This event begins at 12:30 PM CT on Nov 20 and will be available in our platform after it streams live until Nov 22.
How can filmmaking about and in the South shift from extraction to authenticity that is truly representative of our rich and nuanced region, embodies anti-racism, and is driven by values of accountability to the people and communities involved? This will be an interactive space for film and media professionals to come into conversation about both the content they produce and the practices used to make it. Featuring Natalie Bullock Brown and Molly Murphy of Working Films; writer and filmmaker April Dobbins; and writer/producer/director and curator Lana Garland (producer of The Passing On featured at NOFF2020). This live panel will be followed by a brief q&a open to virtual audience members.
Natalie Bullock Brown
Natalie Bullock Brown is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated producer, and a Teaching Assistant Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at North Carolina State University. She is director/producer of baartman, beyoncé & me, a documentary work-in-progress that explores the impact of beauty ideals on Black women and girls; and is a producer on award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt’s upcoming PBS documentary, HAZING. Natalie is also StoryShift Strategist for Wilmington, NC based Working Films, where she guides the organization’s work in ethical and accountable documentary storytelling. Natalie is a regular contributor to #BackChannel, a monthly segment on the North Carolina public radio program, The State of Things. For more than a decade, Natalie was an assistant professor of film and broadcast media in the Department of Media & Communications at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh. She also served as co-host of Black Issues Forum, a public affairs program on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s statewide public television network. Natalie was also an associate producer on documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ 10 part PBS series, Jazz. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from Howard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Northwestern University. Natalie hails from Chicago, IL and lives in Raleigh, NC.
Lana Garland
Lana Garland has worked as a Creative Director, Director, and Writer/Producer in television and film in the US and Europe. Her work has included creating content for HBO and BET in America, and TV2 in Denmark. In documentary film, she has freelanced on films such as Bowling For Columbine and HBO’s Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. Lana is a Gordon Parks IFP screenwriting finalist, a Worldfest Houston finalist, a Telly Award winner, and a NATPE fellow. As a Fulbright Specialist, she taught film at Makerere University in Uganda. As the festival director and curator of the Hayti Heritage Film Festival, Lana is focused on developing a Black & Southern film ecosystem. She is the recipient of the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Award from the Durham Arts Council and serves on Gov. Roy Cooper’s Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming.
April Dobbins
April Dobbins is a writer and filmmaker based in Miami. She is currently at work on her feature documentary Alabamaland, which explores the lives of three Black women and their evolving relationships to their 688-acre family farm through the years. She has been a Sundance Institute Knight Fellow, Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow, and Wyncote Filmmaker Fellow. Her short films have screened at festivals across the globe. She has received support from Sundance Institute, Southern Documentary Fund, ITVS, Fork Films, International Documentary Association, and Firelight Media, to name a few. Her writings and photographs have been published in a number of places, including Miami New Times, Sugarcane Magazine, Calyx Journal, Cimarron Review, Philadelphia City Paper and Harvard’s Transition magazine. In 2018, she was awarded an Ellies Creator Award by Oolite Arts. Her work is deeply rooted in Black southern experiences, which she detailed in “Home is Where the Heart of the Story Is,” one of her TEDx talks. She serves as the Director of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships at the University of Miami. She holds master’s degrees in international relations and motion pictures and is currently a graduate student at Harvard University.
Molly Murphy
Molly Murphy co-directs Working Films, In her nineteen year tenure, she has served in many different roles. She has planned and directed national media engagement campaigns, facilitated partnerships and coordinated coalitions centered on the use of documentaries to enhance communication, reach beyond the choir, and make an impact on the issues of our time. Molly has designed and led dozens of training for filmmakers, grassroots organizations, and NGOs focused on using film and online media to effect change. At Working Films, she is responsible for overall organizational management, programmatic strategy, institutional partnerships, and fundraising. Molly also serves on the board of Justice for My Sister (JFMS), a collective that trains women of color, non-binary youth, and foster youth with a culturally-relevant and trauma-informed approach to tell stories through a gender equality and racial justice lens.
This event begins at 12:30 PM CT on Nov 20 and will be available in our platform after it streams live until Nov 22.
