Melvonna Ballenger

Ballenger was born in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1972, she was selected to attend a high school workshop for Minority Broadcast Journalists hosted by University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. She attended Stephens College for women, also in Columbia, before transferring to Howard University. There, she studied broadcast journalism, worked at WHUR-FM, and earned a bachelor's degree in communications. She moved to Los Angeles after graduating Howard and joined UCLA's M.F.A. program in film and television production.{{cite web |title=Zeinabu Davis on using film to tell stories about the black experience |url=https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/lifestyle/people/sd-me-one-davis-20161223-story.html |website=san domingo union-tribune |date=31 December 2016 |access-date=12 November 2019}}

Ballenger's first film was Rain (Nyesha), which she directed in 1978 during her time at UCLA. The film, which includes John Coltrane's song "After the Rain," depicts a typist who becomes increasingly politically empowered.{{cite web | url=https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/la-rebellion/films/rain-nyesha | title=Rain (Nyesha) | UCLA Film & Television Archive }} It received an honorable mention at Los Angeles's Black Talkies on Parade festival in 1982.

Ballenger's film Nappy-Headed Lady, later renamed "Pigtail Blues", was mentioned by the Star-Gazette newspaper as a "story of a black woman who changes her her hair style as she begins to appreciate her racial heritage".{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/278030663/?terms=melvonna%2Bballenger |title=3 Feb 1984, 23 - Star-Gazette at |publisher=Newspapers.com |date=1984-02-03 |accessdate=2022-06-05}} The film uses a mix of original video and documentary footage from the 1960s to explore the impact of Eurocentric beauty standards on Black women.{{cite web | url=https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/la-rebellion/melvonna-ballenger | title=Melvonna Ballenger | UCLA Film & Television Archive }}

John William mentioned Ballenger in his article, "Daughters of the Diaspora: A Filmography of Sixty-Five Black Women Independent Film- and Video-Makers".{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=John |title=DAUGHTERS OF THE DIASPORA: A Filmography of Sixty-Five Black Women Independent Film- and Video-Makers |journal=Cinéaste |date=1994 |volume=20 |issue=3 |pages=41–42 |jstor=41687325 }} Ballenger's student work at UCLA as part of the L.A. Rebellion helped her gain acknowledgment as an up-and-coming African American filmmaker.

• Rain (Nyesha) (1978, director){{cite web |last1=Ballenger |title=LA Rebellion |url=https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/la-rebellion/films/rain-nyesha |website=UCLA cinema and television archive |access-date=12 November 2019}}{{cite book |last1=Ballenger |title=2 Rebellious Unlearning: UCLA Project One Films (1967–1978) |pages=83–118 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt19631zg.7 |chapter=Rebellious Unlearning |year=2015 |isbn=9780520284678 |publisher=University of California Press }}
• Gidget Meets Hondo (1980, script)
• Nappy-Headed Lady (1983, director)
• Dreadlocks and the Three Bears (1991, cinematographer)
• Fragrance (1991, sound mixer)

{{Reflist}}

• Reid, Mark A. (ed.) African American Cinema: Through Black Lives Consciousness. {{ISBN|978-0-8143-4550-4}}
• Field, Allyson Nadia et al. (eds.) L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema. {{ISBN|978-0-520-96043-5}}

• {{IMDb name |0050725}}

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Category:African-American film directors

Category:African-American film producers

Category:1954 births

Category:2003 deaths

Category:20th-century African-American people

Category:21st-century African-American writers