The bounds on cast and crew numbers were big limitations at the outset of the pandemic, Njemanze said, but one other limitation that stemmed from the early-COVID quarantine was boredom. When filming moved to interiors, Njemanze said, that number arbitrarily changed, but hovered around 10 or so people. That set included 30 members cast and crew, and had to be filmed outdoors. Njemanze said that, ironically, their first film production during the pandemic happened to be one of their biggest.

Once in-person, these meetings now occur virtually.ĬOVID-19 has also changed the dynamic of the club’s on-set workflow. While a lot of the club’s events and in-person exhibitions have adhered to social distancing guidelines, one of the pandemic’s biggest effects on the club lay within its weekly meetings. The Black Film Club had the bulk of its operations happen during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Njemanze, members of the club have access to the board, and it is typically updated daily, providing its members with paid and unpaid internships, gigs and general opportunities with hands-on work in cinema. This is done through the Black Film Club’s job board. One of the club’s biggest contributions, however, is giving some club members valuable experience working on a film production. “You need to be doing it while you’re in school, and that’s literally anybody - doesn’t matter what color you are.”Įvents and works that the club has done include film festivals, music videos, short films, in-house film productions, live shows, open mic sessions and live streams of club-produced films. “Film is not a degree where you can network on campus but not make films, or you can network on campus but not gigs,” Njemanze said. Take the club’s Instagram page as an example Njemanze said that while one would assume the handle would be the page is actually named Njemanze cited the reason for this difference as being that the club uses the page to mostly emphasize networking for contract work, a bulk of what they do outside of campus. The club has two sides that belong to the same coin: one side is the campus-based Black Film Club, and the other is Black Film Connect. While a lot of the club’s work has to do with on-campus activities, such as weekly meetings and workshops, much of the club’s effectiveness lies in networking. According to Njemanze, the club has members from South Africa, Louisiana and Florida among other locales outside of SF State – not all of them are students of the university – because the club has its sights set on more than just campus-related activities. One of the primary ways that the Black Film Club differs from an average campus club is that its reach extends further than the campus itself.

The Black Film Club’s goals, according to their description within the School of Cinema’s clubs and groups page, are to expand the visibility of Black films and filmmakers highlight Black contributions to cinema provide a support system for student projects aid real-world clients and organizations who have shown support for Black upliftment and to give students opportunities within film production services, both paid and unpaid.

Webb said that they wanted to create a connection between their film colleagues from the East Bay and their newfound film connections at SF State. The recognition of the need for Black representation led the pair, both of whom hail from the East Bay, to create the Black Film Club during the Fall 2019 semester. “I just happened to notice that was one of the few Black people that were in there that was saying anything of content,” said Webb, referring to the moment that the pair met. Out of those professors, only one of them is Black. When Seretse Njemanze and Eric Webb met in an introductory film class at SF State, they bonded over a shared problem: a glaring need for Black representation within the cinema department’s student body and faculty.įor the Fall 2021 semester, the School of Cinema has 22 professors.

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