Tina Mabry

Last updated
Tina Mabry
Born (1978-02-09) February 9, 1978 (age 45)
Tupelo, Mississippi, United States
Nationality American
Occupation(s) Film director, screenwriter

Tina Mabry (born February 9, 1978) 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 . [1] [2] Mabry was named a James Baldwin Fellow in Media by United States Artists.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Early life

Tina Mabry was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1978. [1] After seeing Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry and Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball while an undergrad at the University of Mississippi, she determined she had to go into film and moved to Los Angeles. [3] She received her Masters of Fine Arts in Cinema and Television from the University of Southern California.

Career

Mabry began her film career with her short film Brooklyn's Bridge to Jordan (2005). In 2007, she wrote the film Itty Bitty Titty Committee . The film was directed by Jamie Babbit and premiered at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival.

Mabry made her feature film directing debut in 2009 with Mississippi Damned, which she also wrote and acknowledges draws from aspects of her own life. [1] [4] She received a film stock grant from Kodak, which enabled her to film it. The film was successful on the festival circuit, winning top prizes at the Chicago International Film Festival, Outfest, American Black Film Festival, and Urbanworld Film Festival. [1] It premiered on Showtime in 2011 and is currently streaming on Netflix courtesy of Ava DuVernay's ARRAY.

Mabry has written and directed two episodes of FutureStates produced by ITVS, including Ant starring Guillermo Díaz.

In 2015, Mabry was hired as a producer, writer, and director on the OWN series Queen Sugar , created by Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey.

Personal life

[5] [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimberly Peirce</span> American film director

Kimberly Ane Peirce is an American filmmaker, best known for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry (1999), which won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hilary Swank's performance. Her second feature, Stop-Loss, was released by Paramount Pictures in 2008. Her film Carrie was released on October 18, 2013. She is a governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and a National Board member of the Directors Guild of America.

NewFest: The New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival put on by The New Festival, Inc., is one of the most comprehensive forums of national and international LGBT film/video in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheryl Dunye</span> Liberian-American actress and director

Cheryl Dunye is a Liberian-American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye's work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians. She is known as the first out black lesbian to ever direct a feature film with her 1996 film The Watermelon Woman. She runs the production company Jingletown Films based in Oakland California.

<i>The Watermelon Woman</i> 1996 film by Cheryl Dunye

The Watermelon Woman is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film written, directed, and edited by Cheryl Dunye. The first feature film directed by a black lesbian, it stars Dunye as Cheryl, a young black lesbian working a day job in a video store while trying to make a film about Fae Richards, a black actress from the 1930s known for playing the stereotypical "mammy" roles relegated to black actresses during the period.

Outfest is an LGBTQ-oriented nonprofit that produces two film festivals, operates a movie streaming platform, and runs educational services for filmmakers in Los Angeles. Outfest is one of the key partners, alongside the Frameline Film Festival, the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival, and the Inside Out Film and Video Festival, in launching the North American Queer Festival Alliance, an initiative to further publicize and promote LGBT film.

Julie "J. D." Disalvatore was an American LGBT film and television producer/director and gay rights activist. She was also an animal rights activist. She was openly lesbian.

Michelle Ehlen is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actress best known for her comedic feature Butch Jamie.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ava DuVernay</span> American filmmaker (born 1972)

Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker and former film publicist. She is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee of an Academy Award and Golden Globe.

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.

<i>Mississippi Damned</i> 2009 film by Tina Mabry

Mississippi Damned is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Tina Mabry and starring Tessa Thompson, D. B. Woodside, Malcolm Goodwin, Malcolm David Kelley and Michael Hyatt. The film was based on Mabry's life growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi. It was filmed in and around Ahoskie, North Carolina.

Aurora Guerrero is a writer-director from California.

<i>Middle of Nowhere</i> (2012 film) 2012 film by Ava DuVernay

Middle of Nowhere is a 2012 independent feature film written and directed by Ava DuVernay and starring Emayatzy Corinealdi, David Oyelowo, Omari Hardwick and Lorraine Toussaint. The film was the winner of the Directing Award for U.S. Dramatic Film at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren Wolkstein</span> American film director

Lauren Wolkstein is an American film director, writer, producer and editor. She is known for directing, writing, and editing the 2017 film The Strange Ones with Christopher Radcliff and serving on the directorial team for the third season of Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar, which she followed with a producing director role in the fifth season. She is an Associate Professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Mahoney</span> American actress and filmmaker

Victoria Mahoney is an American actress and filmmaker. Her debut feature was 2011’s Yelling to the Sky.

Wu Tsang is a filmmaker, artist and performer based in New York and Berlin, whose work is concerned with hidden histories, marginalized narratives, and the act of performing itself. In 2018, Tsang received a MacArthur "genius" grant.

ARRAY is an independent distribution company launched by film maker and former publicist Ava DuVernay in 2011 under the name African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM). In 2015, the company rebranded itself as ARRAY.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewel's Catch One</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marina Rice Bader</span> Canadian-American writer, director, and film producer

Marina Rice Bader is a writer, director, and film producer. She is known for the films Anatomy of a Love Seen (2014), Raven's Touch (2015), and Ava's Impossible Things (2016). She was executive producer for Elena Undone (2010) and A Perfect Ending (2012). She started the Soul Kiss Films production company in 2009. She champions the LGBTQ+ community, saying "We could use more films with well-rounded LGBTQ+ characters, and I hope in some way I’m helping to address that issue."

C. Fitz is an advertising, marketing and filmmaking professional. In her digital work she has produced social media branding campaigns winning four Webby’s for creative content. As a filmmaker, TV showrunner and film director she has won multiple awards for her scripted and unscripted work. She is also an activist and speaker.

<i>Avas Impossible Things</i> 2016 American romance-drama film by Marina Rice Bader

Ava's Impossible Things is a 2016 American romance drama film written, produced and directed by Marina Rice Bader. It stars Chloe Farnworth, Susan Duerden, Abigail Titmuss, Lauryn Nicole Hamilton and Marc Hawes. The film had its premiere screening at the 2016 Outfest Los Angeles LGBT Film Festival on July 16, 2016, and was then made available on Vimeo as part of their 'Share the Screen' initiative.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "25 NEW FACES OF INDEPENDENT FILM". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  2. "Forty Under 40". The Advocate . 7 April 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  3. "Our Diverse 100: Meet Tina Mabry, the director turning negatives into positives". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2016-06-03.
  4. Moore, Marlon Rachquel (1 January 2011). "From a Real Place and Real People: Interview with Mississippi Damned Writer/Director Tina Mabry". Black Camera. 2 (2): 130–137. doi:10.2979/blackcamera.2.2.130. JSTOR   10.2979/blackcamera.2.2.130. S2CID   146154890.
  5. "Mississippi Damned - Crew". Mississippi Damned Official Website. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
  6. "Outfest Video Interviews: Kimberly Reed, Ashleigh Sumner, Tina Mabry". Pride.com . July 20, 2009. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  7. Anderson, Tre’vell (June 2, 2016). "Our Diverse 100: Meet Tina Mabry, the director turning negatives into positives". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 13 August 2019.