Carol Denise Betts, known professionally as Niecy Nash, is an American actress, comedian, and television host. Her acting career began in the late 1990s, with appearances in the films Boys on the Side (1995) and Cookie's Fortune (1999). She garnered recognition for her portrayal of Deputy Raineesha Williams in the comedy series Reno 911!, along with hosting the Style Network show Clean House (2003—2010), for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award.
Aunjanue L. Ellis-Taylor is an American actress. Known for her work in several film and television productions, she has received several accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. She is a recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, two NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award, and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee of an Academy Award and Golden Globe. In 2011, she founded her independent distribution company ARRAY.
Samuel Bazawule, known professionally as Blitz Bazawule and Blitz the Ambassador, is a Ghanaian filmmaker, author, visual artist, rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer.
Black women filmmakers have made contributions throughout the history of film. According to Nsenga Burton, writer for The Root, "the film industry remains overwhelmingly white and male. In 2020, 74.6 percent of movie directors of theatrical films were white, showing a small decrease from the previous year. In terms of representation, 25.4 percent of film directors were of ethnic minority in 2020. Of the 25.4 percent of minority filmmakers, a small percentage was female.
Takeshi Fukunaga is a Japanese filmmaker based in New York.
Victoria Mahoney is an American actress and filmmaker. Her debut feature was 2011’s Yelling to the Sky.
Tina Mabry is an American film director and screenwriter from Tupelo, Mississippi. Following the release of her first feature film Mississippi Damned (2009), she was named one of '25 New Faces of Indie Film' by Filmmaker magazine and among the 'Top Forty Under 40' by The Advocate. Mabry was named a James Baldwin Fellow in Media by United States Artists.
Ayanda is a 2015 South African film directed by Sara Blecher and starring Fulu Mugovhani, OC Ukeje, and Nthati Moshesh. The festival title of the film was Ayanda and the Mechanic. The film was picked up for a November 2015 release by independent film distribution company ARRAY. The film received positive reviews.
Amanda Marsalis is an American film director and photographer.
Jewel's Catch One was a dance bar owned by Jewel Thais-Williams. It was located at 4067 West Pico Boulevard in the Arlington Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Opened in 1973, it was the longest running black gay dance bar in Los Angeles. After nearly closing in 2015, it was purchased by Mitch Edelson and his father Steve Edelson - who reopened under new management. Briefly called Union after the change in management, it has since reverted to the Catch One moniker.
13th is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Ava DuVernay. It explores the prison-industrial complex, and the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States". The title refers to the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude, except as punishment for convicted criminals. The film argues that this exemption has been used to continue the practice of involuntary servitude in the form of penal labor.
When They See Us is a 2019 American crime drama television miniseries created, co-written, and directed by Ava DuVernay for Netflix, that premiered in four parts on May 31, 2019. It is based on events of the 1989 Central Park jogger case and explores the lives and families of the five Black and Latino male suspects who were falsely accused then prosecuted on charges related to the rape and assault of a white woman in Central Park, New York City. The series features an ensemble cast, including Jharrel Jerome, Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Jovan Adepo, Michael K. Williams, Logan Marshall-Green, Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman, Niecy Nash, Aunjanue Ellis, Marsha Stephanie Blake, and Kylie Bunbury.
Lingua Franca is a 2019 Philippine-American drama film edited, written, produced, and directed by Filipina filmmaker-actress Isabel Sandoval. It is Sandoval's third feature film, her first international co-production, her first primarily in English, and her first following her gender affirmation. The film stars Sandoval as Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman who works as a caregiver for Olga, an elderly Russian-Jewish woman in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. In pursuit of a man willing to provide a marriage-based green card to her, she worries about possible deportation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement while becoming romantically involved with Olga's adult grandson, Alex. The film's supporting cast includes Eamon Farren, Ivory Aquino, P.J. Boudousqué, Lev Gorn, and Lynn Cohen.
Ainu Mosir is a 2020 Japanese drama film directed by Takeshi Fukunaga. It features a story about a young Ainu boy, and deals with issues around the conflict between his personal thoughts, modern Japan, and the way of his traditional Ainu heritage. The film featured as a premier at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Learn to Swim is a Canadian drama film written by Thyrone Tommy and Marni Van Dyk and directed by Tommy in his feature-length directorial debut. The film centres on a stormy romantic relationship between Dezi and Selma, two talented but troubled jazz musicians.
Stephanie Turner is an American actress and filmmaker. Turner's film Justine premiered at the 2019 Newport Beach Film Festival. Turner won Best Narrative Feature Performance at the 2019 Napa Valley Film Festival for her performance in the film. Turner was a director on Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar on OWN.
Bantú Mama is a 2021 Dominican drama film directed by Ivan Herrera and written by Ivan Herrera and Clarisse Albrecht. Produced by Ivan Herrera, Clarisse Albrecht, Nicolas LaMadrid and Franmiris Lombert, it was filmed in the Dominican Republic, France and Senegal. The film tells the story of Emma, a French woman of African descent who manages to escape after being arrested in the Dominican Republic. She finds shelter in the most dangerous district of Santo Domingo, where she is taken in by a group of children. By becoming their protégée and maternal figure, she experiences an unimaginable change in her destiny.
Origin is a 2023 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It is based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as she writes the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Over the course of the film, Wilkerson travels throughout Germany, India, and the United States to research the caste systems in each country's history.
