Exclusive: Cinetic Media has signed New York-based documentary filmmaker Contessa Gayles for management across all media.
Most recently, Gayles took to SXSW with her film Songs from the Hole, which garnered strong reviews and won the festival’s Visions Audience Award. Described as a documentary visual album, pic follows musician James “JJ’88” Jacobs as he writes about his innermost struggles while serving a double life sentence.
Up next for Gayles is the Tribeca Festival debut of her documentary The Debutantes, made in collaboration with NBC News Studios, Westbrook Studios, and BET Studios. Through personal video diaries and dance, the doc watches as teens Amelia, Dedra, and Teylar navigate identity and gender norms while pursuing dreams of college, medicine or business.
Gayles’ documentary short, Founder Girls, exec produced by Queen Latifah, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and was broadcast on BET. Previously, she was a producer at CNN, where she created,...
Most recently, Gayles took to SXSW with her film Songs from the Hole, which garnered strong reviews and won the festival’s Visions Audience Award. Described as a documentary visual album, pic follows musician James “JJ’88” Jacobs as he writes about his innermost struggles while serving a double life sentence.
Up next for Gayles is the Tribeca Festival debut of her documentary The Debutantes, made in collaboration with NBC News Studios, Westbrook Studios, and BET Studios. Through personal video diaries and dance, the doc watches as teens Amelia, Dedra, and Teylar navigate identity and gender norms while pursuing dreams of college, medicine or business.
Gayles’ documentary short, Founder Girls, exec produced by Queen Latifah, premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Festival and was broadcast on BET. Previously, she was a producer at CNN, where she created,...
- 4/22/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Bavc Media has named the latest group of nonfiction filmmakers to take part in its prestigious documentary film fellowship program. The octet announced today will receive $10,000 each in “unrestricted funding, mentorship, industry access, feedback sessions, and workshops during an immersive 9-month experience.”
The Bavc MediaMaker Fellowship was established in 1991 to support emerging filmmakers and diverse projects. This year’s cohort includes Ademola (Ellas Vinieron de Las Nubes / They Came From the Clouds); Chelsi Bullard (Unfiltered); Caron Creighton (Wood Street); Julia Hunter (This is Me Loving You); Patrick G. Lee (Untitled Kqt Project); Ivan MacDonald (When They Were Here); Khai Thu Nguyen (The Full Thao), and Pallavi Somusetty (Coach Emily). [Scroll for more about the filmmakers and their projects].
The fellowship provides “two intensive convenings in San Francisco, a slate of virtual workshops throughout the year, and all-access travel to the International Documentary Association’s biennial Getting Real conference in Los Angeles and the Camden International Film Festival in midcoast Maine.
The Bavc MediaMaker Fellowship was established in 1991 to support emerging filmmakers and diverse projects. This year’s cohort includes Ademola (Ellas Vinieron de Las Nubes / They Came From the Clouds); Chelsi Bullard (Unfiltered); Caron Creighton (Wood Street); Julia Hunter (This is Me Loving You); Patrick G. Lee (Untitled Kqt Project); Ivan MacDonald (When They Were Here); Khai Thu Nguyen (The Full Thao), and Pallavi Somusetty (Coach Emily). [Scroll for more about the filmmakers and their projects].
The fellowship provides “two intensive convenings in San Francisco, a slate of virtual workshops throughout the year, and all-access travel to the International Documentary Association’s biennial Getting Real conference in Los Angeles and the Camden International Film Festival in midcoast Maine.
- 4/2/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
SXSW organizers on Monday announced the Audience Award winners for the festival’s recently wrapped 31st edition.
The list includes Tracie Laymon’s dramedy Bob Trevino Likes It, which prevailed in Narrative Feature Competition, and the action thriller Monkey Man marking Dev Patel’s directorial debut, which dominated the Headliner section. Other notable winners included A24’s Sing Sing starring Colman Domingo, which won out in Festival Favorite, and Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ dark veteran dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe, starring Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales and Ed Harris, which won in Narrative Spotlight.
“We are beyond grateful to all our filmmakers, audiences, and volunteers for creating one of the most exciting SXSW Film & TV Festivals ever,” said Claudette Godfrey, VP Film & TV. “We knew our audiences would flip for our program filled with explosive studio films, surprising indie dramas and comedies, riveting TV, powerful documentaries, gripping gems from around the world, and groundbreaking Xr,...
