Michelle Parkerson
{{Short description|American filmmaker and academic (born 1953)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Michelle Parkerson
| image = Michelle parkerson 4192053.JPG
| alt =
| caption = Parkerson in 2014
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1953|11|01}}
| birth_place = Washington D.C., U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| other_names =
| occupation = Filmmaker and academic
| known_for =
}}
Michelle Parkerson (born November 1, 1953) is an American filmmaker and academic. She was an assistant professor of Film and Media Arts at Temple University and has been an independent filmmaker since the 1980s, focusing particularly on feminist and LGBTQ political activism and issues.
Early life
Michelle Parkerson was born and raised in Washington, D.C.{{cite book |author=Foster |first=Gwendolyn Audrey |url=https://archive.org/details/womenfilmmakerso0000fost/page/128/mode/2up?q=washington |title=Women Filmmakers of the African & Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity |date=1997-05-01 |publisher=SIU Press |isbn=978-0-8093-2120-9 |pages=128 |url-access=registration}} In the early 1980s, Parkerson and Essex Hemphill, a poet, activist, and friend of Parkerson's, would often perform spoken word poetry in D.C. coffeehouses and theaters.{{Cite book |last=Duberman |first=Martin B. |url=https://archive.org/details/holdtightgentlym0000dube_q0g6/page/36/mode/2up?q=parkerson |title=Hold tight gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS |date=2014 |publisher=The New Press |isbn=978-1-59558-945-3 |location=New York |pages=36-38}} They received a grant from the Washington Project for the Arts in 1983 to produce an "experimental dramatization" of their poetry entitled Murder on Glass.
Education and career
Parkerson majored in TV and film production and graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts in communications from Temple University with the short film Sojourn, a collaboration with cinematographer Jimi Lyons; the film won a Junior Academy Award.{{cite journal |last1=Parkerson |first1=Michelle |last2=Gibson |first2=Gloria J. |date=1988 |title=Michelle Parkerson Interview |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27761407 |journal=Black Camera |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=5–8 |jstor= |id={{ProQuest|1309148948}}}}{{cite book |last=Tate |first=Greg |title=Flyboy in the Buttermilk: Essays on Contemporary America |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=1992 |isbn=9781501136979 |pages=254-255 |chapter=Cinematic Sisterhood |authorlink=Greg Tate}} She is an alumna of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women (1991-1993).{{Cite web |title=DWW+ ALUMS |url=https://conservatory.afi.com/dww-alums/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=AFI CONSERVATORY |language=en}}
Parkerson heads the DC-based production company Eye of the Storm Productions.{{cite book |author1=Waldman |first=Diane |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYFY9Yg_bXYC&pg=PA157 |title=Feminism and Documentary |author2=Walker |first2=Janet |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8166-3007-3 |page=157}}{{cite web |title=Eye of the Storm: The Films of Michelle Parkerson |url=http://www.scribe.org/about/eyestormfilmsmichelleparkerson |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808063718/http://www.scribe.org/about/eyestormfilmsmichelleparkerson |archive-date=2014-08-08 |access-date= |website=Scribe Video Center |publisher=}}
Parkerson has received funding from ITVS and the American Film Institute,{{Cite web |title=A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde |url=https://itvs.org/films/litany-for-survival/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=ITVS}} as well as a fellowship from the Rockefeller Foundation.{{Cite web |title=Profile: Michelle Parkerson {{!}} Sojourner Truth Festival of the Arts 2023 |url=https://voices.uchicago.edu/sojourner/profile-parkerson/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=UChicago Voices}} She was awarded the Prix du Public at the Festival International de Films de Femmes and the Audience and Best Biography Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival.{{cite web |title=Faculty & Staff |url=http://templefma.org/fma_test/about/faculty.html#michelleparkerson |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810152548/http://templefma.org/fma_test/about/faculty.html#michelleparkerson |archive-date=2014-08-10 |access-date= |website=Temple University Film and Media Arts |publisher=}} Her films are distributed by Women Make Movies and Third World Newsreel.{{Cite web |title=Michelle Parkerson |url=https://www.wmm.com/filmmaker/Michelle+Parkerson/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=Women Make Movies |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=2024-08-08 |title=August 2024 News |url=https://www.twn.org/news-and-media/august-2024-news |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=Third World Newsreel |language=en}}
She was assistant professor in Film and Media Arts at Temple University.
