SYNOPSIS
PRESS
"In its fusion of performance with personality, Royals' films conjures up an exciting vision of a new power being forged in the self-discovery of these extraordinary artists."
"*** 1/2 Highly recommended. Conjure Women is its own work of art, reminding the viewer of the simmering urgency and strength of the black female artist and of the simple, cathartic power of seeing the self."
SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS
- Twin Cities Black Film Festival
- Maysles Cinema
- Mill Valley Film Festival
- Prized Pieces International Film and Video Award – Cultural Affairs Documentary
- Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institute
- Women in the Directors Chair
- National Black Arts Festival
- American Film Institute
- Nationally broadcast on PBS
ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)
Demetria Royals is an award-winning independent filmmaker whose work has received support from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Black Programming Consortium, the Independent Television Service and the American Film Institute, among others. Ms. Royals was a 1999 Artist-in-Residence at the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue (Anna Deavere Smith, Founding Director) at Harvard University. She received an additional residency award, "Artist as Catalyst 2000," from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, as well as grants from the Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Production Fund and the National Endowment for the Arts Multidisciplinary Arts Program. Ms. Royals is the Director/Producer of "MAMA'S PUSHCART: Ellen Stewart and 25 Years of La MaMa E.T.C.," which has won numerous awards and been presented at film and video festivals around the world. Ms. Royals is currently the Director of the Film Program at Sarah Lawrence College, where she had brought a focus on digital storytelling and new media to the program. (09/09)
Louise Diamond (Producer) produced and co-edited the performance-based
feature documentaries directed by Demetria Royals, Conjure Women (1995,
85:00, nationally broadcast on PBS in 1997) and, most recently, Brothermen
(2001, 56:00). She is the Executive Producer of Mama's Pushcart: Ellen
Stewart and 25 Years of La MaMa E.T.C (1988, 52:00), which won numerous
awards, including at the San Francisco International Film and Video Festival,
and was broadcast on PBS. Ms. Diamond has produced the videowall
installations by Demetria Royals, Inventing Herself (Mill Valley Film
Festival, CA., 1993; the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC, 1995; National Black
Arts Festival, GA., 2002), as well as produced and collaborated with Ms.
Royals on the adaptation of "Mother Courage" in residency workshops, starting
at the Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue at Harvard University (1999).
Ms. Diamond earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Dramatic Writing from
New York University and is a 2002 Packard Future of Children Fellow in
Journalism. (09/20/02)
Subject Areas
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