As awards season finally comes to a close and spring arrives in full swing, today we’re excited to celebrate and welcome our newest cohort of six incredible Fellows into the 2024 Film Independent Amplifier Fellowship, supported by founding sponsor Netflix and its Fund for Creative Equity. Now in its third year, the program provides direct support to emerging and mid-career Black or African American filmmakers.
Over the course of the twelve-month program, Amplifier Fellows will receive bespoke support to propel their careers and a selected project forward both creatively and strategically, as well as customized mentorship pairings including a Netflix executive as an industry advisor and also a board member from Film Independent.
Each Fellow will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co, and financial and coaching in partnership with The Jill James. Each Fellow will also receive a $30,000 unrestricted grant (!) to provide sustainability and/or support their creative endeavors.
Over the course of the twelve-month program, Amplifier Fellows will receive bespoke support to propel their careers and a selected project forward both creatively and strategically, as well as customized mentorship pairings including a Netflix executive as an industry advisor and also a board member from Film Independent.
Each Fellow will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co, and financial and coaching in partnership with The Jill James. Each Fellow will also receive a $30,000 unrestricted grant (!) to provide sustainability and/or support their creative endeavors.
- 3/13/2024
- by Film Independent
- Film Independent News & More
Exclusive: Film Independent has named the Fellows and projects selected for the 2024 edition of its Amplifier Fellowship, a program that provides direct support to emerging and mid-career Black or African American filmmakers. They are Zandashé Brown (The Matriarch), Moira Griffin (The Prince of 7th Ave: The Legend of WilliWear/Willi Smith), Crystal Kayiza (The Gardeners), Mobolaji Olambiwonnu (Chosen Fathers), Avril Speaks (Pure), and Monique Walton (Anita).
Over the course of the year-long program, supported by Netflix and its Fund for Creative Equity, Fellows will receive bespoke support to further both their career and current projects as well as customized mentorship pairings with a Netflix executive and board member from Film Independent. Each will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co, financial and business advisement in partnership with The Jill James, and a $30,000 unrestricted grant, intended to support the sustainability of their creative endeavors.
“The Amplifier Fellowship provides...
Over the course of the year-long program, supported by Netflix and its Fund for Creative Equity, Fellows will receive bespoke support to further both their career and current projects as well as customized mentorship pairings with a Netflix executive and board member from Film Independent. Each will also receive professional coaching in partnership with Renee Freedman & Co, financial and business advisement in partnership with The Jill James, and a $30,000 unrestricted grant, intended to support the sustainability of their creative endeavors.
“The Amplifier Fellowship provides...
- 3/13/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
“Isn’t it fabulous?!”
It’s an unseasonably warm fall afternoon in New York City, and Keli Goff is walking THR through the pieces in her “cl-office,” a unit in her Manhattan apartment building that she has fashioned into a combined closet and office. An accomplished journalist and screenwriter, Goff has outfitted it with standard office necessities. But the rest of the space is brimming with her extensive vintage clothing collection — namely, more than 100 pieces by Black American designers. The “fabulous” one Goff is telling us about is a breezy leopard-print jumpsuit by Patrick Kelly. Known for bold, colorful designs worn by such muses as Pat Cleveland and Grace Jones, the designer, who died in 1990 at age 35, worked in Atlanta and New York before moving to Paris in 1980, becoming the first American designer admitted to the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter, the governing body of the French ready-to-wear industry. “ think it...
It’s an unseasonably warm fall afternoon in New York City, and Keli Goff is walking THR through the pieces in her “cl-office,” a unit in her Manhattan apartment building that she has fashioned into a combined closet and office. An accomplished journalist and screenwriter, Goff has outfitted it with standard office necessities. But the rest of the space is brimming with her extensive vintage clothing collection — namely, more than 100 pieces by Black American designers. The “fabulous” one Goff is telling us about is a breezy leopard-print jumpsuit by Patrick Kelly. Known for bold, colorful designs worn by such muses as Pat Cleveland and Grace Jones, the designer, who died in 1990 at age 35, worked in Atlanta and New York before moving to Paris in 1980, becoming the first American designer admitted to the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter, the governing body of the French ready-to-wear industry. “ think it...
- 12/9/2023
- by Leah Faye Cooper
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When Bethann Hardison co-created the Black Girls Coalition in 1988 — a group formed with Iman to shine a spotlight on women of color in modeling — she didn’t know she was laying the foundation for a discussion about diversity in fashion that would continue for decades.
“I just wanted to celebrate Black models. I wanted them to see each other,” says Hardison, the subject of the new documentary Invisible Beauty. Co-directed by Frédéric Tcheng (Dior and I, Halston) and Hardison and in theaters Sept. 15, the film details the fashion industry’s history of racial exclusion and her unflagging efforts over decades to push for progress. One minute into the film, actress Tracee Ellis Ross calls Hardison the “godmother of fashion.”
Bethann Hardison
The title Invisible Beauty is a nod to Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man, in which an unnamed Black man narrates what life is like for African Americans in the South.
“I just wanted to celebrate Black models. I wanted them to see each other,” says Hardison, the subject of the new documentary Invisible Beauty. Co-directed by Frédéric Tcheng (Dior and I, Halston) and Hardison and in theaters Sept. 15, the film details the fashion industry’s history of racial exclusion and her unflagging efforts over decades to push for progress. One minute into the film, actress Tracee Ellis Ross calls Hardison the “godmother of fashion.”
Bethann Hardison
The title Invisible Beauty is a nod to Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man, in which an unnamed Black man narrates what life is like for African Americans in the South.
- 9/9/2023
- by Brande Victorian
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Magnolia Pictures releases the film in NYC theaters on Friday, September 15 with expansion to follow on Friday, September 22.
Progress in the face of systemic injustice does not occur naturally, it is urged along by sheer force of will — often by one radical visionary. In the case of the fashion industry’s racism, that person is Bethann Hardison. A trailblazing model in the 1970s, she became one of the most important agents of the ’90s, discovering the first male supermodel Tyson Beckford and mentoring Naomi Campbell and Iman. When fickle trends threatened to erase all of her hard work in the aughts, she boldly called out the industry’s blatantly racist casting practices, causing a seismic shift once and for all.
Hardison’s remarkable and fabulous life serves as an inspiring lesson in affecting radical change from within the system,...
Progress in the face of systemic injustice does not occur naturally, it is urged along by sheer force of will — often by one radical visionary. In the case of the fashion industry’s racism, that person is Bethann Hardison. A trailblazing model in the 1970s, she became one of the most important agents of the ’90s, discovering the first male supermodel Tyson Beckford and mentoring Naomi Campbell and Iman. When fickle trends threatened to erase all of her hard work in the aughts, she boldly called out the industry’s blatantly racist casting practices, causing a seismic shift once and for all.
Hardison’s remarkable and fabulous life serves as an inspiring lesson in affecting radical change from within the system,...
- 1/27/2023
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
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