By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — Currently, many elements of Black art are receiving more exposure than ever before. However, shockingly, the effect that Black voices have had on cinema is surprisingly overlooked. To celebrate Black cinematic influence in his city, Jama Mohamed partnered up with the local Black entrepreneurs at Slim & Husky’s in 2019 to establish Pizza and a Movie Night. After leaving Belcourt on good terms in 2020 to pursue other ventures, Pizza and a Movie would continue to gain traction under the current showrunner Sheronica Hayes.
“His vision for it was to also engage Black artists as well whether its filmmakers, photographers, visual artists,” Hayes said while recalling when the idea was first established.
“Originally, they were only doing 90’s movies … and since then we’ve kind of branched throughout the decades, and now I’m trying to branch out genres as well so I’m super excited to do Candyman, that’s the first horror film that we’re doing.”
Hayes said that Nashville has a vibrant Black film community, though much of it before Pizza and a Movie resided in broken-up pockets throughout the city, never really interacting with each other. She said much of Mohammad’s vision was to bring these communities together and showcase movies that he knew they would appreciate. Hayes said that it was largely the values of community, celebration, and learning that inspired the organizers to take a few minutes before every screen to contextualize the film for the audience in a spoiler-free way.
“We try to add some context such as who the director was or what else was happening in the film industry at the time, what it might have been inspired by, or events it might have been inspired by,” Hayes explained.
“Basically, we pick out whatever we feel like the audience needs to know, or maybe won’t know, by watching the film alone.”
Hayes recalled that when Slim and Husky’s, one of which, Demo, is Hayes’ stepbrother, was chosen as the event’s co-sponsor they were still an extremely young restaurant, having only opened four years prior in 2015. Despite being fresh on the scene however, Hayes recalled that the restaurant was already a household name in the city, describing that at the time the public eye seemed to hold them as “the Nashville Black business.”
Hayes also detailed that she pondered long and hard about whether Pizza and a Movie’s most recent premiere, Candyman, was appropriate for the series. Hayes said that her crossroads lay at the fact that the main protagonist of the film is white, a first for Pizza and a Movie. After pondering long and hard, as well as reviewing what the event’s mission has been since its start, Hayes decided the film is still a fundamental example of a meaningful contribution Black voices have on cinema.
“Despite the protagonist being white, all the other characters in the film including the protagonist’s best friend are Black,” Hayes said. “It’s set in a Black neighborhood in Chicago and of course Candyman, who is who we’re really gonna be here for anyway is Black, and also is the first mainstream Black horror villain. So that history alone is enough for me to feel comfortable programming it within this series.”
Pizza and a Movie Night is hosted by the Belcourt once every season, four times a year. Hayes said that each seasonal movie tries to incorporate the themes of the year. Pizza and a Movie’s schedule, updates, and email list can be found on Belcourt.org.
