The Black X Film Festival is a three-day online film festival (September 17-19, 2021) started by a collective of Black artists and accomplices to showcase Black creators. Through providing this free event of music and film, we showcase the radical multifaceted expressions of the Black experience by centering Black resilience and a commitment to anti-racism.

​We intentionally named the film festival, Black X, to play into the multiplicity of meanings of ‘X’; where X may be seen as an abbreviation of eXperience, a celebration of Black eXistence, and an homage to Malcolm X. ‘X’ is a crossroads offering the opportunity to choose to employ Black success as a revolution of social order, over the violent complacency that has shaped and characterized contemporary society. 

Collectively, we have long observed the devastating effects of white supremacy permeating ALL spaces and are actively working to upend systemic racism within our communities. Through foregrounding emerging and mid-career artists, we will provide the artistic space for professional recognition and payment for the creative labor of Black artists. The generated financial support through fundraising affords the fair compensation of Black artists, and the donation of funds to organizations that are working on the ground for Black lives.

​We are committed to compensating all artists for their work as well as donating to nonprofit organizations doing on the ground work to fight for Black lives. Our 10-person collective is strictly volunteer based, and will not receive any funds for the film festival. All funds received will go towards directly compensating each filmmaker for their work, cash prizes for the awarded films, donating to nonprofits, and some production operating costs (20% of our budget). All donations made to the festival are tax deductible. We are fiscally sponsored by Reflective Image, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, led by Academy- and Emmy-winning directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman.