C.A. Griffith  

C. A. (Crystal) Griffith is an independent filmmaker and Associate Professor of Film and Media Production in the School of Theatre and Film at Arizona State University (ASU). Griffith was raised in Washington, D.C., sojourned in Barcelona, Spain at age 16 where she learned fluent Spanish and developed a passion for filmmaking. She received her B.A. in Communication from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in Art Studio from the University of California - Santa Barbara. Griffith's film credits include JUICE (1992), award-winning PBS and BBC documentaries such as A LITANY FOR SURVIVAL: THE LIFE AND WORK OF AUDRE LORDE (cinematographer), BRANFORD MARSALIS: THE MUSIC TELLS YOU (camera operator) and DEPECHE MODE 101 (both directed by D.A. Pennebaker), EYES ON THE PRIZE I & II, St.Clair Bourne's MAKING 'DO THE RIGHT THING' and music videos from Tracy Chapman and Public Enemy to The Rolling Stones. Griffith's publications appear in Reinventing North America (forthcoming), Filming Difference, Black Feminist Cultural Criticism, Black Women Film and Video Artists, The Wild Good, the journals Meridians, SIGNS and CALYX. Recruited to help build ASU's new film production program, she relocated to Phoenix in 2006. Previous academic appointments: Columbia College Chicago, Smith College and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

A finalist for the 2010 Sundance Screenwriters Labs, Griffith's feature-length screenplay, BLUES FOR THE SEA is adapted from her short screenplay, winner of the 2007 Martha Muñoz Award of the Latino Screenplay Competition. Also awarded a 2004 Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Media Arts, and a 2000 Panavision/Kodak University Outreach Program Grant, Griffith's short film, BORDER.LINE...FAMILY PICTURES won the Vision in Color Award of the New England Film/Video Festival. In 1999, she received an in-kind grant from Digital Media's Avid Feature Film Camp for her film, DEL OTRO LADO (THE OTHER SIDE). Shot on location in Mexico City and screened extensively at U.S. and international film festivals, Griffith directed, co-edited and co-produced this Spanish language, independent feature on love, AIDS and immigration.

Griffith is also co-founder of QUAD Productions, a non-profit media collective focused on the research, development and production of film and video projects that support and effect progressive social consciousness. QUAD produces short, social justice themed documentaries, provides media training to progressive community organizations and frequently collaborates with local, national and international organizations and individual activists with forward thinking and action. (02/11)