BlackStar is thrilled to announce that the tenth issue of Seen—the organization’s bi-annual journal of film and visual culture, dedicated to platforming nuanced and rigorous writing by and about Black, Brown and Indigenous communities globally—is now on sale here.
Seen 010 celebrates the 15th anniversary of the BlackStar Film Festival and our tenth issue overall. The cover features artwork by Fahamu Pecou, who is the subject of the issue’s studio visit.
Other highlights from the issue’s mix of conversations, profiles, interviews, essays and reviews include a candid conversation with Arthur Jafa about unrealized visions, Basquiat and why he’s ready to make his first feature film; an essay by Cheryl Dunye on her landmark film The Watermelon Woman on its 30th anniversary; BlackStar Film Festival Director Nehad Khader recounts 15 memorable films and moments from festivals past; a look at Toni Cade Bambara’s legacy in the new film, TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing; an interview with Akinola Davies Jr. on his debut feature My Father’s Shadow, diaspora and the allure of Lagos; a profile of Beverly Wood, Hollywood’s Color Whisperer by Aisha Harris; Tanya Hamilton writes about how a movie frame from Nicholas Roeg’s Walkabout (1971) changed her life; Seen, But Not Visible: The Paradox of Film Restoration by Koel Chu, a feature on The Studio Museum in Harlem’s hard-won legacy by Elodie Saint-Louis and How to Look at Our Collapsing World without Going Numb, a profile of Meriem Bennani’s uncanny and wholly original cinematic worlds.
On May 28, 2026, in collaboration with the Open Society Foundations, BlackStar will celebrate the release of Seen 010 with a launch event at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The event will feature a conversation between Camille Acker, Seen’s section editor for features, studio visits and reviews, art director, Leo Brooks and Heidi Saman, editor-in-chief of Seen. They’ll give an inside look into how an issue of Seen comes together from the editorial, creative and design process. RSVP here.
On May 20, the journal will be on sale at stockists around the world including Ulises and Omoi Life Goods and Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia; Heath Newsstand in San Francisco, Periodicals in Detroit; The Library Club in Ireland, Skylight Books in Los Angeles; magCulture in London, McNally Jackson and Mono No Aware in New York; Chess Club in Portland and Issues in Toronto.
Seen is supported by Open Society Foundations and is printed in the United States by Sheridan.
BlackStar Projects and its year-round programming is generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, City of Philadelphia, Color Congress, Department of Community and Economic Development, Ford Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, People’s Media Fund, Perspective Fund, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation and William Penn Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.
BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.