BlackStar Projects, the premier organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown and Indigenous film and media artists, is proud to announce the inaugural North Star Fellows, in partnership with Points North Institute and the 2025 Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab Fellows, presented with lead support by Black Experience on Xfinity.
2024 North Star Fellows
- Lokotah Sanborn
- Imani Dennison
- Zac Manuel
- Rea Tajiri
2025 Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab Fellows
- Andrew Bilindabagabo
- Kristal Sotomayor
- Chisom Chieke
- Walé Oyéjidé
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These fellowships demonstrate BlackStar’s ongoing commitment to providing artists of color opportunities to create genre defying work, both locally and nationally.
The fellows will be recognized at BlackStar Film Festival during a media announcement event on Saturday, August 3 at 10:30am at The Daily Jawn Stage in the Kimmel Center.
“The selected fellows in both of these programs represent the abundance of talent and vision we saw in this year’s applications,” said Maori Karmael Holmes, Chief Executive and Artistic Officer of BlackStar, “We are thrilled to be able to support these artists and excited to be a part of their filmmaking journey.”
The 2024 BlackStar Film Festival is currently underway, running through August 4, at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, with additional screenings, festivities and events at various venues in Center City Philadelphia. 2024 marks the 13th annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of Black, Brown and Indigenous people from around the world.
Individual program tickets are on sale here, with festival passes also available here.
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North Star Fellowship
Presented in collaboration with Points North (home of the Camden International Film Festival), the North Star Fellowship supports four innovative Black, Brown and Indigenous media artists and filmmakers who are developing projects that span the latitudes of creative nonfiction through film, video installation, audio and photo-based work, immersive experiences and performance.
The North Star Fellows – Imani Dennison, Lokotah Sanborn, Rea Tajiri and Zac Manuel – will convene on two occasions; The Camden International Film Festival (September 9-15) and The William & Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar. Leading up to the 20th edition of the Camden International Film Festival, fellows gather for a one week creative retreat on the coast of Maine. A series of workshops, screenings and excursions create time and space for an ongoing critical dialogue about expanded documentary aesthetics, multidisciplinary creative processes, collaborative practices and more. Fellows are joined by curators, critics, filmmakers, multidisciplinary artists, and industry professionals, each of whom provides new perspectives on the Fellows’ creative process and the evolving universe of nonfiction.
The fellowship then recommences in the spring during the William & Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar, a gathering for Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists working in cinematic realms, proudly presented by BlackStar where the fellows will explore the technical and creative aspects of media-making, while having open dialogues about the about the successes and challenges of their work. The environment considers the intersection of cinema and visual arts and is exclusively designed for people of color to focus, rather than manage the added burden of representation.
“In partnership with the team at BlackStar, we’re so excited to support these artists for this year’s North Star Fellowship,” said Zeshawn Ali, Artist Programs Manager of Points North Institute. “Our goal has been to support artists whose work pushes the boundaries of creative nonfiction and these fellows demonstrate this fully. We were so inspired by how personal, expansive and bold their creative visions are and we can’t wait to see the ways they continue to develop their projects in this program.”
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Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab
BlackStar’s Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab is designed to uplift emerging and mid-career artists in the Greater Philadelphia area, supporting four projects by Black, Brown and Indigenous filmmakers with mentorship, funding and critical feedback over the course of a year-long program.
The four fellows – Andrew Bilindabagabo, Chisom Chieke, Kristal Sotomayor and Walé Oyéjidé – will receive mentorship throughout the fellowship including feedback on works-in-progress, advice on working with crew and career guidance from a working director. BlackStar will provide $50,000 in production funds and act as an executive producer on each short film created during the Lab, which will premiere at the BlackStar Film Festival in 2025.
The BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab is presented with lead support from Black Experience on Xfinity, with additional support from Independence Public Media Foundation, William Penn Foundation and Wyncote Foundation.
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ABOUT THE NORTH STAR FELLOWS
Lokotah Sanborn
Lokotah Sanborn (Director, he/him) (b. 1995) is an interdisciplinary artist and community organizer. He grew up on the Penobscot Nation reservation near Old Town, Maine. His art is grounded in historical analysis and shaped by his experience in community organizing for land return, cultural continuity and Indigenous sovereignty. Lokotah works for the documentary film team Sunlight Media Collective, an organization documenting stories at the intersection of Wabanaki rights and environmental justice. His work has been featured in museums and galleries across the U.S. Lokotah is currently based in Portland, Maine.
Imani Dennison
Imani Dennison (Director/Producer, she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and award-winning filmmaker born in Louisville, Kentucky. Imani graduated from Howard University, where they studied Political Science and Photography. Through image-based mediums and sound, Imani interrogates hidden and counter histories centered around folklore, fantasy and fable. Imani has created commissioned documentary works for PBS, Tribeca, ITVS and Procter & Gamble. Imani is a 2022 Tribeca Queen Collective Directing Program grantee, where they directed their award-winning creative nonfiction film, Bone Black: Midwives vs the South. IImani is currently a 2023 Chicken & Egg/POV grant recipient, which awarded them the opportunity to produce their short creative nonfiction film, The People Could Fly, about the ritual of roller- skating and how roller rinks emerged as sanctuaries for Black culture in Louisville, Kentucky, which will screen as part of the Embodied Shorts Program on Saturday, August 3 at 8pm at BlackStar Film Festival.
