Letter of Gratitude 2022 + Recap
2022 has gone by in a flash, and just like that we are on the cusp of a new year! As always at this time of year, the BCC team has much to reflect on and acknowledge the many blessings that came our way. We were intentional in taking a pause in the first quarter of 2022 to regroup + realign + reexamine our organizational structures.
YEAR IN REVIEW
We returned in April, and were so excited to welcome two more members to our BCC fam.
Abbie Altamirano joined as BCC's newest Co-organizer, and Education Outreach Manager.
jas Moultrie, a PhD candidate in Communications at the University of Washington, Seattle, joined as BCC’s first intern supporting, and expanding our social media presence.
OUR 2022 PROGRAMS
2022 was a combination of BCC programs and co-presentations with existing and new local partner organizations who share our mission of amplifying Black films, artists, and filmmakers.
Our programs this year:
BLACK SONIC EVOLUTIONS - June 2022 – June is Black Music Month and this year our music-focused programming was offered as an online/social media series highlighting Black music documentaries and protest/revolution films, showing Black liberation histories and the sounds of powerful social and political change. Selections by Berette S Macaulay. Media design by jas moultrie.
AFTER DARK – October 29 - 31st, 2022 - our annual Horror/Sci-Fi film series went digital this year with social highlights featuring African + Black Diasporic filmmakers and writers who delve into the creative, spooky, and speculative world of horror and sci-fi storytelling including Saloum (Senegal, 2021), Mlungu Wam (South Africa, 2022), and Nanny (USA, 2022).
BETWEEN THE FRAMES: Screening + Discussion - Nov 10th, at Centro Cultural Mexicano in Redmond - The evening featured two short films, Kaala (Tarun Jain, India, 2019) and Rizo (Jeanette Dilone, USA, 2020) that explored and disrupted the deep connections between internalized racial biases and colorism within/outside spaces of color, particularly in Afro-Latino and South Asian contexts. Curated by Savita Krishnamoorthy. Media design by Chile Dulce.
PARTNER PRESENTATIONS
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL Satellite Screens - Jan 28th – 30th 2022, at Northwest Film Forum featuring Alice, Emergency, Marte Um (Mars One), Honk For Jesus Save Your Soul, and Every Day In Kaimuki.
BLACK QUEER STORY MONTH - Feb 10th – 18th 2022 - Black Queer Story Month featuring films focused on Black queer lives, communities, identities, and histories.
ABDERRAHMANE SISSAKO'S WORLDS - April 22nd – 26th, 2022 – Concluding a 3-day screening of four films by Sissako at Henry Art Gallery Auditorium and Northwest Film Forum, Berette S Macaulay and Dr. Maya Smith (Dir. of African Studies, UW) were in conversation with Sissako at Kane Hall, UW. Sissako is a filmmaker with a pressing concern for the moral ambiguities and linguistic complexities that evade representations of West Africa, while always seeking for the beauty and tenderness in quotidian life.
HERE+THERE or frequencies of the everyday - May 14th, 2022, Frye Art Museum Auditorium - A visual retelling of personal and creative responses to daily life, HERE + THERE spotlighted three short films from three regions including the UK in John Ogunmuyiwa’s Precious Hair & Beauty (2021); Jamaica in Adriaan Louw and Roberto Colombo’s WALK GOOD (2021); and Colombia in Angello Faccini and Guille Isa’s Dulce (2019). Curated by Chile Dulce.