The list includes Tracie Laymon’s dramedy Bob Trevino Likes It, which prevailed in Narrative Feature Competition, and the action thriller Monkey Man marking Dev Patel’s directorial debut, which dominated the Headliner section. Other notable winners included A24’s Sing Sing starring Colman Domingo, which won out in Festival Favorite, and Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ dark veteran dramedy My Dead Friend Zoe, starring Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales and Ed Harris, which won in Narrative Spotlight.
“We are beyond grateful to all our filmmakers, audiences, and volunteers for creating one of the most exciting SXSW Film & TV Festivals ever,” said Claudette Godfrey, VP Film & TV. “We knew our audiences would flip for our program filled with explosive studio films, surprising indie dramas and comedies, riveting TV, powerful documentaries, gripping gems from around the world, and groundbreaking Xr,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Dev Patel’s Monkey Man has won the SXSW Headliner audience award and Bob Trevino Likes It directed by Tracie Laymon has earned the Narrative Feature Competition Prize.
Patel has garnered strong reviews for his feature directing debut in which he stars as a Mumbai underground boxer out to avenge his mother’s death. Universal holds worldwide rights and will distribute in the US and UK on April 5.
Bob Trevino Likes It stars John Leguizamo and Barbie Ferreira ahs enjoyed a successful SXSW after it won the Narrative Feature Competition juried award announced last week.
It tells of a woman...
Patel has garnered strong reviews for his feature directing debut in which he stars as a Mumbai underground boxer out to avenge his mother’s death. Universal holds worldwide rights and will distribute in the US and UK on April 5.
Bob Trevino Likes It stars John Leguizamo and Barbie Ferreira ahs enjoyed a successful SXSW after it won the Narrative Feature Competition juried award announced last week.
It tells of a woman...
- 3/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
Visual albums — a bunch of videos strung together to commemorate the release of new work from a musical artist — typically either feel like shameless promotion or a vanity project. “Songs From the Hole” not only earns the label honestly, but actually takes this co-called next-level artistic endeavor to, well, another level: Chronicling the incarceration of James “JJ’88” Jacobs, who went to jail at age 15 for murder, co-writer and director Contessa Gayles combines nakedly vulnerable reflections from Jacobs with poetic recreations for a deeply affecting experience, both musically and dramatically.
“Songs From the Hole” immediately lays out the landscape of James’ crime and its repercussions: three days after killing a man on the streets of Los Angeles, James’ older brother Victor was murdered, leaving their parents to grieve the death of one child and the imminent incarceration of another. Fifteen years into a 40-years-to-life sentence, James has turned to music to...
“Songs From the Hole” immediately lays out the landscape of James’ crime and its repercussions: three days after killing a man on the streets of Los Angeles, James’ older brother Victor was murdered, leaving their parents to grieve the death of one child and the imminent incarceration of another. Fifteen years into a 40-years-to-life sentence, James has turned to music to...
- 3/9/2024
- by Todd Gilchrist
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: NBC News Studios today announced it has partnered with Westbrook Studios and BET Studios to co-produce the feature documentary The Debutantes, directed by Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker Contessa Gayles. The Debutantes is the story of an intergenerational group of Black women and girls in Canton, Ohio revitalizing the debutante ball, a once popular tradition of the Black middle class.
Contessa is a non-fiction film director, Dp, editor and an Emmy-nominated producer. She tells stories about identity, socio-political movement, healing, Black liberation and radical imagination. As an independent filmmaker, her work has been supported by Impact Partners, Field of Vision, Artemis Rising Foundation, the International Documentary Association, the California Arts Council and Queen Latifah’s Queen Collective.
Filmed at the 2022 Cotillion, this coming-of-age film follows Canton’s first group of Black debutantes in over a decade as they prepare for their formal debut to society as young women. Long considered a symbol of middle class respectability,...
Contessa is a non-fiction film director, Dp, editor and an Emmy-nominated producer. She tells stories about identity, socio-political movement, healing, Black liberation and radical imagination. As an independent filmmaker, her work has been supported by Impact Partners, Field of Vision, Artemis Rising Foundation, the International Documentary Association, the California Arts Council and Queen Latifah’s Queen Collective.
