As an organization that historically partners across difference within the Global Majority of Earth's peoples, i•ma•gine | e•volve is fundamentally an organization of solidarity in practice. It challenges every and all polarizing ideas based on ignorance that have mired the world in violent discontents. We seek and support collaborative connections across borders within and beyond singular definitions of identity as a generative imaginary of reversing systemic cultural erasures.

It is a priority to seek out and support under-resourced creatives who are culturally or socially isolated, to form space-making opportunities for resonance and connection. We steadfastly refuse extractive models in which artists are expected to accept ‘exposure’ instead of mindful care and compensation. Rather, we insist on compensating all our artists and filmmakers by recognising that for many, artistic expression is the only way they know how to make a living.

Beyond producer-centered work, IE is grounded in understanding that to grow, to evolve, as a person, community, society, region, or species, we must lean into the unknown and imagine new world-building through expansive curiosity, listening, learning, sharing, and supporting each other, which is key to the thrivance of all living things. As such, our work also happens quietly, away from the gaze of an audience, and in the intimacy of relationship-building, talking with one another, mentorship connections, artist development and support efforts, iterative co-ideation and skill-sharing retreats, memory-work, cultural exchanges through meal gatherings, and potent teaching sessions of wellness practices.

We welcome the adventure of working in new communities, practices, and spaces, with the belief that this is as important as rooting into ancestry, memory, and tradition. The child and the elder are the bookends of life, and for the time we have in between, it is our commitment to learn from both while contributing what we can to gather, to grow, to imagine, to evolve.

Black Cinema Collective - a project of imagine | evolve®

Black Cinema Collective - a project of imagine evolve