Filmmaker Statement
I am based in Middletown, Connecticut, and though I am interested in many things, I spend much of my time making films. I am drawn to individual stories that reveal the ways that race, gender, ethnicity, class and sexuality work to shape lives and reflect and challenge society’s historical, artistic, political and cultural narratives. My films in the series Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, Race: The Power of an Illusion and I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Arts serve as early exemplars. I am presently in post-production for the 2-hour feature film Zora Neale Hurston, which will premiere in early 2023 on the PBS series American Experience.
With Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, the first feature film about Lorraine Hansberry, I incorporated my 35-year practice, rooted in discovering, researching and directing new and often unknown stories to advance social justice, build community and empower the marginalized into a documentary described by Robin D. G. Kelley as “a gorgeous visual love letter…in its brilliance, honesty, and vision.” After its premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, the documentary subsequently won several awards including a Peabody and NAACP Image Award for directing.
I make my documentaries through The Film Posse, the production company I co-founded with my partner and colleague Randall MacLowry. My next independent project is Survival Floating, a hybrid documentary investigating African-descended peoples’ relationships with swimming.
A faculty member at Wesleyan University, I am the Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies, Associate Professor of Film Studies, Associate Director of the College of Film and the Moving Image and Co-Director of the Wesleyan Documentary Project.
Filmography
Documentaries
2021
American Oz American Experience, Producer/Director/Writer with Randall MacLowry, The Film Posse/GBH, Boston, MA.
2019
The Feud, American Experience, Coordinating Producer, The Film Posse/GBH, Boston, MA.
2018
The Swamp, American Experience, Coordinating Producer, The Film Posse/GBH, Boston, MA.
2017
Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, Director/Writer/Producer, Lorraine Hansberry Documentary Project, LLC. Broadcast on American Masters 2018 as Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart.
2016
The Battle of Chosin, American Experience, Coordinating Producer, The Film Posse/GBH, Boston, MA.
The Mine Wars, American Experience, Coordinating Producer, The Film Posse/GBH, Boston, MA.
2014
The Rise & Fall of Penn Station, American Experience, Coordinating Producer, The Film Posse/GBH, Boston, MA.
2013
Silicon Valley, American Experience, Producer, The Film Posse/GBH, Boston, MA.
2010
Roots of Health, Segment Director/Writer/Co-Producer, The Film Posse for Linda Harrar Productions, Boston, MA.
2008
When the Bough Breaks, Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?, Director/Co-Producer, The Film Posse for Vital Pictures, Boston, MA.
2005
Building the Alaska Highway, American Experience, Director/Producer, The Film Posse (formerly Diner Media)/GBH, Boston, MA.
2004
ZOOMer Profile: Maya Morales, ZOOM, Director/Producer, The Film Posse (as Diner Media) for Children’s Television, GBH, Boston, MA.
2003
Greater Boston Arts, Director/Writer/Segment Producer, The Film Posse (as Diner Media) for Boston Media Productions, GBH, Boston, MA.
The Story We Tell, Race: The Power of an Illusion, Director/Writer/ Producer, The Film Posse (as Diner Media) for California Newsreel, San Francisco, CA.
2002
Adrift, Producer, Night Train Pictures, Boston, MA.
1999
Bright Like a Sun and The Dream Keepers, I’ll Make Me a World: A Century of African American Arts, Director/Writer/Producer, Blackside, Boston, MA.
Museums, Schools and Nonprofits
2018
Inside Sportsmen’s, Producer/Director/Writer, The Film Posse for Sportsmen’s Tennis & Enrichment Center.
Unite-Serve-Lead: The Founding and Impact of the Harvard Business School African American Student Union, Producer/Director/Writer, The Film Posse for Harvard Business School.
2015
Bay State Banner: Unity, Progress and 50-Years of Advocating Change, Producer/Director/Writer, The Film Posse for Banner Publications.
2011
Law and Justice, Writer/Consultant, The Film Posse for Education Development Center.
VA4Life, Director/Co-Writer/Co-Producer, The Film Posse for Boston Arts Academy Foundation.
2007
RACE: Are We So Different?, Director/Writer/Producer, The Film Posse for Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN/American Anthropological Association, Arlington, VA.
2006
Henry Hampton Remembrances, Eyes on the Prize (DVD), Director/Writer/Producer, The Film Posse for PBS Video, Arlington, VA.
2002
Captive Passages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade & the Making of the Americas, Director/Writer/Producer, Northern Light Productions, Inc., Boston, MA/The Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA.
2001
Evolving Ideas: Videos for Students, Director/Writer/Producer, Educational Productions, GBH, Boston, MA.
2000
Thinking Big, Director/Writer/Producer, Educational Productions, GBH.
1996
Call to Lead, Director/Writer/Co-Producer, Northern Light Productions and National Park Service, Harpers Ferry, WV.