Black Girls Film Camp
Black Girls Film Camp (USA) provides a FREE, national, and hybrid 16-week experience (held once a year) where high school Black girls across the country pitch a story idea, and a final ten are selected to have their short film project produced by the program. Over 200 Black girls across the country applied for the 2023 camp and 10 finalists were selected to direct and develop their own short films. The camp is an incubator for the 10 girls and each of their films.
Participants receive free cameras and tech equipment, free software, a personal production team of exemplary Black women creatives (editor and production coach) contracted out by the camp, an all-expense paid weekend retreat in LA, and free workshops from Black women who are award-winning filmmakers and Ph.D. scholars. Films created by the teen girls and their production teams are showcased during Black Girls Film Camp Premiere Weekend over the summer and at film festivals (i.e. 2021 Mill Valley Film Festival, Essence Film Festival, Bentonville Film Festival) and college events (i.e. Emory University, USC, UC Davis, Georgia Tech, UNCC, etc.) in the US throughout the year. Following the 16-week camp, alumni participate in international outreach events throughout the year to share their stories with the world and support other aspiring young Black girl filmmakers.
Another allure to the camp has been the amazing award-winning filmmakers that are featured speakers over the 16-week period. Speakers for the camp over the last 3 years have included Academy Award winner, Karen Toliver, TV Executive and Writer, Kelly Edwards, Black Feminist Scholar, Brittney Cooper and the Crunk Feminist Collective, Casting Directors, Tracy "Twinkie" Byrd and Donyell Kennedy-McCullough, award-winning directors, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Salli Richardson Whitfield, and Kelly Kali, actresses, CoCo Jones, Karyn Parsons, and Quvenzhané Wallis, TV Producers, Deniese Davis, Erica Shelton Kodish, Janine Sherman Barrois, Angela Nissel and more! Some of the partners for the camp include the USC Annenberg Critical Media Project, Beats By Dre, Final Draft, Tik Tok, PBS, Array, PBS News Hour Student Reporting Labs, and Women In Film LA.