Zac Manuel
Zac Manuel (Director, he/him) is a director and cinematographer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Zac’s work in documentary draws from complex legacies of Southern identity, with particular interest in the impacts of history and inheritance on Black communities. Zac’s cinematography credits include Alone (Sundance 2017 Jury Award Winner of Best Nonfiction Film), Time (2021 Academy Award nominee for Best Feature Documentary), BuckJumping and Descendant, which was released on Netflix. His directing credits include This Body, released on PBS, Nonstop, which was acquired by the Criterion Channel and Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero, which was released on Max. Zac is currently directing the feature documentary, Ghetto Children, produced by XTR.
Rea Tajiri
Rea Tajiri (Director/Producer, she/her) is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist known for her poetic, non-traditional storytelling across installation, documentary, and experimental film. Showcasing early works at the Whitney Biennials of 1989, 1991 and 1993, her documentary History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige has received wide acclaim and is now featured on the Criterion Channel. Tajiri’s range extends from highlighting social movements in Yuri Kochiyama: Passion for Justice to her dramatic debut Strawberry Fields, which premiered at Venice. Wisdom Gone Wild premiered at BlackStar, winning two awards, played in International Competition at 2022 IDFA and screened at DOC NYC 2022. The film had its national broadcast debut on POV ’s Season 36. Tajiri is a recipient of the 2023 Chicken and Egg Award and a 2022 Ford Foundation/JustFilms Fellowship.
ABOUT THE PHILADELPHIA FILMMAKER LAB FELLOWS
Andrew Bilindabagabo
Andrew Bilindabagabo is a Rwandan-born filmmaker and educator. He is the co-founder of INGOMA Films. His work aims to make the specific global and the global specific, using art to highlight the worthy and uplift the marginalized. Andrew graduated from the Templeton Honors College at Eastern University, and has taught filmmaking at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and Lancaster Bible College. He has directed and produced narrative, commercial and documentary films around the world. Andrew’s work has appeared in Time, Forbes, ABC, New Times and more.
Kristal Sotomayor
Kristal Sotomayor is an acclaimed director, producer, journalist and curator based in Philadelphia. They are a 2023 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader Honoree and Rockwood Documentary Leadership Fellow. Kristal’s upcoming film Don’t Cry For Me All You Drag Queens has screened at DocLands Film Festival and GAZE International LGBTQIA Film Festival. Kristal is in-development on a slate of short and feature-length directorial projects through their company Sotomayor Productions. Kristal’s film Expanding Sanctuary has screened at St. Louis International Film Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival and will screen as part of the Statism Shorts Program on Thursday, August 1 at 1:30pm at BlackStar Film Festival.
Chisom Chieke
Chisom Chieke is a Nigerian-American multimedia artist and second-generation storyteller with a lifelong passion for narrative. She writes, directs and produces works that examine the past, present and future of radical love, acceptance and growth across diasporic communities. She is a 2nd Rounder for Sundance’s TV Development Track, Official Selection for the United We Heal Film Festival, OMWAN’EKHUI Film Program and Stowe Story Labs. Chisom is a member/alumna of the SuperSpecial TRIBE Writers’ Program.
Walé Oyéjidé
Walé Oyéjidé is a Nigerian-American filmmaker and designer who dispels bias with beauty. His narrative feature debut “BRAVO, BURKINA!” premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. His documentary “AFTER MIGRATION: CALABRIA” streamed on Criterion Channel.
His fashion designs appeared prominently in Marvel’s “BLACK PANTHER” and have been exhibited in museums around the globe. He employs fashion design as a vehicle to celebrate the perspectives of marginalized populations. Oyéjidé is a Fellow of: Sundance Feature Film, TED, Open Society Foundations and Google Image Equity. He is also a National Geographic Explorer.
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About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects is a non-profit organization, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival. They have since expanded into year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, the annual film festival, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of visual culture.
The organization creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Their programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.
This August marks the 13th annual BlackStar Film Festival, a four-day event, featuring selections of experimental films, imaginative narrative works and groundbreaking documentaries hosted across multiple venues. From August 1-4 in the center of Philadelphia, the festival will feature artist panels, parties and numerous opportunities for filmmakers and film enthusiasts to engage with a wide network of artists working across various mediums.
About Points North
The Points North Institute is a launching pad for the next generation of documentary artists and storytellers.
Points North builds a unique, interdisciplinary community of filmmakers, artists, journalists, industry leaders and local audiences, forming a creative hub where stories and talent are discovered, collaborations are born, and the future of nonfiction media is shaped.
Our programs include the annual Camden International Film Festival and Points North Forum, as well as a growing suite of artist development initiatives: retreats, residencies, workshops, and fellowships that nurture the careers of diverse nonfiction storytellers and help them develop a stronger artistic voice.
About Black Experience on Xfinity
Black Experience on Xfinity is a first-of-its-kind destination of Black entertainment, movies, TV shows, news and more. Available at home on Xfinity X1 and Flex, and on-the-go with the Xfinity Stream app, the Black Experience on Xfinity features original and high-quality content from Comcast NBCUniversal and other major studios, in addition to content from many of Xfinity’s existing network partners, at no additional cost to Xfinity customers. The channel is the only one of its kind endorsed by the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA), the world’s largest group of Black film critics that gives annual awards for excellence in film and television.