She published a volume of poetry, Waiting Rooms, in 1983.{{cite book |last=Bobo |first=Jacqueline |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LUvdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT179 |title=Black Women Film and Video Artists |date=2013-09-13 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781135225421 |page=179 |access-date=2014-08-24}}{{Cite journal |date=1985 |title=The Black Scholar Publishers Listing of Women Interest Books |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41067159 |journal=The Black Scholar |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=50 |issn=0006-4246}}
Parkerson was featured in the 2008 documentary black./womyn.: conversations with lesbians of African descent.{{Citation |last=McClodden |first=Tiona |title=Black./Womyn.:Conversations with Lesbians of African Descent |date=2008-04-13 |work=IMDb |type=Documentary |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341706/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |others=}}
= Films =
Gloria J. Gibson describes how Parkerson's films "highlight the identities of black women as performers and social activists [and] serve as a major contributor to the development of a black documentary style that seeks a holistic approach to African American life."{{cite book |author1=Gibson |first=Gloria J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYFY9Yg_bXYC&pg=PA138 |title=Feminism and Documentary |author2=Walker |publisher=U of Minnesota Press |year=1999 |isbn=9780816630073 |editor-last=Waldman |editor-first=Diane |page=138 |chapter=Identities Unmasked/Empowerment Unleashed: The Documentary Style of Michelle Parkerson |editor-last2=Walker |editor-first2=Janet}}
Her documentaries have featured major African-American figures including jazz musician Betty Carter, musical group Sweet Honey in the Rock, activist Stormé DeLarverie, and writer Audre Lorde, the latter two with a particular focus on sexuality and LGBTQ activism.{{Cite web |title=...But Then, She's Betty Carter |url=https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/but-then-shes-betty-carter/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=Women Make Movies |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=... But Then, She's Betty Carter / Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock |url=https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2025-02-21-but-then-shes-betty-carter-gotta-make-this-journey |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=UCLA Film & Television Archive}}{{Cite web |title=Storme: The Lady of the Jewel Box |url=https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/storme/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=Women Make Movies |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=1996-07-01 |title=A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/1996/07/01/a-litany-for-survival-the-life-and-work-of-audre-lorde/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=BOMB Magazine |language=en}} Her short film Odds and Ends is a lesbian Afrofuturist science fiction story.{{Cite web |title=Odds and Ends |url=https://film.twn.org/products/odds-and-ends?_pos=1&_psq=odds+ends&_ss=e&_v=1.0 |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=Third World Newsreel |language=en}}
Filmography
- Sojourn (1973, with Jimi Lyons)
- ...But Then She's Betty Carter (1980)
- I Remember Betty (1987){{Cite web |title=Parkerson, Michelle |url=https://africanfilmny.org/directors/michelle-parkerson/ |access-date=2025-04-01 |website=African Film Festival, Inc. |language=en-US}}
- Urban Odyssey (1991){{cite news |last1=Prakash |first1=Snigdha |date=1991-02-24 |title='Urban Odyssey' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/tv/1991/02/24/urban-odyssey/34ba1a1e-0e6a-4d9d-8b6e-c40f410f9462/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}
- Storme: Lady of the Jewel Box (1991)
- Odds and Ends (1993)
- Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock (1983, as producer){{cite news |last1=Harrington |first1=Richard |date=1983-02-23 |title=New Struggles In Sweet Harmony |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/02/23/new-struggles-in-sweet-harmony/157da18d-3182-4df4-93a2-af791993a5fc/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}}
- A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (1995, with Ada Gay Griffin){{cite web |title=A Litany For Survival |url=https://www.pbs.org/pov/films/alitanyforsurvival/ |work=POV |publisher=PBS }}
Awards
- Nominee for Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival in 1995 for A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde{{cite web |title=A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde (1995) - Awards |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113665/awards/ |website=IMDb}}
Bibliography
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{cite journal |last1=Parkerson |first1=Michelle |last2=Klotman |first2=Phyllis |title=Docutainment Filmmaker: Michelle Parkerson |journal=Black Camera |date=1993 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=3 |jstor=27761443 }}
- {{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780203698990 |title=Black Women Film and Video Artists |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-135-22542-1 |editor-last1=Bobo |editor-first1=Jacqueline |chapter=Michelle Parkerson: A Visionary Risk Taker |pages=177–188 |first1=Gloria J. |last1=Gibson }}
- {{IMDb name|0662717}}
- Michelle Parkerson at [https://www.wmm.com/filmmaker/Michelle+Parkerson/ Women Make Movies]
- Michelle Parkerson at [https://africanfilmny.org/directors/michelle-parkerson/ African Film Festival, New York]
{{Authority control}}
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Category:African-American film directors
Category:African-American film producers
Category:American film producers
Category:American documentary film directors
Category:American lesbian artists
Category:African-American LGBTQ people
Category:Temple University faculty