THE 2ND SEX &amp; THE 7TH ART: WOMEN DIRECTORS IN FILM

Bite-sized blog post: Anita W. Addison

One of the first African American women to hold a senior producer position at a major television network ANITA W. ADDISON directed television for major television shows in the eighties and nineties.

Before taking on the network career she took film classes at NYU and attended UCLA at night in order to get her Masters – after she obtained a Masters in journalism from Columbia and analyzed data for Nielsen ratings for a small independent station. Her short film Savannah was nominated for an Academy Award in 1984.

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Bite-sized blog post: Nnegest Likké

NNEGEST LIKKE grew up in Oakland California. Her first film Phat Girlz featured Mo’Nique and was a box-office success.

Her most recent feature Ben & Ara recently screened at the Nevada Women’s Film Festival.

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Where to watch her films:

AMAZON (Streaming)

Bite-sized blog post: Kathleen Collins

KATHLEEN COLLINS has been recognized as the first African American woman to write and direct a feature length film.

Losing Ground (1982) was Collins’ second film and first feature (The Cruz Brothers and Miss Malloy was less than an hour so not quite a feature). Unfortunately, it was also her last. She died of cancer at 46.

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PURCHASE FROM MILESTONE FILMS

Bite-sized blog post: Kasi Lemmons

In 1997 Roger Ebert. wrote of KASI LEMMON’s first feature film, “There has been no more assured and powerful film debut this year than Eve’s Bayou.” She won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature that year.

Lemmons appeared as an actor in several films before her directorial debut and has gone on to direct several feature films with notable actors and in 2002 gave the tribute to Sidney Poitier at the 74th Academy Awards celebration.

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Where to watch her films:

AMAZON (PRIME STREAMING)

Bite-sized blog post: Dawn Porter

DAWN PORTER is a documentary filmmaker whose directorial debut Gideon’s Army (2013) premiered on HBO. The film about public defenders allowed her to use her knowledge as an attorney as well as skills as a filmmaker.

She runs the production company Trilogy Films and her second film Spies of Mississippi (2014) was part of the PBS Independent Lens Series.

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VIMEO

PBS

Bite-sized blog post: Dee Rees

DEE REES began studying business and then went on to get her MFA from NYU. She interned for Spike Lee before making her first feature film Pariah (2011) based on the short she directed of the same name. The film premiered at Sundance and she then went on to write and direct the Emmy award winning HBO film Bessie (2015).

She is currently developing a television series with Shonda Rhimes.

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Bite-sized blog post: Cheryl Dunye

After directing and producing several shorts CHERYL DUNYE made her first feature film The Watermelon Woman (1996) exploring sexuality and race and film, funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts.

After the success of The Watermelon Woman and the HBO movie Stranger Inside (2001) Dunye directed the Hollywood vehicle My Baby’s Daddy (2004) written by Eddie Griffin. She continues to write and direct as well as teaching at various Universities in California.

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FANDOR

FIRST RUN FEATURES

AMAZON (PRIME STREAMING)

VIMEO

Bite-sized blog post: Leslie Harris

LESLIE HARRIS was the first African American woman to win a Special Jury Prize at Sundance with her debut feature film Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992). She got distribution for the film with Miramax for the self-financed, self-produced feature which she edited on her own in her apartment.

Harris teaches at New York University and is fundraising for her feature I Love Cinema.

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Where to watch her films:

VIMEO

Bite-sized blog post: Gina Prince-Bythewood

After attending UCLA film school GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD began working in the industry as a writer on A Different World. She used her free time and experiences as a basketball player to write her first feature Love & Basketball (2000) where she worked with actress Sanaa Lathan to turn her into a realistic basketball player (her first instinct was to hire a player not an actor).

Bythewood is in talks with Fox for a new television series, Shots Fired, about the aftermath of police shootings in a small town in Tennessee, where she would reunite with Lathan

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