Letter of Gratitude +
2021 Recap

2021 is quickly heading to a close, and the BCC team has so much to share with our family of supporters, community partners+ friends, to celebrate and be grateful for the year that was and look forward to many exciting things in 2022. 

Our 2021 Programs + Shout Outs

Through 2021, BCC screened 20 films, with existing and new local partner organizations in our mission of amplifying Black films within local and diasporic communities. Given how small our team is, this was a surprising year of robust programming of art, narrative, experimental, and horror films, with a critical look at cinematic styles in music videos too! Can't believe how much we pushed through!

We continue to build, sustain, and nurture relationships with artists, writers, and cultural workers who believed in us and entrusted us to hold their work with care.  It was our privilege and honor to work with each of you. 

THANK YOU to our Program Partners + Advisors

Elisheba Johnson, Inye Wokoma, Jazmyn Scott, Mita Mahato, Ian Siporin, Lorna Velasco, 

Susan Harewood, Lauren Berliner, Christopher Day, Amanda Donnan, Dustin Kasper. 

THANK YOU to all Artists + Speakers we worked with

Adama Delphine Fawundu, Crystal Z Campbell, Kamari Bright, Mia Imani Harrison, Devan Kirk, Cassidy Correia, Rell Be Free, Maxine Walters, Steve ‘Urchin’ Wilson, Wayne Chen, Martine Chartrand, Claire Grimm, Shalom Simmons, Shelby Corely, Matt Fuller, Brandon Huddleston, Kersten Schatz, Tarun Jain, Vinnie Ann Bose, Dr. Nalini Iyer, Sade Sellers, Isabella Price, Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman.  

2021 Programs Recap:

HOME: Stories of beLonging, May 13th  - virtual screening of contemporary art films + artist convo engaging themes of place, identity-shapeshifting, and home as belonging to each other.

Black Spatial Elegance, June 27 – July 7th  - a virtual event of presentations and panels celebrating visual + sonic storytelling of scores of music videos, music films,  + graphic design artists in Seattle and across diaspora - all held together in a joyful collection of playlists:

SHAPESHIFTERS – a film program for Black Refractions, Aug 14th  - in-person screening of contemporary art films in the Frye Art Museum auditorium featuring film that "explore ruin, reclamation, and survivalist methods of existence across multiple spaces of catastrophe and hope, dreaming and invention, and simple acts of playfulness and love."

Between the Frames, Sept 1 – 30th   - in-person installation at the Buoyant in downtown Redmond + Virtual screening focusing on films situated in the Black North American and South Asian contexts, linked by themes of memory, acceptance, self-love, and the complexities of the diasporic experience.

AFTER DARK, Oct 28th – 30th  - our annual Horror/Sci-Fi watch party series with films from African + Black Diasporic filmmakers, writers, and artists that delve into the creative, spooky, and speculative world of horror and sci-fi storytelling.

Our new and sustained organization partners for 2021 include Wa Na Wari, LANGSTON Seattle, City of Redmond, Frye Art Museum, Henry Art Gallery, and Seattle International Film Festival.

Infinite Gratitude for you all!!

Fiscal Sponsorship, Grants + Publishing

Northwest Film Forum became our Fiscal Sponsor this year, making us eligible for public grants!

See their Fiscal Sponsee Highlight of BCC here!

The Creative Equity Grant from Seattle Foundation will be a game changer in enabling us to earmark funds to grow our team and expand our community investments in the next 2 years.

See our full cohort of grantees here!

We look forward to supporting and working with you!

(Re)imagined Possibilities: The Resilience of the Black Woman Griot, Zeinabu irene Davis in Conversation. 

We had our first article based on an interview with scholar and renowned filmmaker, Zeinabu irene Davis published in Feminist Media Histories, University of California Press, Jan 2021. Edited by Dr. Jennifer Bean.

If you don't subscribe to Feminist Media Histories - Read Article in full  HERE

We also launched our NEW website – designed by Mateo!!! 

It is gorgeous, even if we do say so ourselves.

Please check it out at www.blackcinemacollective.org

Retreat

It actually happened!!!! The ONE time we collectively rested at a 3 Day retreat in the lovely town of La Conner at the Country Inn.

We ate, we slept, we chatted late into the night, we took long walks on pier, and we rested some more. This getaway nourished our bodies, our minds, and our spirits!

Coming Up

We’ll be working quietly in the background until Spring 2022 to reset and improve the structures of our organization,  welcoming new team members, prepping our programs, inviting guest curators, and supporting emerging film artists and young talent. 

We’re looking forward to mindfully evolving our mission while continuing to honor our relationships – because YOU are our biggest source of support, and we could not even dream of doing the work we do without you.   

It's GIVING SEASON and may our cups overfloweth!

 Even with our grants received this year, Black Cinema Collective continues to be a collective labor of love.  (READ: We’re still working in a mostly volunteer capacity alongside our day jobs,

because we  believe in this work.)

Your gift – in any amount - helps us to continue to build BCC and offer free programming in 2022.