Independent filmmaker Yvonne Welbon will introduce her documentary, Sisters in Cinema (2003), and answer questions after its screening at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 14, in Hoyt Hall on the University of Rochester’s River Campus.
Welbon’s film offers an overview of the lives and work of African-American women who made contributions as feature film directors from the early part of the 20th century until today. Welbon began the project after realizing she knew of only one African-American woman director when she began film school in 1991.
She has created more than a dozen award-winning works that have been screened on public television, cable, and in film festivals around the world. Welbon received a bachelor’s degree in history from Vassar College, a master of fine arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a doctoral degree in radio, television, and film from Northwestern University. Sisters in Cinema was developed from a book based on her Ph.D. dissertation.
One of her films, Living With Pride: Ruth Ellis @ 100 (1999), has won 10 best-documentary awards. Ellis was a businesswoman, artist, and community activist whose Detroit home became a meeting place for African-American lesbians and gays who were discriminated against in bars before the civil rights movement.
The screening is free and sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies and the Film and Media Studies Program at the University of Rochester. For more information, contact (585) 275-7235.