black directors
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Michael B. Jordan Is Getting Ready to Rumble With Bacardi, Setting New Directorial Project
Michael B. Jordan is stepping out of the boxing ring for a hot second and moseying on over to the director’s chair for Bacardi. According to Variety, the Creed II star is partnering with the popular rum brand to direct The Angels’ Share, a short film specially created to promote its new Premium Collection. Fancy.…
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Brown Girls and Beyond: Sam Bailey Is Adding New and Needed Voices to Our Narrative
Has there ever been a better time to be a black female content creator? Conventional logic would say no; after all, filmmaker Ava DuVernay just inked a $100 million dollar deal with Warner Bros., while Shonda Rhimes has moved her evolving empire of successful series to Netflix in a deal reportedly worth $150 million. And…
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Watch: Inside the Mind of a Random Fly Director
Terence Nance is the lead visionary behind HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness and was recently named as the director for Space Jam 2. His first film, 2012’s An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, won rave reviews at Sundance and put Nance on the map in the indie film world. The film even impressed Jay-Z, who became…
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Don't Talk About It, Be About It: The 2018 Emmys Prove Diversity Is Still a Work in Progress
The 70th Primetime Emmys opened with several racially charged jokes, talk of diversity and a celebrity-laden musical number called “We Solved It,” touting the most diverse group of nominees in Emmy history. But the joke was still on us, because most of the awards would still go to white nominees. The first winner of color…
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Watch: Filmmaker Shaka King Is Making Sure We Really See the Black Experience
Director and writer Shaka King is busy in the TV-and-film industry at the moment, but that wasn’t always the case. “It took a while, but once I started getting the work, it kept coming in. For a while I wasn’t getting shit, but ‘Mulignans’ really did a lot for my career,” says King, who hails…
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Watch: In Focus With Director Justin Tipping, Whose Film Kicks Challenges Our Perception of Manhood
Editor’s note: In Focus is a The Root TV series showcasing the new wave of black filmmakers. Justin Tipping is the writer and director of Kicks, a story set in Oakland, Calif., about a young teenager whose dream is to own a pair of fresh Air Jordans. Soon after he gets his hands on them,…
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Watch: In Focus With Director Steven Caple Jr., Who’s Set to Write HBO’s Emmett Till Miniseries
Editor’s note: In Focus is a video series showcasing the new wave of black filmmakers. Steven Caple Jr. is the writer and director of The Land, a coming-of-age tale set in Cleveland that tells the stories of four teens who aspire to be professional skateboarders. It is Caple’s first feature and stars The Wire’s Michael…