Curtis Caesar John

Curtis Caesar John is an arts manager, advocate, and media producer with a specialty in discovering and bringing needed attention to the work of talented filmmakers and artists. He believes in cinema as one of the most powerful means of sharing life's stories and furthering our understanding of one another, even within our own cultures.

Curtis is the Founder and Exec. Director of The Luminal Theater, a nomadic microcinema that brings Black indie cinema directly to Black audiences along the eastern US seaboard and beyond, and continuously highlights the legacy of filmmakers from the Black/African diaspora.

He is also co-founder/producer of the long-running Caribbean Film Series which takes place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in Brooklyn, where he also served as a Programmer-at-Large from 2017-2020. Curtis is also co-founder/producer of BLK Docs (2020-present), an initiative to help build an authentic documentary film culture within the African-American community through film screenings, webinars, and more interactive film events.

Curtis’ career in exhibition began in 2008 as the co-founder, Producer and eventual Festival Director of ActNow Foundation’s New Voices in Black Cinema, which previously took place annually at BAM. At NVBC, Curtis brought audiences the NYC premieres of such films as Neil Drumming’s "Big Words" and Saul Williams & Alain Gomis’ "Tey," and the Brooklyn premieres of "The Central Park Five" and Ava DuVernay's "I Will Follow". During his time at ANF and the NVBC, he recognized the value of, and thus programmed early work, of notable young filmmakers such as Terence Nance, Chinonye Chukwu, Blitz Bazawule, Ja’Tovia Gary, Shola Amoo, Stefani Saintonge, Dui Jarrod, Tayarisha Poe, Nilja Mumin, and more.

Curtis also served as Film Editor for the culture website Bold As Love Magazine and was a longtime contributor to Shadow And Act. His writing has appeared in TheRoot.com, Film & Festivals Magazine, and African Voices. He also served as film programmer for the Project Catalyst multicultural cinema mobile app.

As a filmmaker, his work has been shown internationally at film festivals as well as on various internet channels. He is the producer of the new documentary “Stonebreakers” on the fight over USA monuments, and served as a producer on the documentary "BlaxploItalian: 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema" (director, Fred Kuwornu).

Of Guyanese descent, Curtis is born & raised in Brooklyn, NY, of course.

• EDUCATION

  • M.A., Cinema Studies, New York University

  Curtis’ CV is available HERE