Afrobeat dance party will follow the second screening of "'76," starting at 11:30 p.m. "'76" sets the tone for a vibrant CFAF calendar, which showcases more than two dozen feature, documentary, and short films throughout the month of February.

Most CFAF screenings take place at the Moriarty Auditorium at Portland Community College's Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St.

Each Saturday the screening is preceded by the popular "Saturday Social Hour," starting at 5 p.m., and features live music, food, and an African marketplace. Seventeen nations from across the African continent are represented in this year's lineup. This year's centerpiece film is "A Season in France," a 2017 French-Chadian co-production about a high school teacher who flees the war-torn Central African Republic for France.