Congratulations to Laurens Grant, director of the new documentary JESSE OWENS, which will be featured on Opening Night of the Full Frame Film Festival on Thursday April 12th in Durham, NC. The festival will run through April 15th. Here is more information about the film: JESSE OWENS is a Firelight Films production for the PBS [...]

Congratulations to Laurens Grant, director of the new documentary JESSE OWENS, which will be featured on Opening Night of the Full Frame Film Festival on Thursday April 12th in Durham, NC. The festival will run through April 15th. Here is more information about the film: JESSE OWENS is a Firelight Films production for the PBS [...]

As American Promise heats up on Kickstarter, the urgency of our film and campaign was thrown into sharp relief Tuesday as the New York Times reported that black students, especially boys, face much harsher discipline in public schools than other students. “The undeniable truth is that the everyday education experience for too many students of color violates the [...]

  We’ve raised over $40,000 – and we have just 5 days left to reach our goal of $50,000. Our Kickstarter campaign has been featured on the Sundance Institute Blog, Ground Control Parenting, what (not) to doc, Kenneth in the (212), Loop21 and ebogjonson – and this week, Michele’s guest-blogging for Ebony Mom Politics. This comes amidst the amazing news that a [...]

Last week, we got the opportunity to present work-in-progress clips from American Promise at the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) Symposium in Washington, DC. The response from the audience of parent advocates was overwhelming. Many parents recognized their children’s experiences onscreen. Several expressed how refreshing it was to see middle class stories of black [...]

  We’re thrilled that Haiti: One Day, One Destiny is now playing in the short documentary program of the 20th Annual Pan African Arts & Film Festival in Los Angeles.  Don’t miss the next screening: Friday, Feb 17@1:15pm In the aftermath of Haiti’s January 12, 2010 earthquake, Michèle Stephenson set out to tell the stories of [...]

“2011 has been the year of what they call the Arab Spring,” Phillip Jackson told the panel Stepping Up: The Power of the Parent Advocate at Education Nation. “2011 must also become the year of the American Parent Fall – this fall.” As demonstrators began gathering in the financial district several blocks south, Jackson told [...]

According to a study released yesterday by the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern University,  minority youth (African Americans,  Latinos and Asian Americans aged 8 to 18) spend an average of 13 hours per day consuming media of some kind. That’s more than 4.5 hours more than their white counterparts. The differences persist [...]

We are thrilled to announce that AN AMERICANPROMISE (2013) – our 12-year documentary that examines the complexities of race, parenting, privilege and education at the dawn of the 21st Century – has been named a grantee of the Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund for 2011. The fund selects documentary film projects that “humanize socially important issues from around the [...]

As the main characters of An American Promise, a 12-year documentary about education, parenting and race in New York City, begin their college application process, other families around the city are grappling with very different school admissions processes. In the past four weeks, the New York Times has examined the surreal admissions experience for parents [...]