Maori Holmes

Biography

Maori Karmael Holmes is a filmmaker, writer, and curator. She founded BlackStar Film Festival in 2012
and serves as Chief Executive & Artistic Officer of BlackStar Projects. She has organized film programs
at Anthology Film Archives, MOCA, and Whitney Museum. Recent exhibitions she’s organized include
Rashid Zakat: Uses of the Ironic (2024) and Terence Nance: Swarm (2023). As a
director, her works have screened internationally including “Scene Not Heard: Women in Philadelphia
Hip-Hop”. She has directed music videos for India.Arie, Mike Africa, Jr., and Wayna. She has produced
several films including Iyabo Kwayana’s By Water (2023). Her writing has most recently appeared in
Seen, Documentary Magazine, The Believer, Film Quarterly, and Pleasure Activism. Maori was
announced as recipient of the United States Artists Berresford Prize in 2023. In 2022 she was announced
as an inaugural Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures Fellow and named one of the Kennedy Center’s #Next50.