Matters of Race
Examining racial dynamics in diverse communities across the United States, this four-part series explores how race shapes Americans' sense of national and individual identity.
How does race affect the way Americans view ourselves and others -- in the past, present, and future? This four-part series looks for answers in diverse communities, enlisting the perspectives of leading writers and emerging filmmakers. Examining racial dynamics in places like Los Angeles, Hawaiʻi, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and Siler City, North Carolina, Matters of Race travels the decade of the 1990s in search of our changing national identity.
ORLANDO BAGWELL - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & PRODUCER/DIRECTOR (RACE IS/RACE AIN'T)
A veteran filmmaker of eighteen years, Orlando Bagwell's extensive award-winning and internationally-acclaimed filmography includes: Executive Producer of Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery, produced by WGBH and nationally broadcast on PBS in October, 1999; Malcom X: Make It Plain, for The American Experience in 1995; Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History, for WETA, 1995; two films for the internationally celebrated Blackside Inc. series, Eyes on the Prize, Mississippi: Is This America? and Ain't Scared of your Jails. He was also the supervising producer on the national PBS series The Great Depression and a staff producer for the national PBS weekly program Frontline from 1988-89. In 1989, Orlando Bagwell founded ROJA Productions, an independent film and television production company and produced its first documentary Roots of Resistance: A Story of the Underground Railroad, for The American Experience. He served as Executive Vice President for Blackside, Inc. from 1991 to 1994 and continues today as the President of ROJA Productions.
JACQUIE JONES - SENIOR PRODUCER
Jacquie Jones is an award-winning writer, director and producer of documentary films. Her credits include producer/director of "Brotherly Love" an episode of the PBS series Africans in America: America's Journey through Slavery. Africans in America has received numerous awards including a Peabody Award in 1999. Jones' credits also include a feature-length documentary From Behind Close Doors: Sex in 20th Century America, which aired on Showtime in 1999 and a series of interstitials for the History Channel titled The World Before Us. This series of 15 shorts looks at arresting moments in international history relying primarily on eyewitnesses filmed on location in nine countries. Her other films include Switched at Birth and the award-winning short Freestyle, a portrait of female rap artists in the San Francisco area. In addition to her filmmaking, Jacquie Jones is a widely published critic of popular culture. She holds a BA in English from Howard University and an MA in documentary filmmaking from Stanford University.DALE PIERCE NIELSEN - SERIES PRODUCER
Dale Pierce Nielsen has been a vital part of the New York filmmaking community since 1986. She has served as Assistant Director on documentary films such as the Emmy Award-winning A Hymn for Alvin Ailey as well as the critically acclaimed Twilight Los Angeles and Malcolm X: Make It Plain. She began her film career as a production assistant on the feature film, Turk 182, and has since worked on more than 25 major theatrical films as Production Coordinator, Assistant Director and Associate Producer. Those films include Malcolm X, The Best Man, Blair Witch II, Having Our Say, Remember The Titans, One True Thing, The Preacher's Wife, Jungle Fever, 'Mo Better Blues and The Arrangement. Dale is also president of MBali Pictures, an independent film and video production company based in Brooklyn, NY. Dale is a native of Chicago, Ill., a graduate of Vassar College and a member of the Directors Guild of America.Program Producers:
Orlando Bagwell and Lulie Haddad ("Race Is/Race Ain't")John Valadez ("The Divide")
Sindi Gordon ("We're Still Here")
Phil Bertelsen ("EveryOther")
Mike Siv, Aram Collier and Spencer Nakasako ("Who I Became")
Dustinn Craig ("I Belong To This")
Writer: Danzy Senna ("EveryOther")
Co-Producers:Shola Lych ("EveryOther")
Sindi Gordon ("I Belong To This")
Jean-Philippe Boucicaut ("We're Still Here")
Associate Producers:
Bernardo Ruiz ("EveryOther")Malinda Campbell ("The Divide")
Amelia Leafaitulagi Niumeitolu, Van Dora Williams, Jahmani Perry ("We're Still Here")
Coordinating Producer: Sharon La Cruise
Featured Writers:Eric Liu, Ruben Martinez, John Edgar Wideman, Jane Lazarre
Cinematography:
Michael Chin, Steve Ferrier, Vincente Franco, Arthur Jafa, Orlando Bagwell, Harlan Bosmajian, Dustin Craig, Mike Siv & Aram Collier
Editor:
Sandra Christie, Jean-Philippe Boucicaut, Lewis Erskine, Dominic DeSantis, Mike Siv & Aram Collier
Music: Camara Kambon
