The BlackStar Film Festival, marking its 15th anniversary this week, has grown from an experiment in the filmmaker community into a national model for arts organizations serving communities of color. The full list of films is available online, but what has made BlackStar a uniquely essential festival for 15 years is not visible on the schedule. “Not just the conversations that happen within the theater, but the conversations that happen in the lobby and on the street.” BlackStar founder Maori Karmael Holmes, a former filmmaker herself, built the festival with filmmakers’ needs in mind. “Many of our team are filmmakers, and we’ve always said filmmakers are our audience first,” Holmes said.