Our new film “The Five Demands” is premiering in Los Angeles in the 31st Pan-African Film Festival, February 17-18, 2023!
February 14, 2023
"The Five Demands" awarded the Henry Hampton Award
The Roxbury International Film Festival has awarded The Five Demands the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking at ROXFILM2023!
A little bit about the Henry Hampton Award.
HENRY HAMPTON AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING is awarded to a film and filmmaker who has created a film in the way of Henry Hampton whose attention to detail and use of film to inform and educate, inspires audiences and uplifts histories that are often not fully told.
Henry Hampton (1940 – 1998) was the Founder and Executive Director of the Boston based independent film and television company, Blackside, Inc, the largest Black owned documentary film production company in America. He was a renowned producer whose films “Eyes on the Prize,” “The Great Depression,” “America’s War on Poverty,” and “I’ll Make Me a World,” to name a few, were not only critically acclaimed but important in chronicling political and social movements in America, told from a wider perspective His life was dedicated to using the power of the media to inform and education people of the often unknown pieces of our history and hopefully inspiring a change hearts and minds.
Henry Hampton grew up in St. Louis, MO and graduated from Washington University his first calling was to be a Dr. but dropped out of medical school and went to work for the Unitarian Universalist Church as Director of Information. This would be life changing as it took him to the march from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and event that would Eyes on the Prize.
Henry Hampton had always felt that the history of black lives was always being told from the perspective of white filmmakers and he sought to change the narrative by creating films that offered a different perspective and coordinated a team of diverse filmmakers to help tell that story. His attention to detail and deep appreciation of research from his days in journalism, he set out to create a standard among filmmakers who worked with him on his projects.
Henry Hampton has been widely recognized for his outstanding contributions to history and journalism. His true legacy is the incredible number of filmmakers that were led, trained and inspired by his commitment to excellence and truthful storytelling. Among them and Boston based at one point in their filmmaking careers, Orlando Bagwell, Lillian Benson, Callie Crossley, Jim DeVinney, Jon Else, Judith Vecchione, Louis Massiah, Sam Pollard, Judy Richardson, Terry Rockefeller, Paul Stekkler, Tracy Strain and dozens of others helped him to make his dreams come true and change the face of documentary filmmaking in the 21st century.
