David M. Massey is an Academy Award-Nominated filmmaker with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications & Education from Ohio Dominican University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Advanced Film & Television from the American Film Institute. He is the first African American in the history of the Academy Awards to be nominated for an Oscar in the Live-Action Short Film category with Last Breeze of Summer (1992). Massey is the former co-chair of the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers, West (BAD-West) He held that position for fourteen years when he was hand-picked by the founder, Saint Clair Bourne, in 2007.
A former radio announcer and television sports reporter for WBNB TV, a CBS affiliate in US Virgin Islands, Massey has produced and directed several films and television shows. Men of Courage is an hour docudrama that received a NAACP Image Award and aired on BET. Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, a documentary on the 31st December Women’s Movement in Ghana, West Africa, led by the former First Lady of Ghana. Fespaco is a feature documentary narrated by Danny Glover on Africa’s largest and oldest film festival. Nature’s Little Secrets, is a film promoting the people, events and beauty of the British Virgin Islands. Under the UCE Productions banner, Massey produced six short films including Island Song that won the Audience Award at the Pan African Film Festival in 2013. When Justice Isn’t Just, a short documentary distributed by First Run Features in 2015 examined the law enforcement shootings of unarmed African Americans.
Massey’s latest projects are Where We’re From a feature doc that chronicles the LA independent hip hop movement in the early 90s is being distributed by Shout Studios; Not All Lost is a reality-based, celebrity driven PBS television program has aired in over hundred PBS markets; Hinika, in post was photographed in rural Ethiopia, documents the opening of a new hospital and medical school; Medical Racism: The New Apartheid, scrutinizes healthcare in the Black community and Africa; Tip of the Spear, depicts a historical overview of the Congressional Black Caucus and Passage, a live-action film set in 1600 Western Africa is a 2021 Academy considered movie.
Massey has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including The Martin Ritt Scholarship; the 2011 PBS Innovation Award; the National Education Association “Advancement of Learning Through Broadcasting” award; the Heartland Film Festival’s Crystal Heart. He is also an Eastman Kodak Second Century Honoree. Additionally, Massey is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, serves on the Oscar qualifying festival committee and the Student Academy Awards committee.
Donna brings experience, creativity, and a commitment to excellence to her projects in media and politics. An Emmy-nominated television producer, Ms. Guillaume began her career in Channel 2 Newsroom, then moved to the Los Angeles CBS Network Bureau of the “CBS Evening News” becoming a top-notch researcher and interviewer unafraid of powerful or controversial material. She was then a producer on “Two on the Town,” a news magazine, for five years at KCBS. She co-created and executive produced the animated series “Happily Ever After”; which is still running on HBO. Her documentary work as an executive producer includes “Reading their Hearts Out,” “Middle School Confessions,” “Unchained Memories: Reading from the Slave Narratives, “all on HBO, coordinating producer on the PBS film “Passion and Memory,” and consulting producer on “John Lewis: Get in the Way,” which aired last year on PBS.
Ms. Guillaume is a founder and former board of chair of Artists for New South Africa (ANSA). She’s also a former board member of the TransAfrica Forum. A graduate of Harvard University. Donna’s work has garnered a Cable Ace Award, a Christopher Award, the Humanitas Award, and IFFF (International Family Film Festival) Award, and multiple Emmy nominations. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America, NABJ (National Association of Black Journalist) , and BADWest (Black American Documentary Filmmakers). She is also a supporter of Big Sisters of Los Angeles, Girls Inc. and is the former program director of the National Foster Youth Institute (NFYI).
Charles is both a television and a film producer with a career spanning four decades.
Among his many credits is RED TAILS, the award-winning LUCASFILM that portrayed the incredible exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed African American pilots of World Word ll. Charles also executive produced “John Lewis: Get in the Way,” the PBS film that documents the groundbreaking life and career of Representative John Lewis, whose achievements as both a civile rights activist and U.S. Congressman are unparalleled. He launched his extensive television career as a producer on the award-winning series, The Rockford Files. Since then he has executive produced such long-running series as MAGNUM P.I./ QUANTUM LEAP/ B.I. STYRKER, JAG and NCIS currently broadcasting in over 200 countries worldwide.
Charles’s career experience has garnered him innumerable awards and commendations for the expertise and sound creative experience he has brought to the varied number of projects he had successfully produced.
Mel Donalson | Research Donalson received his Ph.D. in American Studies from Brown University, and he was a professor at Bates College, UC-Santa Barbara, Pasadena City College, UCLA, and California State University-Los Angeles. He taught courses and seminars in African American Studies, American Literature, American Film History, Gender and Sexuality, and Creative Writing.
In addition to his published essays, he was the Editor of Cornerstones: An Anthology of African American Literature and Co-Editor of the Encyclopedia of 20TH Century African American Literature. His critical books include Black Directors in Hollywood, Masculinity in the Interracial Buddy Film, and Hip Hop in American Cinema. With his short stories appearing in several journals, Donalson also published three novels: The River Woman, Communion, and The Third Woman. At the same time, his poetry has been included in numerous periodicals, leading to his published collection, entitled Revelations.
In 2017, his one-act play, The Corner, was performed in the Paul Robeson Theater Festival in Los Angeles. In that same year, Donalson wrote, produced, and directed the full-length drama, Shout at the Fremont Theatre, South Pasadena, California.
As a screenwriter and filmmaker, he has written, produced, and directed the short fictional films, A Room Without Doors (1998) and Performance (2009). More recently, he worked as an Associate Producer on the documentary, Medical Racism: The New Apartheid (2021), and a Writer-Producer on the short fictional film, Passage (2021).
