New Negress Film Society

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United States
Philadelphia, PA
New Negress Film Society

A collective of Black women & non-binary filmmakers. We are fundraising! Please support the Black Women’s Film Conference: https://gofund.me/9b5b99f8

History
The New Negress Film Society catalyzed in response to our first film screening in Brooklyn entitled, I Am A Negress of Noteworthy Talent, which featured short films from our group of emerging black female artists. The wild success of the first screening showed us that despite our lack of support in the wider industry, there is a community eager to hear our voices. We then went on to form the NNFS. Support
The scope of our art, political thought, and process is diverse in nature. We recognize the importance of our collective strength as marginalized artists in the film industry. Core members of the NNFS hold creative space to workshop ongoing film projects, fundraise, and gain visibility for our own work. Exhibition
We regularly exhibit quality works by both emerging and established black cis- and trans- women filmmakers around the world through our website and screening events. It is our priority to provide opportunities to highlight quality works by black women artists. Additionally, we organize theme-based film screenings for new audiences. Consciousness-Raising
The NNFS was originally formed out of a need to create community in an industry where black female voices and stories are often suppressed. We therefore aim to raise awareness and understanding of our challenges within the film world. This ranges from interesting behind-the-scenes media, to reflective vlogs, to artist spotlights showcasing their recent successes. We also regularly interview black women who work in the filmmaking community to highlight their unique stories.

10/25/2026

Two weeks ago, we gathered at BAM for the fourth Black Women’s Film Conference, and we’re still thinking about the conversations, the films, the moments of connection, and the community that made the day so fulfilling and special.

We’re so grateful to the filmmakers Aicha Cherif, Joie Lee, Shirikiana Gerima, Tchaiko Omawale, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Yace Sula, and Johanné Gómez Terrero for sharing their work and making space for meaningful exchange.

A special thank you to BAM for hosting us, and to our partners and sponsors BlackStar, Freedom Together Foundation, Firelight Media, Critical Minded, and Darthmouth University for helping bring this year’s conference to life.

And lastly, thank you to everyone who continues to show up for New Negress Film Society and support our commitment to creating spaces that center Black women and non-binary filmmakers and their work.

We’re grateful to be building this community with you. 🖤

📸 Rashida Zagon

10/10/2026

The annual Black Women’s Film Conference is today at BAM ✨

We look forward to seeing you for a full day of screenings and conversation series featuring the work, practices, and principles of Black women and non-binary filmmakers.

Extended conversations and films featuring:

Aicha Cherif
Joie Lee
Shirikiana Gerima
Tchaiko Omawale
Akosua Owusu
Yace Sula
Johanné Gómez Terrero

🎥 Still by Yace Sula’s “As Told by a Corpse”

10/08/2026

Join us this Saturday October 10 at BAM for the annual Black Women’s Film Conference. We look forward to seeing you for a full day of screenings and conversation series featuring the work, practices, and principles of Black women and non-binary filmmakers.

✨Explore the final program and register through the link in bio ✨

Johanné Gómez Terrero is an Afro-diasporic artist whose work is rooted in Caribbean and decolonial frameworks. Her documentary Caribbean Fantasy launched her career as a director, and she has since worked as a filmmaker, producer, consultant, and artistic director.

She is a graduate of the International School of Film and Television (EICTV) in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba, where she has returned as a teacher and chair coordinator. She also holds a Master’s in Film Distribution from ESCAC in Catalonia.

Her practice engages with complex thinking, anti-racist struggle, and Cimarron Cinema.

Stills by Johanné Gómez Terrero’s “Sugar Island”

10/08/2026

The New Negress Film Society invites you to our 4th annual Black Women’s Film Conference at BAM on October 10!

Join us on Saturday for screenings and conversation with filmmakers working across forms, genres, and approaches to image-making.

We’re looking forward to spending the day with you! ✨Explore the final program and register through the link in bio ✨

Yace Sula is a filmmaker who often plays in the experimental arena. Through a surrealist lens, their work aims to capture how shame informs the fluid nature of identity, trauma, and morality. Their films have screened at festivals such as the New York Film Festival, Fantasia Film Festival, and Ann Arbor Film Festival. In 2025, they were named one of Filmmaker magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

Stills by Yace Sula’s “As Told by a Corpse”

10/07/2026

We have such an incredible lineup of filmmakers at this year’s Black Women’s Film Conference. Join us at BAM on October 10 for screenings, conversation, and fellowship featuring the work, practices, and principles of Black women and non-binary filmmakers.

We’re looking forward to spending the day with you! ✨Explore the final program and register through the link in bio ✨

Akosua Adoma Owusu is an award-winning Ghanaian-American filmmaker and educator exploring diasporic identity and collective memory through the lens of triple consciousness.

