On the Small Screen

Neema Barnette is the first African American woman sitcom director. Barnette was the first African American woman to get a three-picture deal with Sony. In 1990, she founded Harlem Girl Productions Corporation. Since 1997, She has directed multiple seasons and episodes of a variety of television series including A Different World, Gilmore Girls, Queen Sugar, Blindspot, Luke Cage, Paradise Lost, Black Lightning, 2 seasons of Bosch for Amazon, Jane The Virgin, Raising Dion season 1, Being Mary Jane, Love Is, The Good Cop for Netflix, to name a few and most recently in 2020 Genius: Aretha (episodes 2 & 3) and, in 2021, Amazon‘s new series, Harlem. Barnette has directed stage, ten TV movies, and four feature films. Sky Captain was her first film which she wrote & directed as part of the American Film Institute’s (AFI) Directing Workshop for Women in 1985. Her 2003 film Civil Brand is a low-budget feature on women in prison who stage an uprising to protest their treatment won five film festivals, opened the Pan African Film Festival, the Urban Film Festival Best Feature Award, won the American Black Film Festival Best Feature Award and accepted into Sundance and got theatrical release by Lionsgate. Her 1997 film, Spirit Lost, is a psychological thriller with a love triangle that includes a ghost. Her most recent feature film is Woman Thou Art Loosed: On The 7th Day, her third for theatrical release. The film is a thriller and family drama following the story of a marriage on the rocks, which received an NAACP Image Award Nomination for Best Independent Feature in 2013 and Best American Feature Film Award from the African Film Oscars as well as winning the Best Director Award. She has won numerous awards, honors, and nominations, among them an Emmy Award for her after school special, To Be A Man, DGA nomination & Peabody Award for TV movie Different Worlds, 2 NAACP Image Awards for the Showtime movie Run For The Dream: The Gail Devers Story. Neema is a recipient of the Bronze Lens Pioneer Genius Award, The President Genius Award from the African American Film Marketplace, The Sojourner Truth Award from the Cannes Black Festival, The Reel Sista’s Pioneer Award, & numerous others.

Lisa France is a 20 year veteran of the film business. She directed her first feature film, Anne B, Real, in 2003, which won more than 30 film festival awards and nominations, including two Independent Spirit Award nominations (Debut Performance and the John Cassavetes Award). She then filmed Love and Suicide in Cuba before its theatrical release through AMC Select, and The Unseen, which sold to Netflix, Starz, and Encore. Her award-winning short film debut Love in Tow starred Zach Braff and Quentin Crisp. Her first documentary, Roll with Me, which also garnered numerous awards, debuted at The Woodstock Film Festival and was a 2018 Slamdance Official Selection, later acquired and distributed by ARRAY Releasing. France‘s direction of 2 episodes (502/507) of Queen Sugar 2021 marks France’s television directorial debut.