Filmed at the 2022 Cotillion, this coming-of-age film follows Canton’s first group of Black debutantes in over a decade as they prepare for their formal debut to society as young women. Long considered a symbol of middle class respectability,...
- 2/8/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Over the last four years, Queen Latifah’s Queen Collective has developed into a flourishing pipeline for women and non-binary filmmakers of color in both the film and advertising industries.
“We’re finally cooking with gas in the way that I would like it to be, in the way that I originally saw it,” Latifah tells Variety, calling on a break from rehearsals for the 54th NAACP Image Awards, which she hosted last Saturday night.
Latifah opened the show with a rousing rendition of “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die,” reminding audiences that the First Lady of Hip-Hop also has Academy Award-nominated pipes. Ultimately, the veteran awards ceremony emcee earned rave reviews for keeping the show upbeat, on brand and right at two hours, plus she stunned in four wardrobe changes.
During the broadcast, too, was a special segment called “Direct Effect,” which celebrated women filmmakers. Procter & Gamble,...
“We’re finally cooking with gas in the way that I would like it to be, in the way that I originally saw it,” Latifah tells Variety, calling on a break from rehearsals for the 54th NAACP Image Awards, which she hosted last Saturday night.
Latifah opened the show with a rousing rendition of “I’m Gonna Live Till I Die,” reminding audiences that the First Lady of Hip-Hop also has Academy Award-nominated pipes. Ultimately, the veteran awards ceremony emcee earned rave reviews for keeping the show upbeat, on brand and right at two hours, plus she stunned in four wardrobe changes.
During the broadcast, too, was a special segment called “Direct Effect,” which celebrated women filmmakers. Procter & Gamble,...
- 3/3/2023
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Queen Latifah is determined to fix one of the most glaring flaws in the film industry: the unrelenting lack of representation, access, and opportunity for women filmmakers of color.
"When you speak to two out of three Black people, when they say they don't see themselves represented in the media, that's a problem," she tells Popsugar. The multihyphenate says she's found "one of the ways in which we can make a difference," though. That solution? Queen Collective, Procter & Gamble's powerful talent development initiative she helped launch in 2019, in partnership with her company Flavor Unit Entertainment and Tribeca Studios, that aims to create more gender and racial equality behind the camera.
Inequality in the entertainment industry is by no means a new or surprising phenomenon - history keeps a good record of that. Even after strides have been made, the jarring gender gap continues, like with the 2023 Oscars shutting...
"When you speak to two out of three Black people, when they say they don't see themselves represented in the media, that's a problem," she tells Popsugar. The multihyphenate says she's found "one of the ways in which we can make a difference," though. That solution? Queen Collective, Procter & Gamble's powerful talent development initiative she helped launch in 2019, in partnership with her company Flavor Unit Entertainment and Tribeca Studios, that aims to create more gender and racial equality behind the camera.
Inequality in the entertainment industry is by no means a new or surprising phenomenon - history keeps a good record of that. Even after strides have been made, the jarring gender gap continues, like with the 2023 Oscars shutting...
- 2/28/2023
- by Njera Perkins
- Popsugar.com
Eleven documentary projects from six countries have been selected for the Intl. Documentary Assn.’s annual Enterprise Documentary Fund Production Grant.
Selected from 248 applicants, the 15 directors behind the 11 docus will receive a total of 600,000 in production grants.
Established in 2017, the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund supports in-depth explorations of original, contemporary stories that integrate journalistic practice into the filmmaking process. The fund is financially supported by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with additional support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. In its six-year history, the fund has given over 4.5 million in grant money to nonfiction filmmakers.
The 11 selected projects are currently in production in six countries: Armenia, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Russia and the United States. Of the 15 directors behind the docs, 70 are filmmakers of color, 70 are women or gender-non-conforming filmmakers, and 40 identify as members of the LGBTQ community.
The docus explore various topics, including the climate crisis, Japan’s antiquated rape laws and institutions,...
Selected from 248 applicants, the 15 directors behind the 11 docus will receive a total of 600,000 in production grants.
Established in 2017, the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund supports in-depth explorations of original, contemporary stories that integrate journalistic practice into the filmmaking process. The fund is financially supported by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with additional support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. In its six-year history, the fund has given over 4.5 million in grant money to nonfiction filmmakers.
