We named Black Girls Film Camp as a recipient of the Sony Create Action Grant to support their mission in shifting the narrative by cultivating the next generation of storytellers from script to screen. Black Girls Film Camp is a 12-week film incubator for 10 Black high school girls selected across the country to have their short film produced and supported by the program. As recipients of the grant, Black Girls Film Camp receives $50,000 in cash to continue and expand the organization's work, $50,000 in Sony Electronics products to support their action plan, and this Sony-produced short film telling their story.
“I just hope we look up one day and everybody's going to be like, ‘Where did all these Black girls come from? Who are all these directors and producers up here just running things?’, says Sierra Davis, Co-Founder of Black Girls Film Camp. “And it's going to be like, ‘They started here.’
The organization seeks to address the lack of representation behind the screen by equipping Black girls with the resources and support to take control of the narrative while increasing the visibility. “When I see something that needs to be done or something that isn’t happening, a gap, I just step right in and go for it,” explains Executive Director Jimmeka Anderson.
Black Girls Film Camp empowers Black girls with tools to support Black girl identity, advocacy, storytelling through film, and for some may lead to media careers that can begin to change the industry from the inside. As many of the teen directors explain in the video, for them, Black Girls Film Camp is a life-changing experience.
“You could see the transformations that were happening with the girls when they first started the program to when they ended,” says Anderson. “The relationships that they were making, and just everyone that was coming into this space with just Black girls, whether they were adult women or young girls in the program, it just, you could tell it was something special. It was just different.”
“It’s just so worth it, to see the final product and to see who these young ladies become and grow into. It just keeps me going,” adds Davis.
The organization wants these girls who go through the program to know that they’re valued and that they are visible and their stories do matter. And as they go on to their careers, the hope is that they continue to create with confidence so more of their stories continue to be visible to the world.
Learn more about Black Girls Film Camp at blackgirlsfilmcamp.com.
See more of our past Create Action winners at alphauniverse.com/createaction.