How can filmmaking about and in the South shift from extraction to authenticity that is truly representative of our rich and nuanced region, embodies anti-racism, and is driven by values of accountability to the people and communities involved? This will be an interactive space for film and media professionals to come into conversation about both the content they produce and the practices used to make it. Featuring Natalie Bullock Brown and Molly Murphy of Working Films; writer and filmmaker April Dobbins; and writer/producer/director and curator Lana Garland (producer of The Passing On featured at NOFF2020). This live panel will be followed by a brief q&a open to virtual audience members.
Natalie Bullock Brown
Natalie Bullock Brown is an award-winning and Emmy-nominated producer, and a Teaching Assistant Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at North Carolina State University. She is director/producer of baartman, beyoncé & me, a documentary work-in-progress that explores the impact of beauty ideals on Black women and girls; and is a producer on award-winning filmmaker Byron Hurt’s upcoming PBS documentary, HAZING. Natalie is also StoryShift Strategist for Wilmington, NC based Working Films, where she guides the organization’s work in ethical and accountable documentary storytelling. Natalie is a regular contributor to #BackChannel, a monthly segment on the North Carolina public radio program, The State of Things. For more than a decade, Natalie was an assistant professor of film and broadcast media in the Department of Media & Communications at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh. She also served as co-host of Black Issues Forum, a public affairs program on UNC-TV, North Carolina’s statewide public television network. Natalie was also an associate producer on documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ 10 part PBS series, Jazz. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Film Production from Howard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Northwestern University. Natalie hails from Chicago, IL and lives in Raleigh, NC.
Lana Garland
Lana Garland has worked as a Creative Director, Director, and Writer/Producer in television and film in the US and Europe. Her work has included creating content for HBO and BET in America, and TV2 in Denmark. In documentary film, she has freelanced on films such as Bowling For Columbine and HBO’s Unchained Memories: Readings from the Slave Narratives. Lana is a Gordon Parks IFP screenwriting finalist, a Worldfest Houston finalist, a Telly Award winner, and a NATPE fellow. As a Fulbright Specialist, she taught film at Makerere University in Uganda. As the festival director and curator of the Hayti Heritage Film Festival, Lana is focused on developing a Black & Southern film ecosystem. She is the recipient of the Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Award from the Durham Arts Council and serves on Gov. Roy Cooper’s Advisory Council on Film, Television, and Digital Streaming.
April Dobbins
April Dobbins is a writer and filmmaker based in Miami. She is currently at work on her feature documentary Alabamaland, which explores the lives of three Black women and their evolving relationships to their 688-acre family farm through the years. She has been a Sundance Institute Knight Fellow, Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellow, and Wyncote Filmmaker Fellow. Her short films have screened at festivals across the globe. She has received support from Sundance Institute, Southern Documentary Fund, ITVS, Fork Films, International Documentary Association, and Firelight Media, to name a few. Her writings and photographs have been published in a number of places, including Miami New Times, Sugarcane Magazine, Calyx Journal, Cimarron Review, Philadelphia City Paper and Harvard’s Transition magazine. In 2018, she was awarded an Ellies Creator Award by Oolite Arts. Her work is deeply rooted in Black southern experiences, which she detailed in “Home is Where the Heart of the Story Is,” one of her TEDx talks. She serves as the Director of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships at the University of Miami. She holds master’s degrees in international relations and motion pictures and is currently a graduate student at Harvard University.
Molly Murphy
Molly Murphy co-directs Working Films, In her nineteen year tenure, she has served in many different roles. She has planned and directed national media engagement campaigns, facilitated partnerships and coordinated coalitions centered on the use of documentaries to enhance communication, reach beyond the choir, and make an impact on the issues of our time. Molly has designed and led dozens of training for filmmakers, grassroots organizations, and NGOs focused on using film and online media to effect change. At Working Films, she is responsible for overall organizational management, programmatic strategy, institutional partnerships, and fundraising. Molly also serves on the board of Justice for My Sister (JFMS), a collective that trains women of color, non-binary youth, and foster youth with a culturally-relevant and trauma-informed approach to tell stories through a gender equality and racial justice lens.