CAMILLE BACON / JUPITER MAGAZINE
Research Residency & Mini Film Festival
Project Loop presents a two-part programme of film screenings developed by Chicago-based writer and Jupiter Magazine co-founder and Editor-in-Chief Camille Bacon, as part of her research residency at the gallery. Taking place during the final weeks of Jordan Zayas Kelly's exhibition Pluperfect (27 May – 18 July 2026), the programme centres on the legacy of writer, filmmaker, and cultural worker Toni Cade Bambara and, more specifically, on her call to build communities around independent Black film.
“I’m suffering from visual deprivation. That is to say I have not seen an independent black film in at least a week. And so my eyes are disspirited… all three of them," and then goes on to implore her audience to "use this session as an opportunity to brainstorm together on how we might or how we can or how you will put together some mini film festivals.”
— Toni Cade Bambara
Taking up Bambara’s call to action, Jupiter has devoted their residency at Project Loop to organizing one such "mini film festival” featuring a screening of ‘TCB: The Toni Cade School of organizing’ (dir. Louis Massiah & Monica Henriquez) and a short film series including works by Dwayne LeBlanc, kelechi agwuncha, Darryl Daley, Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi, Iverson White, zakkiyyah najeebah dumas o’neal, and Joseph Douglas Elmhirst to explore how habitual encounters with "independent black film" can both sharpen our political sight and serve as a methodology of spiritual nourishment or, in other words, as a mode of “respiriting the eyes… all three of them.” In addition to organizing the "mini film festival," which she understands as a mode of experiential research, Camille will spend the duration of her residency studying the interplay between Black literature and cinema through the aperture of Bambara's work in both disciplines as well as how cinema can serve as a vehicle for both consciousness raising and spiritual searching.
EVENT 1 — FEATURE SCREENING: TCB: THE TONI CADE BAMBARA SCHOOL OF ORGANIZING
Date: Wednesday 9 July 2026, from 7pm
Venue: Project Loop, London
Film: TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing
Directors: Louis Massiah & Monica Henriquez
Year / Duration: 2025, 105 min
Admission: Free — [RSVP HERE]
The first event presents a screening of TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (dir. Louis Massiah & Monica Henriquez, 2025, 105 min) — the film that provides the conceptual ignition for Jupiter's entire residency programme. Composed in honour of Bambara, TCB is at once a documentary and praise song. Oscillating between archival footage of Bambara herself and interviews with family, friends, and colleagues — including Toni Morrison, Nikky Finney, and Karma Bambara — the film is structured as a series of lessons. It manifests as a biographical altar through which audiences may linger alongside Bambara's profound legacy: her commitment to radical pedagogy, the interplay between cultural production and political movements, and the enduring impact her love, ideas, and action have had on the rhythm, stakes, and strategies of cultural work today.
EVENT 2 — SHORT FILM SCREENING: RESPIRITING THE EYES… ALL THREE OF THEM
Date: Thursday 16 July 2026, from 7pm
Venue: Project Loop, London
Admission: Free — RSVP HERE
The second event presents a programme of short films in honour of Toni Cade Bambara, including works by Dwayne LeBlanc, Kelechi Agwuncha, Darryl Daley, Maren Hassinger and Senga Nengudi, Iverson White, Zakkiyyah Najeebah dumas o'neal, and Joseph Douglas Elmhirst.
Titled "respiriting our eyes… all three of them," this screening is grounded in Bambara's invocation of the third eye and invites attendees into an active wondering about how habitual engagement with cinema can function as entertainment, galvanisation, and a methodology of spiritual nourishment.
Camille Bacon is a Chicago-based writer and the Co-Founder / Editor in Chief of Jupiter. She is cultivating a "sweet Black writing life" as informed by the words of Nikky Finney and the enduring wisdom of the Black feminist tradition. Her writing has appeared in i-D, Air Afrique, Frieze, BOMB Magazine, and Burnaway, among other outlets. She has also contributed to numerous exhibition catalogs including the Studio Museum in Harlem's recently published volume "Meaning, Matter, Memory," and has moderated conversations with artists such as Kennedy Yanko, Turiya Adkins, Richard Hunt, and Olukemi Lijadu. In 2025, she co-edited the monograph "Amanda Williams: What Black Is This You Say?", which was published by MIT Press. In addition to her editorial and writerly pursuits, she currently serves on the Cultural Advisory Committed for Chicago's Department of Culture, Art, and Special Events and sits on the Board of Trustees of The Poetry Foundation.
Jupiter is a magazine, programming platform, and film production company committed to fortifying an interpretive community around contemporary arts and culture. Since its founding in 2024, Jupiter has published six issues featuring writers such as Hanif Abdurraquib, Doreen St. Felix, Ben Okri, Caleb Azumah Nelson, and Legacy Russell and has hosted screenings and public programs at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York), Reparations Club (Los Angeles) and Periodicals (Detroit). Taking as its center of gravity the work of artists across disciplines who integrate an element of risk and experimentation into their work, Jupiter is committed to building a home for discourse that serves as a resource to amplify engagement with avant-garde cultural production, in particular.