Next month, the Brixton Community Cinema, the roving cinema project that has quickly become one of the UK’s most admired film communities under the stewardship of independent programmer Abiba Coulibaly, will close.
Coulibaly announced the cinema’s farewell season in August on Instagram.
“The closure of Brixton Community Cinema is not to give up and abandon either, just to recalibrate,” she wrote in the statement.
Coulibaly launched the BCC in 2022 as a pay-what-you-can pop-up cinema club. She programmed a wide variety of titles, but the cinema’s central focus was international repertory and arthouse films. Past screenings featured titles like The First World Festival of Negro Arts by William Greaves, Abdellatif Kechiche’s La Faute à Voltaire, and Sarah Gomez’s One Way or Another.
The eclectic programming made the BCC a must-visit film destination for cinephiles in London. In turn, the cinema’s audience grew and so did its reputation. BCC pop-up screenings moved from small non-arts spaces in Brixton to venues like London’s Cinema Museum. Criterion’s Ashley Clark described Coulibaly as “fantastic” during an interview with Deadline earlier this year. So why end things now?
Speaking with Deadline ahead of her final screening on October 6, Coulibaly explains that the BCC project simply grew at a pace that was impossible for one person to maintain.
“The project had grown more than I ever expected,” she explains.
Below, Coulibaly speaks with us in depth about how she built Brixton Community Cinema, what she learned about audiences during the BCC’s successful run, and what she has planned next.
Films set to screen as part of the BCC’s final season include Margarida Cardoso’s Kuxa Kanema: The Birth of Cinema (2003) and Sanaz Sohrabi’s essay film An Incomplete Calendar (2026). Legendary artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah will also sit for a discussion with Ish filmmaker Imran Perretta. Scroll down to see the full lineup.
DEADLINE: Abiba, you’re closing the Brixton Community Cinema. Why?
ABIBA COULIBALY: I always knew it wouldn’t last forever. I was actually adamant from the start that it wouldn’t, because I knew the limits of the “pay what you can” model. So I think it was always more of an experiment. But it all came to a head, I’d say, a year to 18 months ago, because the project had grown more than I ever expected. I then felt I needed to do things like register as a CIC, get a business bank account, and start paying for domains. As I tried to scale up, I realized I didn’t have the time or money to handle all the admin and bureaucracy. I actually ended up losing a lot of time and money in the process. It was too much for just one person.
DEADLINE: The cinema did really grow. I did a piece with Ashley Clark at Criterion about his great book on Black cinema, and he name-checked you and the cinema. I was surprised he’d heard of it considering he isn’t based in the UK. Did no bigger institutions or funders come along to invest or support your work?
COULIBALY: I read that interview and was really surprised and flattered to see my name mentioned. Ashley and I actually grew up on the same road, opposite each other, but he’s a decade or so older. But in terms of people coming along, honestly, no. Firstly, the question of who you work with has been difficult. It has very rarely been possible to align values and access to resources. I never envisaged having to deliberate so much about working with organizations. Sometimes it would be that they aren’t based in Brixton or Lambeth, or maybe I didn’t agree with their political stances. But in terms of one-off project fees, yeah, sure, I’ve been approached; it would be something like £500. But never any big, long-term support. Generally, money and business aren’t my strengths. For this final season, a friend volunteered to raise some money, and they managed to get £2500 from WeTransfer. That has been our only major partnership or collaboration.
DEADLINE: I’ve been to your screenings, and they were always very well attended. What did you learn about what audiences want from cinemas in 2026?
COULIBALY: I felt my audience was seeking cinema experiences that could address their real-world concerns. They weren’t really seeking an escapist moment, but rather the space to discuss and engage with relevant things happening around them. I started the project in late 2022. The genocide in Palestine began in late 2023, and I tried at times to speak to that through my programming alongside other things going on in various other countries. I always got the impression that those were the events audiences really wanted to attend. But I also had many difficulties with myself as a programmer. I began with a lot of enthusiasm about the power of cinema. Over the years, that has dampened in some ways. That is also why I want to take a step back.
I also got the impression from audience members that they’ve had so many weird institutional failings from both cinemas and arts institutions. It’s really got to the point where there are very few large galleries, museums, or cinemas in London that don’t have some kind of problematic scandal or history. I think people are really searching for cultural spaces which don’t feel so compromising, when it feels impossible to boycott and divest from every single cultural institution in London.
DEADLINE: Talk to me about this final lineup. You’re focusing on a large geographical area; there are films from Madagascar, Pakistan, and Malaysia.
COULIBALY: To end this run, I felt I needed to choose a theme or location. I’ve always tried to steer clear of regionally focused programming. I sometimes find it a lazy way of attracting audiences. I’m also slightly resistant to labels. I actually saw that BFI Future Film created a little zine for its Young Programmers’ Festival, and inside they said, “Go to Brixton Community Cinema if you want to see Black cinema.” They probably thought it was a really nice way to shout me out, and I’m sure they’re sweet people. But that’s so funny because I show films from all over the world. Ultimately, I believe I’m from the best city in the world. When I was growing up, there was so much mixing between all groups of people. With this final season, I was thinking very clearly about the question: How do you reflect a city back at itself?
DEADLINE: You’ve actually done a lot of really important work here. Screening films that people otherwise would never see or even hear about. Have you ever thought about consolidating it all in a book or publication about the cinema?
COULIBALY: From the very start of Brixton Community Cinema, I focused heavily on printed material. I used to do a lot of program notes and zines designed by some very talented friends behind the publishing studio Em—Dash, who do all of the graphics for the project. I produced those less over time because it was so labor-intensive. But I have this amazing archive of essays, texts, and interviews that I’ve always thought would make a really great anthology that could also speak to the political moment. For instance, the third or fourth screening I ever did was Jafar Panahi’s Offside, during the 2022 World Cup. When the screening came around, the protests in Iran had really taken off. So, I commissioned a Tehran-based film journalist to write about what it would mean to rewatch the film in this moment. There are so many interesting texts like that that are not only great films but also speak to the social and political context of making the Brixton Community Cinema. It’s really just a case of money. All of the material is there; all of the ideas are there.
DEADLINE: You’re not going away completely. You programmed parts of the BFI’s Sarah Maldoror season. Where will people be able to find you?
COULIBALY: I’m freelance, so who knows. I’m also a programmer for the Open City Documentary Festival. That’s my one regular programming gig. I will also continue to programme independently.
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