Berette Macaulay and Black Cinema Collective extend programming and engagements virtually

black cinema collective

Berette Macaulay (Cultural Studies, ’20) founded Black Cinema Collective (BCC) in 2019, developing and co-organizing all programming with classmates Mateó Ochoa (Cultural Studies, ’19) and Savita Krishnamoorthy (Cultural Studies, ’20), who joined in 2020. In February 2020, BCC facilitated public discussion of “Spirits of Rebellion: Black Cinema from UCLA” at the Henry Art Gallery with director and visiting filmmaker Zeinabu Irene Davis. Soon thereafter the COVID-19 pandemic closed public spaces for such gatherings. Ochoa, who had been traveling abroad, had to return home.

Black Cinema Collective quickly regrouped and adapted its programming plans to host multiple screenings and discussions of black cinema with black filmmakers. Throughout spring, their events drew audiences locally and from across the globe. Recently they hosted an online screening and discussion of Retch with local filmmaker Tina Tomb. They also curated a sold-out BlPOC Scifi Horror Drive-In Movie Night with On the Boards Center for Contemporary Performance.

“Doing this with Mateo and Savita has been an absolute dream,” says Macaulay. “My heart bursts – we are so lucky to have the BEST workflow together, like family really. A real gift out of our MACS [MA in Cultural Studies graduate program] journey.”

Macaulay and Krishnamoorthy will be publishing an article on Zeinabu Irene Davis in a collection on Feminist Media Histories from University of California Press. “Again, the collaboration in writing was another dreamy flow. Zeinabu is such an important figure in the history of American Black cinema, and she was beyond generous in her time with us,” says Macaulay.

Macaulay, who recently became Museum Guide Program Manager for the Henry Art Gallery, has also been tapped regularly as a speaker on black diaspora art and artists.