Black Cinema Club HTX is building a pipeline from Houston to Hollywood through its BCCHTX Film Academy, which provides resources for young filmmakers.
Black Cinema Club HTX
For all of its good qualities, Houston is not considered a film town. Filmmakers here struggle to find community and collaborators, get funding or studio space, and make the relationships that help bring a project to the big screen. For the city’s Black filmmakers, that’s where Black Cinema Club HTX comes in.
You may know BCCHTX from their film screenings and events or their social media videos featuring founder Jerry Madison Jr. and his partners Leroy Cook and Shameika Smith. But one of their main missions currently is to help Houston’s Black filmmakers establish themselves both in the city and in the broader film world. The HTX in the name is non-negotiable.
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“Some people have to leave, or they think they have to leave the city to grow, to prosper, to do everything like that,” Madison Jr. told Chron. “But I feel that what we’re doing is impactful enough to show that you don’t have to leave.”
Madison Jr. says he and his team identified a “gap” in Houston’s creative infrastructure, especially when it came to film.
“We’re the only entity that gives money directly to filmmakers [exclusively]. There’s the Houston Art Alliance, which is great … but it’s not specific for filmmakers,” Madison Jr. said. “[There wasn’t something in Houston] saying, ‘We value filmmakers and creatives specifically, and specifically Black filmmakers.'”
‘What if we did something crazy?’
Over the past year, through BCCHTX’s partnerships and relationships, the message from studios is clear: They want to see what Houston has to offer. Studios such as Universal and Netflix have reportedly expressed to BCCHTX that they want to see what Houston’s talent can do when given the opportunity.
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“Right now, we’re working with Universal, and they’re very interested in that pipeline from Houston to Hollywood,” Madison Jr. said. “They’re like, ‘we just want to see what Houston has, and if y’all didn’t exist and have that pipeline, we probably wouldn’t hear about these people.'”
That’s where programs like BCCHTX’s film academy come into play. Building that talent pipeline begins with giving Houston filmmakers funding—a major hurdle for getting ideas from page to screen.
Securing funding is a massive endeavor for filmmakers at every level, from first-timers making a short film to legendary directors like Spike Lee or Martin Scorsese, who, after decades in the game, still have to secure money to create their art. BCCHTX’s film academy—its “crown jewel”—invites local filmmakers to apply to get funds directly, as well as further support.
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“So that’s the big goal,” Madison Jr. said. “It’s like, what if we did something crazy and we just invested in people and gave them the opportunity to show what they could do?”
The program’s inaugural 2026 class of five filmmakers received a $2,000 grant to create a short film, along with mentorship, workshops, and guidance throughout production, with the BCCHTX leadership and community taking a hands-on role. The academy also gave the filmmakers the platform to crowdfund and tap into the community BCCHTX has built. All films will be completed by the end of 2026 and will be shown in 2027 by BCCHTX.
Giving Houston filmmakers a voice
Black Cinema Club HTX founder Jerry Madison Jr. and Director of Partnerships Leroy Cook with BCCHTX film academy members Payton Mack, Chandler Pacheco, and Alazar Asrat.
Black Cinema Club HTX
Houston native Joi Pierre is one of those five recipients. Pierre, who grew up attending Houston’s ensemble theater youth programs, graduated from Kinder High School and received her master’s in screenwriting and producing from Loyola Marymount University. After working in the industry and wanting to direct more feature films, she came back home. But she was uncertain, especially with such a passion, how she could continue filmmaking in her hometown.
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“I’ve always wanted was to have a film community family in Houston,” Pierre said. “I’ve made one in LA. But being from Houston, I was just like, I can’t do it in Houston. So I have to move to LA.”
She found BCCHTX through social media and the local film community. Immediately, she had to be a part of it. Pierre applied for BCCHTX’s film academy, which would supply her with the funding and also the resources and community she was missing in LA.
Her film Zydeco Zydeco Zydeco, about a young woman who comes out of her shell after reluctantly joining friends on a night out to a Zydeco dance hall,starts production in October. It will be filmed in Houston, partly at H-Town cultural institution The Breakfast Klub. Since receiving the grant and being accepted into the film academy, Pierre says the constant support from workshops to discussions to just uplifting conversations has been indispensable.
“They just made sure to first lift me up and say, ‘Hey, you are an amazing filmmaker, we want to see you succeed,'” Pierre said of BCCHTX’s support. “You don’t necessarily get a lot of those people in your life saying, ‘Hey, we believe in you, we want you to keep going.’ Especially when you’re in the film industry.”
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Another recipient, Alazar Asrat, moved to Houston over a year ago. After attending a BCCHTX mixer, he met the friends and collaborators he would eventually work with on his first film. When the BCCHTX film academy was announced in March, it was just the motivation Alazar needed to put himself out there.
“I had a rough idea for a project that I wanted to write. But I think I was just lacking the motivation,” Asrat said. “But then on Instagram, I saw a post that they made announcing the Academy. And I just thought, ‘I’ve been wanting to do this for a while.'”
His film, Burning Alive, which follows two siblings who are forced to confront their grief and their ideals after the death of their activist father, was shot in Houston on 16mm film.
The filmmakers are receiving help from BCCHTX’s workshops and industry leaders and veterans, but also each other. Pierre remarked that she had helped Asrat out with a filming location, and that Asrat had helped her on the equipment side of things.
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“Black Cinema Club was my introduction to the film scene here in Houston,” Asrat said. “The fact that this opportunity came through them was really special.”
Black Cinema Club HTX’s inagural class of film academy members wrecived $2000 in funding and the commitment, mentorsip and resources to plan and execute their film productions.
Black Cinema Club HTX
Other film academy members include Baytown, Texas-born Lynette Guidry, whose project H-Town Chronicles follows a college student who returns home to Houston for a quiet spring break only to find out her childhood home has been turned into a nightclub. Houston-based filmmaker Chandler Pacheco’s film Still Water chronicles a young woman who returns to the lake where she was taught to fish by her late grandfather, where she confronts grief and the lessons he left her. Payton Mack’s project Type-A follows a woman who must come to terms with her asexuality on her 25th birthday.
“BCCHTX has also given me a real sense of community in Houston,” Pacheco said. “It’s reminded me that there’s a whole community of people here who are creating, supporting, and growing together.”
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Soon, the idea that filmmakers may have to leave Houston may be a thing of the past. Texas approved its massive film incentive boost last year, and cities including Houston have stepped up their own local incentives. Projects are coming to Houston, and endeavors like BCCHTX are laying the groundwork for not just filmmakers, but below-the-line workers, like gaffers, makeup artists, set designers, and more, to take advantage.
The team behind BCCHTX says the whole endeavor has been an amalgamation of all the wild ideas and dreams they had, exploring what’s possible in the Houston film space. It has developed in surprising ways, but according to Madison Jr., it has become what it needed to become, allowing them to give back in such a substantial way.
“That’s what it’s about right there. Giving that hope to the filmmakers here in Houston,” Madison Jr. said. “Letting them know that their work matters, that they’re seen and that it deserves to be out in the world.”
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