The 11 selected projects are currently in production in six countries: Armenia, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Russia and the United States. Of the 15 directors behind the docs, 70 are filmmakers of color, 70 are women or gender-non-conforming filmmakers, and 40 identify as members of the LGBTQ community.
The docus explore various topics, including the climate crisis, Japan’s antiquated rape laws and institutions,...
- 9/23/2022
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
35 international documentary projects include 11 first-time feature directors.
New works from Mark Cousins and Cow producer Kat Mansoor are among 35 documentary projects selected for Sheffield DocFest’s MeetMarket pitching forum, which returns as an in-person event for 2022 from June 27-28.
The event will run in-person for the first time since 2019; and will continue online in the days following the festival. The selected titles are a mixture of theatrical features, and projects being made for television.
Scroll down for the full list of projects
Cousins is presenting UK title A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things, produced by Adam Dawtrey and Mary Bell.
New works from Mark Cousins and Cow producer Kat Mansoor are among 35 documentary projects selected for Sheffield DocFest’s MeetMarket pitching forum, which returns as an in-person event for 2022 from June 27-28.
The event will run in-person for the first time since 2019; and will continue online in the days following the festival. The selected titles are a mixture of theatrical features, and projects being made for television.
Scroll down for the full list of projects
Cousins is presenting UK title A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things, produced by Adam Dawtrey and Mary Bell.
- 4/28/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
35 international documentary projects include 11 first-time feature directors.
New works from Mark Cousins and Cow producer Kat Mansoor are among 35 documentary projects selected for Sheffield DocFest’s MeetMarket pitching forum, which returns as an in-person event for 2022 from June 27-28.
The event will run in-person for the first time since 2019; and will continue online in the days following the festival. The selected titles are a mixture of theatrical features, and projects being made for television.
Scroll down for the full list of projects
Northern Irish filmmaker Cousins is presenting UK title A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things, produced by Adam Dawtrey and Mary Bell.
New works from Mark Cousins and Cow producer Kat Mansoor are among 35 documentary projects selected for Sheffield DocFest’s MeetMarket pitching forum, which returns as an in-person event for 2022 from June 27-28.
The event will run in-person for the first time since 2019; and will continue online in the days following the festival. The selected titles are a mixture of theatrical features, and projects being made for television.
Scroll down for the full list of projects
Northern Irish filmmaker Cousins is presenting UK title A Sudden Glimpse To Deeper Things, produced by Adam Dawtrey and Mary Bell.
- 4/28/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Firelight Media has revealed the newest Fellows selected for the 12th Firelight Documentary Lab, the organization’s flagship mentoring program.
The new fellows are Elizabeth Ai, Sisa Bueno, Ben Corona, Pati Cruz Martínez, Gerardo del Valle, Mohammadreza Enyi & Sara Khaki, Contessa Gayles, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo, JoeBill Muñoz, Fiz Olajide, Ashley Tyner & William Tyner and Xinyan Yu. Read about their projects below.
The projects the new class brings to the Fellowship include stories of resistance and resilience spanning the globe, with subjects ranging from a young poet from El Salvador to a community of refugee musicians from Vietnam, and a community of activists fighting for climate justice in Detroit. The 2021-23 Lab also includes multiple projects focused on formerly incarcerated individuals and their families.
Beginning with the 2021-23 class, Firelight will offer a $25,000 grant for each project accepted into the Documentary Lab — $10,000 more than in previous years — to provide financial support for the in-progress productions.
The new fellows are Elizabeth Ai, Sisa Bueno, Ben Corona, Pati Cruz Martínez, Gerardo del Valle, Mohammadreza Enyi & Sara Khaki, Contessa Gayles, Set Hernandez Rongkilyo, JoeBill Muñoz, Fiz Olajide, Ashley Tyner & William Tyner and Xinyan Yu. Read about their projects below.
The projects the new class brings to the Fellowship include stories of resistance and resilience spanning the globe, with subjects ranging from a young poet from El Salvador to a community of refugee musicians from Vietnam, and a community of activists fighting for climate justice in Detroit. The 2021-23 Lab also includes multiple projects focused on formerly incarcerated individuals and their families.
Beginning with the 2021-23 class, Firelight will offer a $25,000 grant for each project accepted into the Documentary Lab — $10,000 more than in previous years — to provide financial support for the in-progress productions.
- 12/2/2021
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
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