Yoruba Richen (born 1972, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Her work has been featured on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

, New York Times Op Doc, Frontline Digital, New York Magazine's website -The Cut, ''The Atlantic'' and ''Field of Vision''. Her film ''The Green Book: Guide to Freedom'' was broadcast on the Smithsonian Channel to record audiences and was awarded the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking.

Work

Richen produced and directed ''The New Black'' (2013), which won the audience award at

AFI Docs The AFI Docs (formerly Silverdocs) documentary film festival was an American international film festival. Created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel, it was held annually in Silver Spring, Maryland and Washington, D.C., fro ...

Frameline Film Festival The Frameline Film Festival (also known as San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival and formerly known as San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival; San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival) is an annual event that ...

and Philly Q Fest. It also won best documentary at Urbanworld Film Festival. ''The New Black'' was

nominated A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group or election to an office, in which case a ...

for an

NAACP Image Award The NAACP Image Awards is an annual awards ceremony presented by the U.S.-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to honor outstanding performances in film, television, theatre, music, and literature. The over 40 ...

and a

GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary The GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary is an annual award that honors documentaries for excellence in the treatment of LGBT (lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to t ...

. Her film ''Promised Land'' received a Diverse Voices Co-Production fund award from the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB; stylized as 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 ...

and was broadcast on

's POV in 2010. In 2007, she won a

Fulbright award The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

in filmmaking and traveled to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, where she began production on ''Sisters of the Good Death'', a documentary about the oldest African women's association in

the Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.'' Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sin ...

and the annual festival they hold celebrating the end of slavery. Yoruba won a Clio award for her short film about the Grammy-nominated singer Andra Day. Richen has also won Creative Promise Award at Tribeca All Access and was a Sundance Producers Fellow. She is a featured TED Speaker, a Fulbright fellow, a Guggenheim fellow and a 2016 recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker Award. Richen was chosen for the Root 100s list of African Americans 45 years old and younger who are responsible for the year's most significant moments and themes. She is the Founding Director of the Documentary Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

Education and early career

Richen is a graduate of

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, and lived in San Francisco for a time before moving back to New York City, where she worked for

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

as an associate producer for the investigative unit of

as well as a producer for the

independent news Independent News Co. was a magazine and comic book distribution business owned by National Periodical Publications, the parent company of DC Comics. Independent News distributed all DC publications, as well as those of a few rival publishers, ...

program ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long TV, radio, and Internet news program based in Manhattan and hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live ...

''.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Yoruba Richen
at

TEDTalk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

Yoruba Richen interview
with Katie Halper, ''The Katie Halper Show'',

WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...

''The New Black''
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Richen, Yoruba 1972 births Living people American documentary filmmakers American women screenwriters African-American film directors African-American film producers African-American screenwriters American lesbian artists American lesbian writers American LGBTQ film directors LGBTQ film producers Lesbian screenwriters American LGBTQ screenwriters American women documentary filmmakers Film producers from New York (state) Film directors from New York City Brown University alumni CUNY Graduate School of Journalism faculty 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women African-American women writers African-American women screenwriters

Work

Education and early career

Filmography

See also

References

Further reading

External links