The recent announcement that golfing icon Tiger Woods would be the subject of a two-part HBO documentary series set in motion a heated debate in the documentary industry about equity, power, and BIPOC's filmmakers' demands for structural change.
Moderator:
Marcia Smith, President of Firelight Media
Panelists:
Grace Lee, directed and produced And She Could Be Next, POV's first broadcast series about women of color transforming American politics as candidates and as grassroots organizers. Grace was also a producer and director on Asian Americans, a groundbreaking five-part PBS series that casts a fresh lens on U.S. history through the stories, contributions, and challenges of Asian Americans. Grace is also a member of the documentary branch at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and co-founder of the national filmmaker led collective Asian American Documentary Network (A-DOC).
Marjan Safinia, Iranian documentary filmmaker whose films examine identity, community, and social justice. With Grace Lee, Marjan produced and directed And She Could Be Next. Other works include: Seeds and But You Speak Such Good English. Until 2018, Marjan was the longest-serving President of the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association, and the only woman of color to lead since its founding in 1982. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Chicken & Egg Pictures, a member of the Academy, and one of five co-hosts of The D-Word.
Iyabo Boyd, founder and director of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, whose mission is to bolster the creative and professional success of women and non-binary people of color working in the documentary industry, and to challenge the often marginalizing norms of the documentary field. Prior to Brown Girls, Iyabo held positions in development, program management, and funding at the Points North Institute, First Look Media's Topic.com, Kickstarter, Good Pitch, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Tribeca Film Institute, and IFP. Iyabo is also a producer, screenwriter, and director of fiction and documentary projects that have screened at the Berlinale, Sundance, Tribeca, and BlackStar Film Festival.
Geeta Gandbhir, who is an award-winning director, producer, and editor. As director, she won best documentary at the News & Doc Emmy's for I Am Evidence, and Outstanding Politics and Government Doc for Armed With Faith. As editor, won a Primetime Emmy for Spike Lee's HBO documentary series, When the Levees Broke. And also for the HBO film, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. Other films she edited include: Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown and My Neighbourhood, and When the Levees Broke, all of which won Peabody Awards.
September 19, 2024
The Black Movie House as Refuge | Beyond Resilience
Join Firelight Media on YouTube Live for a conversation with the visionaries behind the most exciting Black-run movie theaters in the U.S.