Since 2017, Be Reel Black Cinema Club has been amplifying Black filmmakers from across the diaspora telling our stories through indie, archival, and previously inaccessible films one monthly meetup at a time.
In the height of #OscarsSoWhite, I noticed something very peculiar. Across all social media feeds, folks were calling for more mainstream recognition of Black cinematic storytelling and putting stakeholders to task. However, as a member of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and frequent attendee of filmhouses in NYC, I noticed that at screenings of Black films, I was either the only Black person in the audience or the only Black millennial present. Understanding that the disconnect may be awareness, I nabbed 10 tickets, blasted it all over social media, and the Be Reel Black Cinema Club was born. Since then, this group of anti-cinefiles has crisscrossed the boroughs being transported to every corner of the African diaspora via archival, classic, and contemporary independent film.
The British are Coming!!
As for me and my house, we don't do Diaspora Wars, so BRBCC is over the moon about BAM's weeklong celebration of Black British cinema, programmed by one of my faves Ashley Clark!
Deciding on a film for our first meetup of the month, was tough, but THE PASSION OF REMEMBRANCE it issssss! This landmark first feature by Sankofa Film and Video Collective, a key member of the 1980s British film workshop movemen, is a formally groundbreaking portrait of Britain through the eyes of one Black family at the intersections of racism, homophobia and sexism across three decades.
Get your free tickets for our May 4th meetup below and be sure to checkout the entire series.
Timed to anticipate the run of a new 4K restoration of Horace Ové’s path-breaking 1975 drama Pressure, this revelatory and wide-ranging program collects over two decades worth of vital, rarely-screened work in which filmmakers of African and Caribbean heritage in Britain, alongside some committed outsiders, began to create powerfully resonant images of Black people on screen. From raw social-realist portraits to thrillingly experimental, form-bending flourishes, the films in this series represent an invigorating, politically purposeful, and still-relevant rebellion against a society and media perpetually guilty of marginalizing and misrepresenting Black people.
—Ashley Clark, Series Programmer
THUH 2022 Juneteenth Film Festival
Thuh Juneteenth Film Festival is a fertile ground for education, intergenerational fellowship, and intracultural sharing through visual media. By sharing a day’s worth of films, we intend to dive into these questions alongside those who join us for the festival:
What does the future look like to one that has never been allowed to dream? How does one build up a people with foreign or newly crafted tools? In what ways does ancestral memory and desires for coming generations inform the now?
On June 19, 1865, enslaved Africans in Galveston, TX received word that they were free, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. With that newfound freedom came the opportunity to build a new self-determined world. Through the inaugural Thuh Juneteenth Film Festival, we seek to amplify the work of independent filmmakers from the African Diaspora who paint portraits of the world as they see it.
This year’s theme, Stepping Into Tomorrow, (inspired by the Donald Byrd tune) harkens to the realities and imaginings of a future without bounds, abundant in possibilities.
Festival Co-Directors: Jacob Gray (Founder), Stephanye Watts, Daniel De Boulay
Films:
Killer of Sheep - Charles Burnett
Compensation - Zeinabu Irene Davis
T - Keisha Rae Witherspoon
Negro’s 6 - Livingston Matthews and Jack McKainj
I Snuck Off The Slave Ship - Lonnie Holley and Cyrus Moussavi
Faya Dayi - Jessica Beshir
SEE YA ON THE WEB!
Missed any of our Cinema Chats? You’re in luck because they’re all on your fancy schmancy YouTube page!
Skip around our page to also see some classic throwback films and talks by our favorite filmmakers.
For IG lovers, check out our Live series “Cinema For Brunch” which goes down bi-monthly on Sunday afternoons.
PARTNERS
Brooklyn Academy of Music
New York African Film Festival
Black Film Space
Film @ Lincoln Center
CineSpeak
Philadelphia Film Society
Manhattan Theater Club
Blackstar Film Festival
Honey Chile
Urbanworld Film Festiva;
Film Forum
Kino Lorber
Dedza Films
Vertical Entertainment
Janus Films
Criterion
NEON
Our mission is to champion Black visual storytelling. Black filmmakers, step to the front! We are here to amplify you! Please reach out for screening opportunities and press support.
TESTIMONIALS
Becoming a member of the Be Reel Black Cinema Club was so important to me as a Black woman interested in the arts. It enabled not only a space to meet other people interested in films, but I could discuss movies made for us, by us with a group of people hip the nuances of race, gender, class, and it's intersections. The space Stephanye has cultivated is so special to me and I've met some lifelong friends because of it. I also love supporting Black films that are programmed throughout NYC. The Cinema Club does an excellent jobs spotlighting those screenings and then making sure to support them, perpetuating a programming landscape that reflects who I am.” - Tayler, BRBCC member, filmmaker, programmer
It's been an absolute pleasure to welcome Stephanye Watts and the Be Reel Black Cinema Club to BAM on a regular basis. The collective's enthusiasm is as infectious as its commitment to ensuring that Black millennials experience and enjoy the best in Black film—like us, they believe in challenging tired and exclusionary notions of who gets to feel included in the world of serious cinema appreciation. BRBCC is a great example of DIY attitude, and it's a thrill to see Stephanye leading the way for a new generation of Black cinephiles who are engaged with the art of film, and want to look good, be social, and have fun while doing so! “ - Ashley Clark, (Director of Film Programming) + Gina Duncan, (Vice President Film and Strategic Programming), Brooklyn Academy of Music (now Curatorial Director at Criterion + President at BAM respectively)
“I have been a member of BRBCC for about a year. Joining the film club came at an opportune time as I had just settled in to living in New York City; it gave me an opportunity to meet Black people who really love Black film. There's so much crazy discourse about the lack of this and that representation of Black people on film and it reveals a lack of digging in the archive. In BRBCC, you get as much of the excellent work our foreparents left as the glossy contemporary new work.” - Nailah, BRBCC member