Virginia Elizabeth "Geena" Davis is an American actress, activist, producer, and former model. She is the recipient of an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, and has been nominated for a British Academy Film Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2019, she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her work fighting gender bias on and off-screen in Hollywood.
Wardell Stephen Curry II is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, and as the greatest shooter in NBA history, Curry is credited with revolutionizing the sport by inspiring teams and players to more frequently utilize the three-point shot. An eight-time NBA All-Star and eight-time All-NBA selection, including four times on the first team, he has been named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice, has won four NBA championships, an NBA Finals MVP Award, and an NBA All-Star Game MVP Award.
Viola Davis is an American actress and producer. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Tony Awards, she is the only African-American to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017, and in 2020, The New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Clementa Carlos "Clem" Pinckney was an American politician and pastor who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate, representing the 45th District from 2000 until his death in 2015. He was previously a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1997 through 2000.
Michelle Morgan is a Canadian actress, producer, director and writer best known for her role as Lou Fleming on the CBC series Heartland.
Marshall Curry is an Oscar-winning American documentary director, producer, cinematographer and editor. His films include Street Fight, Racing Dreams, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Point and Shoot, and A Night at the Garden. His first fiction film was the Academy Award-winning short film The Neighbors' Window (2019).
Bayer Leevince Mack is an American record executive and filmmaker. He is the publisher of the late-1990s, early-2000s urban entertainment website HOT 104.com, the founder of Block Starz Music and the director of The Czar of Black Hollywood.
On June 17, 2015, a white supremacist terrorist mass shooting occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among those people who were killed was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. This church is one of the oldest black churches in the United States, and it has long been a center for organizing events which are related to civil rights.
The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, often referred to as Mother Emanuel, is a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Founded in 1817, Emanuel AME is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the Southern United States. This, the first independent black denomination in the United States, was founded in 1816 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Kim A. Snyder is an American filmmaker and producer. Previously, she spent some time contributing to Variety.
The Bentonville Film Festival (BFF) is an American film festival held annually in Bentonville, Arkansas that focuses on diversity.
Joseph Quinn is a British actor. He has appeared on British television in Dickensian (2016), the miniseries Howards End (2017) and Catherine the Great (2019). He has also had supporting roles in the BBC series Les Misérables and Strike. In 2022, he gained wider attention for playing Eddie Munson in Season 4 of the series Stranger Things.
Step Up is an American drama television series, based on the Step Up film series. It premiered on January 31, 2018, on YouTube Red. The series was created by Holly Sorensen, who also serves as an executive producer alongside Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. In May 2018, it was announced that YouTube had renewed a second season; which premiered on March 20, 2019. In August 2019, the series was cancelled after two seasons. In May 2020, Starz picked up the series for a third season.
This Changes Everything is a 2018 American documentary film, directed by Tom Donahue. An examination of sexism in the Hollywood film industry, the film interviews a variety of actresses and women filmmakers on their experiences in the industry.
QT8: The First Eight is a 2019 American documentary film co-produced and directed by Tara Wood. The documentary chronicles the life of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, from his start at Video Archives up to the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). The film features interviews from the frequent collaborators of his films.
Giving Voice is a 2020 American documentary film, directed and produced by James D. Stern and Fernando Villena. The film follows the 2018 edition of the annual August Wilson Monologue Competition entered by thousands of high school students for the opportunity to perform on Broadway. Viola Davis, John Legend, Constanza Romero and Nicholas Caprio serve as executive producers.
Gossamer Folds is a 2020 American drama film directed by Lisa Donato and starring Alexandra Grey and Jackson Robert Scott. Yeardley Smith serves as one of the producers of the film. It is Donato's directorial feature debut.
Brian Tetsuro Ivie is an American filmmaker, documentarian, and film producer. He is most well known for his documentary film, Emanuel, which tells the story of the 2015 Charleston church shooting, which took the lives of nine innocent African Americans. The film was produced by Viola Davis and Mariska Hargitay, & by NBA star Stephen Curry. Ivie is the youngest active producer for Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media empire.
Cynthia Graham Hurd was a librarian and community leader in Charleston, South Carolina. She was killed in the Charleston church shooting at the age of 54. After her death, the Cynthia Graham Hurd Foundation was created, the St. Andrews Library branch of the Charleston County Public Library was renamed the Cynthia Graham Hurd St. Andrews Regional Library, and a mural was painted on the John L. Dart Branch Library in her honor. Annual honorary library events, an award, and several scholarship funds have been established in her name.
