Michelle Parkerson is an American filmmaker and academic. She is an assistant professor in Film and Media Arts at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

and has been an independent film/video maker since the 1980s, focusing particularly on feminist, LGBT, and political activism and issues.

Early life

Michelle Parkerson was born and raised in Washington, DC. In the early 1980s, Parkerson and

Essex Hemphill Essex Hemphill (April 16, 1957 – November 4, 1995) was an openly gay American poet and activist. He is known for his contributions to the Washington, D.C. art scene in the 1980s, and for openly discussing the topics pertinent to the African-Amer ...

, a poet, activist, and friend of Parkerson's, would often perform spoken word poetry in D.C. coffeehouses and theaters.Duberman, Martin (2014). ''Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill and the Battlefield of AIDS''. New York: The New Press. pp. 36-38. . They received a grant from the

Washington Project for the Arts Washington Project for the Arts, founded in 1975, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and aid of artists in the Washington, D.C. area. History Alice Denney, a contemporary art collector active on the Washington scene, founded th ...

in 1983 to produce an "experimental dramatization" of their poetry entitled ''Murder on Glass''.

Career

Parkerson majored in TV and film production and graduated in 1974 with a B.A. in Communications from

with the short ''Sojourn'', a collaboration with Jimi Lyons, a cinematographer; the film won a Junior Academy Award. She is an alumna of the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

(AFI) Workshop for Women Directors, Class of 1989-91, where her classmates included

Rita Mae Brown Rita Mae Brown (born November 28, 1944) is an American feminist writer, best known for her coming-of-age autobiographical novel, ''Rubyfruit Jungle''. Brown was active in a number of civil rights campaigns and criticized the marginalization of le ...

and Lyn Goldfarb. Parkerson currently heads her own DC-based production company, Eye of the Storm Productions. Parkerson has received grants from the

Independent Television Service ITVS (Independent Television Service) is a service in the United States which funds and presents documentaries on public television through distribution by PBS and American Public Television, new media projects on the Internet, and the weekly seri ...

, the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...

, and the AFI as well as a fellowship from the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

. She was awarded the Prix du Public at the Festival International de Créteil Films de Femmes and the Audience and Best Biography Awards at the

San Francisco International Film Festival The San Francisco International Film Festival (abbreviated as SFIFF), organized by the San Francisco Film Society, is held each spring for two weeks, presenting around 200 films from over 50 countries. The festival highlights current trends in in ...

. Her films are distributed by

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from city-wide Women's Li ...

and

Third World Newsreel Third World Newsreel (formerly known as Newsreel) is an American media center and film distribution company based in New York City. History Newsreel A newsreel is a form of short documentary film, containing news stories and items of topic ...

. She is assistant professor in Film and Media Arts at

. She published a volume of poetry, ''Waiting Rooms'', in 1983. Parkerson was featured in the 2008 documentary '' black./womyn.: conversations with lesbians of African descent''.

Films

Gibson describes Parkerson as "a visionary risk taker". Gibson describes Parkerson's films as being identity-related: "highlight ngthe identities of black women as performers and social activists… serv ngas a major contributor to the development of a black documentary style that seeks a holistic approach to African-American life". Her documentaries feature major African-American figures: jazz musician

Betty Carter Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones; May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative inter ...

, musical group

Sweet Honey in the Rock Sweet Honey in the Rock is an all-women band, all-woman, African American, African-American a cappella ensemble. They are an United States, American three-time Grammy Award–nominated troupe who express their history as black women through song ...

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

activist

Stormé DeLarverie Stormé DeLarverie (December 24, 1920 – May 24, 2014) was an American woman known as the butch lesbian whose scuffle with police was, according to Stormé and many eyewitnesses, the spark that ignited the Stonewall uprising, spurring the cro ...

and writer

Audre Lorde Audre Lorde (; born Audrey Geraldine Lorde; February 18, 1934 – November 17, 1992) was an American writer, womanist, radical feminist, professor, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet," who ...

, with a particular focus on sexuality and LGBTQ activism in the latter two. Her fiction short ''Odds and Ends'' is a lesbian

Afrofuturist Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, and philosophy of science and history that explores the intersection of the African diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technocultu ...

science fiction story. Parkerson's "love note never sent" to Lorde in ''The Feminist Wire'' reflects the activist motivation of her own filmmaking:

The zen of Audre Lorde is in vogue. But the tangible impact of your activism will keep surfacing internationally and for generations to come as long as communities of color are still under siege, as long as a woman remains voiceless and abused, as long as the lesbian love that dared "speak its name" is threatened with sequester.

Filmography

* ''Sojourn'' (1973, with Jimi Lyons) * ''..But Then She's Betty Carter'' (1980) * ''I Remember Betty'' (1987) * ''Urban Odyssey'' (1991) * ''Storme: Lady of the Jewel Box'' (1991) * ''Odds and Ends'' (1993) * ''Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock'' (1983) (producer) * ''A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde'' (1995, with Ada Gay Griffin)

Awards

*Nominated for Grand Jury prize at

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in 1995 for ''A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde''

Bibliography

* Parkerson, Michelle. ''Waiting Rooms''. Common Ground Press (1983).

References

External links

* * * * Michelle Parkerson a
Women Make Movies
* Michelle Parkerson a
African Film Festival, New York
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkerson, Michelle Living people African-American film directors African-American film producers American film producers American documentary filmmakers American film directors Feminist filmmakers Lesbian feminists American lesbian artists African-American LGBT people Temple University faculty American women documentary filmmakers 21st-century African-American people 1953 births