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About this Screening

Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Wounded Knee, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The Murder of Emmett Till) presents his latest documentary Freedom Riders, the powerful, harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders’ belief in non-violent activism were sorely tested as mob violence and bitter racism greeted them along the way.

Freedom Riders features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the rides firsthand.

Screening followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker and a reception.


About the Artist

Stanley Nelson, an Emmy-winning MacArthur “genius” Fellow, is co-founder and Executive Producer of Firelight Media, which provides technical education and professional support to emerging documentarians; and co-founder of the for-profit documentary production company, Firelight Films.

His latest film Wounded Knee is part of the landmark series on Native Americans We Shall Remain. The film produced for American Experience premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally in May 2009.

Nelson’s oeuvre spans the range of documentary forms. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Templepreviewed in April 2006 at the Tribeca and San Francisco Film Festivals to sold-out audiences and won awards at both festivals. Jonestown was subsequently shortlisted for the Academy Awards and won the International Documentary Association Award for its use of archival footage.

Nelson has also served as Executive Producer on a number of award winning films including, HIP HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Faubourg Treme – The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, and Faces of Change.

Nelson’s other award-winning, independently produced films include Methadone: Curse or Cure; Free Within Ourselves, a profile of four contemporary African American artists; and Puerto Rico: Our Right to Decide. His credits as a television producer include What Can We Do About Violence?, a Bill Moyers program; Listening To America with Bill Moyers; and Michael Moore’s TV Nation. Nelson was a Senior Consultant to the award-winning HBO program, On the Record with Bob Costas.

Nelson holds a B.F.A. in film from the City College of New York. He was a fellow at the American Film Institute and a Revson Fellow at Columbia University, served on the Fulbright media fellowship committee, and was a Regents’ Lecturer at the University of California.  He has taught film at Howard University and the Graduate School of Journalism’s Documentary Program at University of California Berkeley. He served as the Belle Zeller Visiting Professor in Public Policy at Brooklyn College and has trained broadcast journalists in Rwanda. Nelson is a frequent speaker on new media and the “digital future” for filmmakers of color.

He is a regular lecturer at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s National Producers Academy.

Nelson served as a juror for the documentary competitions of the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, the 2002 Independent Feature Project, and the National Endowment for the Humanities media panel.

 

http://firelightmedia.org/about/our-team/stanley-nelson/stanley-nelson/

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