Her films have screened at Berlinale, Locarno, Toronto, NYFF, and the Venice Biennale, and are held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, Fowler Museum, and the Centre Pompidou.

She is the recipient of the Africa Movie Academy Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Creative Capital Award.

Owusu is founder of Obibini Pictures and an Assistant Professor of Film at Howard University.

🎥 Stills by Akosua Adoma Owusu’s “Kwaku Ananse”
🎥 Video from Artforum interview with Akosua Adoma Owusu

10/07/2026

The Black Women’s Film Conference is a rare space, divorced from market-driven forces, Our annual Black Women’s Film Conference returns this Saturday!

Join us at BAM on October 10 for a day of screenings, conversation, and fellowship with filmmakers whose work expands the possibilities of storytelling, world-building, and imagination.

✨Explore the final program and register. Link in bio.✨

Tchaiko Omawale grew up in eight countries by 16 with parents who were UNICEF diplomats, so world-building is in her DNA. She builds narratives from the magical folklore and beauty of the cultures she moved through, and her characters risk everything to find out who they are and where they belong.

Her award-winning debut feature SOLACE, about a Black girl navigating an eating disorder, streams on MGM+, Prime and Kweli TV. She won the 2024 Creative Capital Award for her biomythographical dark fantasy feature BEAST, in development. Her documentary LOOKING FOR TCHAIKO is supported by Ford Foundation and IDA. Her action short FISTS OF MOTHERS recently premiered at BlackStar Film Festival.

Episodic credits include Queen Sugar, Cherish the Day, Good Trouble, Sacrifice and Black Mafia Family. She also directs commercials.

🎥 Stills by Tchaiko Omawale’s film “Meditations on Fertility”

10/06/2026

The Black Women’s Film Conference is a rare space, divorced from market-driven forces, where the films of Black women and non-binary filmmakers can exist in conversation with each other, for each other.

✨ Join us at BAM this Saturday, October 10. Register and view the full program through the link in bio. ✨

Shirikiana Aina is an independent filmmaker, educator, and cultural entrepreneur based in Washington, DC. She is the owner of Sankofa Video and Bookstore and President & Executive Director of Positive Productions, a nonprofit supporting independent Black filmmakers.

A graduate of Howard University and UCLA, Aina has taught film at Howard and co-founded Mypheduh Films and Negod Gwad Productions with filmmaker Haile Gerima. Her films include Brick by Brick, Through the Door of No Return, and Footprints of Pan Africanism, exploring housing, displacement, African diasporic identity, and the history and legacy of Pan-Africanism.

🎥 Stills by Shirikiana Aina from “Brick by Brick”

10/06/2026

This Saturday October 10, join us at BAM for a full day of screenings, conversation, and fellowship with filmmakers whose practices engage memory, place, history, and the stories we carry forward.

✨ Click the link in our bio for more details and to register ✨

JOIE LEE (also known as JOY) was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

She is a multidisciplinary artist who works as an actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter. Joie is the original screenwriter of the feature film, Crooklyn, loosely based on her childhood in 1970s Brooklyn.

Her recent time-based media works, (Mother Hunger, Vitapoise, Presenting Miss Annie J, Reenactments, A Tribute to Bill Lee) explore the temporality of loss. Currently, Joie is working on a time-based experimental narrative, Georgia Mule, an homage, reconstruction, reimagination, and exhumation of the brief and impactful life of her mother.

Joie graduated from Brown University in 2025 with a BFA in Modern Culture and Media (MCM).

🎥 Still by Joie Lee from “Mother Hunger”

10/05/2026

We have such an incredible lineup of filmmakers at this year’s Black Women’s Film Conference.

Join us at BAM on October 10 for screenings, conversation, and fellowship featuring the work, practices, and principles of Black women and non-binary filmmakers.

Aicha Cherif is a director based in New York City drawn to storytelling as a means of excavation and the emotional architectures that shape how we belong to one another. Her documentary Heat screened in Film Forum’s Tenement Stories, a century-spanning New York City retrospective, where she was the youngest director. She is a 2026 Sundance x Adobe Ignite Fellow, a yearlong fellowship supporting emerging filmmakers.

✨ Click the link in our bio for more details and to register ✨

Stills from HEAT by Aicha Cherif.

10/02/2026

The New Negress Film Society invites you to our annual Black Women’s Film Conference at BAM on October 10!

Join us for a full day of screenings, conversations, and fellowship, celebrating the work and practices of Black women and non-binary filmmakers.

We’re looking forward to spending the day with you. 🖤

Save your spot and register today.

📷 Still from “Mother Hunger” by Joie Lee.

Address

300 S Broad St
Philadelphia, PA
19102

Website

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/the-new-negress-film-society-30942913733

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