From dream to screen, the National Black Movie Association is a nonprofit born of necessity

By Kay Wicker, theGrio

TheGrio sat down with Agnes Moss, founder of the National Black Movie Association, to discuss building opportunities for burgeoning filmmakers.

Agnes Moss, founder of the National Black Movie Association (NBMA), can recall the seminal moment that led to her wanting to become a storyteller. The year was 1985; Moss was 12 years old, and she had just seen the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” in theaters.

In the years that followed, she can also recall how hard it was to pursue the goal of bringing her own stories to the screen without the necessary resources. 

“Back then there was no social media. There were very limited opportunities — no platform where you could really produce a film and have your story told. I had heard of Spike Lee and a few others that were able to break through. I just lacked the resources,” says Moss in discussion with theGrio in support of this year’s National Women’s Small Business Month.

Founded in 2019, the National Black Movie Association was established to help find and provide those resources to young Black storytellers and film students. But due to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the founding of the nonprofit was marked with as much uncertainty as Moss had experienced back in the early ‘90s.

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As the world began to open back up, Moss was able to add more of her original planning back to NBMA’s trajectory. Last year, she kicked off the Urban Cinephile Film Club locally in Washington, D.C., and is currently working to expand both that club and more programming to other cities, including Baltimore, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Houston and Chicago. 

For NBMA’s next phase, Moss’ major goal is to build membership. 

Learn about Moss’ vision.

Despite recent recognition, Black actors still deal with racism from fans. Even films that tell Black stories may be made for white audiences, however.

More Black news.