Mission
BlackStar creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside of the confines of genre. We do this by producing year-round programs including film screenings, exhibitions, an annual film festival, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab, and a journal of visual culture. These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders, and distributors.
We prioritize visionary work that is experimental in its aesthetics, content, and form and builds on the work of elders and ancestors to imagine a new world. We elevate artists who are overlooked, invisibilized or misunderstood and celebrate the wide spectrum of aesthetics, storytelling and experiences that they bring. We bring that work to new audiences as well as place it in dialog with other past and contemporary work. And, we curate every aspect of our events to be intentional community building efforts, connecting diverse audiences in a Black-led space centered on joy and thriving.
Vision
BlackStar is building a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture. We create fertile spaces for ongoing imagination, learning and community building for Black, Brown and Indigenous artists to have the resources, support and shine we need to create visionary work.
We are building solidarity amongst Black, Brown and Indigenous artists globally to create this world and thrive together.
Values
Building Community
Bringing people together is the fundamental base-building needed to build movements for social change, strengthen the webs of connections between different individuals and organizations, and together rectify the inequities caused by systems of oppression. By building community, we are building new means of reclaiming power and mobilizing the resources artists need to thrive.
Care
We create spaces in which we are all kindred and cared for. Our care manifests in forms from fair work practices for our staff to providing childcare for filmmakers to devoting resources to language translation.
Intersectionality
We bring an analysis of race, gender and power to everything we do. We recognize that there is no singular Black, Brown or Indigenous experience. We uplift work that embodies these intersections, continually widening the global cultural frames we use to understand power and how we relate to one another.
Liberation
Diversity and representation are not guiding us, liberation is. Our work is centered on shifting power and defying the perceived limits of imagination. We need artists to be the architects of a world we’re trying to make through these experiments of narration.
Reparative
We build on the collective legacies of our elders and ancestors and carry their visions forward while building anew. Through our programs we are understanding the experiences of those before us, healing ourselves and our trauma, and creating a different world for future generations to follow in.
Rigor
We are committed to uplifting work that is outside the confines of genre, creating new definitions of aesthetics, storytelling and craft. Audiences engage with our programs knowing there will be a consistent level of rigor in our curatorial practices.
Solidarity
We build solidarity amongst Black, Brown and Indigenous artists to create mutual support and work to center our voices, together. We are challenging a history of divide and conquer and instead coming together, building solidarity amongst Black, Brown and Indigenous creators.
Board of Directors
- Amanda Branson Gill Co-Founder, Kilo Films
Treasurer - André Robert Lee President & Founder, Many Things Productions
- Denise C. Beek VP of Original Storytelling, Represent Justice
Co-Chair - Eric Bai Strategic Partnerships Manager, Airwallex
- Jamila Farwell
- Judilee Reed Chief Executive Officer, United States Artists
- Maori Karmael Holmes Chief Executive & Artistic Officer, BlackStar
- Sekou Campbell Partner, Pierson Ferdinand LLP
Co-Chair - Sunanda Ghosh Associate Executive Director,
Forman Arts Initiative - Tayyib Smith Principal, Little Giant, Smith&Roller, Pipeline Philly
Secretary - Ted Passon President, All Ages Productions
Opportunities
Address
BlackStar
1901 South 9th Street
Bok 414
Philadelphia, PA 19148