BlackStar Projects and Xfinity announced the inaugural class of their partnership to uplift Black, Brown and Indigenous filmmakers for the Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab. The 2021 class includes Bettina Escauriza, Jasmine Lynea, Julian Turner, and Xenia Matthews.
The year-long fellowship supports and uplifts Black, Brown and Indigenous emerging and mid-career artists and filmmakers in the Greater Philadelphia area by providing access to equipment, funding, and mentorship, over the course of a year. BlackStar will act as an executive producer on the short films created during the Lab, providing feedback on works in progress and advice for working with crew, while Xfinity provided a major portion of the funding for production. The films will premiere at the next BlackStar Film Festival in August 2022 and will be featured on the Black Experience on Xfinity Channel. Additionally, shortlisted candidates who did not receive a fellowship this cycle will receive one-on-one consultation from industry representatives courtesy of Kickstarter.
The program is open to both emerging and mid-career filmmakers seeking to create short-format projects. Applications for next year’s Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab will open in August 2022.
Escauriza’s project, Tonight, We Eat Flowers, will center on a person who sells hold music to companies, employing magical realism and the absurd to disrupt expectations. Jasmine Lynea’s hybrid film, The Love Machine, will be set in 2036 North Philadelphia in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and will focus on cultivating a new perspective on love. Julian Turner’s short The Big Three, will engage a conversation surrounding Black representation and artistic ownership through a musical setting. Xenia Matthew’s film Ourika! will utilize surrealism, animation and multimedia elements to further the ongoing conversation on the colonization of Black women’s bodies in art and material culture.
“I am really impressed by the sheer diversity and boldness of this year’s applications.” said Maori Karmael Holmes, Artistic Director and CEO of BlackStar, “Our finalists represent just a fraction of the incredible talent in our city, and we are thrilled to be able to support their vision for new work in this way.”
“At Xfinity, we strive to facilitate the discovery of diverse emerging content creators like the filmmakers in this lab and provide a platform for them to showcase their talent,” said Keesha Boyd, Executive Director, Multicultural Video & Entertainment, Xfinity Consumer Services. “We’re thrilled to work with the BlackStar team to further our company-wide mission of investing in and showcasing authentic culture driven stories.”
After the films premiere at the BlackStar Film Festival, each will be featured prominently on Black Experience on Xfinity, a first-of-its-kind destination of Black entertainment, movies, TV shows, news and more. It features high-quality content from many of Xfinity’s existing network partners, while investing millions of dollars in fostering and showcasing emerging Black content creators like the filmmaker lab participants. 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
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