TRAVESSIAS BRAZILIAN FILM FESTIVAL – May 19th – 29th 2022, Northwest Film Forum - Travessias Brazilian Film Festival gives marginalized voices the mic in discussions of race, sexuality, and governance with short films about the ebbs and flows of life, identity, and belonging
NEPTUNE FROST - June 10th - 29th 2022, Grand Illusion Cinema - From multi-hyphenate poet and artist Saul Williams, and Rwanda-born artist Anisia Uzeyman, Neptune Frost is an anti-colonialist sci-fi musical, a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends. Concluded with community discussion with Kamari Bright, Berette S Macaulay, Maya Smith, and Isabella L. Price.
we geh fambul all ‘bout: , …and this FOREVER – Sept 17th, WA NA WARI/Coyote Central – For Wa Na Wari's 2nd Annual Walk the Block Art Festival & Fundraiser, which is the biggest Black & Indigenous arts festival in the Northwest, the film program featuring Adama Delphine Fawundu’s Deep Inside I’m Blue and Sharita Towne’s Eu Amo Ser Negra (I Love Being Black). Curated by Berette S Macaulay.
SEATTLE QUEER FILM FESTIVAL - Oct 13th – 23rd 2022, Three Dollar Bill Cinema – For the third year in a row, we partnered with Seattle Queer Film Festival, which offers a diverse slate of 150 queer films from around the world while providing opportunity to build community and centering queer artists of all kinds.
SHOUT OUTS
We are again thankful for all our partnerships and supporters with whom we were able to offer rich programming for our shared communities. It was our privilege and honor to work with each of you.
Partners + Supporters
Elisheba Johnson and Inye Wokoma at Wa Na Wari, Kathleen Woodard and Caitlin at Simpson Center for the Humanities, Michelle Cheng (formerly) at Frye Art Museum, Mita Mahato and Ian Siporin (formerly) at Henry Art Gallery, Rana San, Christopher Day, and Hana Peoples at Northwest Film Forum, Brian Alter and Hubie Dolan at Grand Illusion Cinema, Maddy Szmidt at Three Dollar Bill Cinema, Angie Hinojos and Carlos Jimenez at Centro Cultural Mexicano.
ARTISTS + SPEAKERS + ADVISORS
Abderrahmane Sissako, John Ogunmuyiwa, Adriaan Louw and Roberto Colombo, Angello Faccini and Guille Isa, Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, Travis Scott, Lee Hirsch, Alex Gibney, Sophie, Fiennes, Mel Stuart, Robert Philipson, Maya Smith, Isabella L. Price, Kamari Bright, Adama Delphine Fawundu, Sharita Towne, Nikyatu Jusu, Jean Luc Herbulot and Pamela Diop, Chumisa Cosa, Nosipho Mtebe, Kamvalethu Jonas Raziya, Sanda Shandu, Khanyiso Kenqa, Chris Gxalaba, Peggy Tunyiswa, Sizwe Ginger Lubengu, Siya Sikawuti, Steve Larter, Jenna Cato Bass and Babalwa Baartman, Dani Denial, Gabriel Martin, Tarun Jain, Jeanette Dilone, Diana Ruiz, Susan Harewood, Lauren Berliner.
OUR 2022 RETREAT!!
We were fortunate to go on a team retreat for the second year thanks to our Creative Equity grant from Seattle Foundation.
We hung out, cooked, and ate together, took walks along Chuckanut Drive, Fairhaven, and in Downtown Bellingham.
We dreamed and dived into big picture imagination work.
We did some co-thinking on future programming, education outreach, microgrants and scholarships, writer invitations, and volunteer support.
And we cruised up the Snohomish River and enjoyed a beautiful sunset that was so restorative for our spirits!
It's GIVING SEASON and may our cups overfloweth!
BCC is a collective labor of love! We continue to work in a mostly volunteer capacity because we believe in and are deeply committed to this work.
In this giving season we’ve set our goal to raise $5000 toward this before the end of the year.
Please remember us this season. Your gift *in any amount* helps us to continue supporting Black artists and sharing their work within our local and diasporic communities.
Help us sustain this in 2023!
Thank you for staying on this journey with us!
From BCC to you and your loved ones, we wish you an abundance of peace, rest, and some fun as we close the chapter on 2022!
*Warm Love & Light*
BCC Team
Abbie, Berette, jas, Mateo, Savita