Meet Dominique Treadwell | Co-Founder, Reviews in Black & Cinemationship

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dominique Treadwell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dominique, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important factor behind the success of our brand is its authenticity. We birthed this business out or our personal story of how movies brought us together from friends to dating to marriage, and what the love for movies has done for us and our families through generations. We want to share that same spirit with our movie club members, which is why we affectionately call them our “cousins”. It’s more than just movies, is creating community around the stories we love and those we love to hate.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
In 2016, we connected over our mutual love for cinema. Both of us were film enthusiasts that came from families where watching movies and attending theaters was a favorite past-time, so it was seamless for us to enter into our first commitment as friends. We established our budding relationship as our “cinemationship” – the pledge of watching an extensive list of movies together for an entire year. From friendship to lifelong partners in marriage, we launched Reviews in Black, a digital platform where we share their passion for cinema by hosting movie reviews, sharing our theater adventures, and cultivating conversation and community through the movie-going experience.

Cinemationship was originally designed to be a curated dinner-and-a-movie experience for small groups and couples, but then CORONAVIRUS! In an effort to continue to serve our movie club (and after a series of event collaborations and giveaways), we stumbled into the subscription space and shifted our model from live event to subscription-based virtual event, and here we are! History still in the making! Coming from families of cinephiles, and literally building our entire relationship – from friends to dating to marriage (even a movie-themed wedding!) – around the cinema experience, we understand how powerful sharing moments in movies can be, and we wanted to foster community and unity around great snacks and great stories. We want to recreate the fondness of movie night that we’ve experienced time and time again with other movie friends and continue to celebrate the great (and sometimes not so great) narratives that bring us together, whether you’re home by force or by choice. We soft-launched in June 2020 and officially went live in December 2020. Today, we serve an amazing movie club of over 150 people (whom we affectionately call our “movie cousins”) across ten states in the US, and we’re steadily growing!

Cinemationship is our cinema-inspired subscription service that is reimagining movie night at home, and we’re even tossing in the movie snacks! Each month we host an interactive, virtual cinema experience that educates, entertains, and deepens our viewers engagement with the film. With each event, there is an interactive activity themed around the film, we watch the movie together in our virtual theater room, and then we kick back and unpack the film with great conversation. We feature all kinds of movies, from blockbusters to throwbacks to indie films.

Additionally, we curate a box with snacks and beverages from around the country-themed around what you would get at the movie theaters: something sweet, something savory, and something to wash it all down with! Whether at home by choice or by force, we are bringing the cinema vibes to your living room. We currently have a concession box for two, as well as our family box for family of five (because we are a family of five) that we host once a quarter! We have modeled this business based on our personal experiences and our family dynamic, so it’s so amazing to see our story literally enhance so many people! We’re most proud about some of the partnerships and organizations we’ve been able to make to support bringing unique experiences to people stir crazy at home! We’ve been featured in Good Day LA and partnered with various organizations such as Black Christian Influences, MomSpace & Co., and BlackCinemaNow. We’ve also been able to highlight unique black businesses in the snack and beverage industry (i.e. Soul Popped Popcorn, Major’s Project Pop, Ellis Island Tea, and more) to give them the visibility and praise they deserve.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We would definitely start at Starlight Drive In Theater. It’s a classic experience that everyone should enjoy! iPIC Atlanta is also a must visit, because who doesn’t love an interactive movie theater?! STK is a great spot for food, but Mango’s Carribean Restaurant and Smokey Bones are some of our favorite places for post-movie dinners.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to all the storytellers, the ones who put their life’s work on screen so we can enjoy them. From the blockbusters to the indie films, we see and appreciate your stories.

Website: www.cinemationship.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/cinemationshipbox, www.instagram.com/inblackreviews

Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/ribmovieclub

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4C5fMoXdHGL-aIl27eWkNQ