Ayoka Chenzira

Ayoka Ayo Chenzira born November 8 1953 is an independent AfricanAmerican producer film and television director animator writer experimental filmmaker and transmedia storyteller She is the first African American woman animator and one of a handful of Black experimental filmmakers working since the late 1970s Chenzira studied film and photography at The College of New Rochelle and accomplished her MA degree in education at Columbia University She received her BFA degree in film production from New York University In 1984 Chenzira was one of seven writerdirectors selected for the Sundance Institute She was one of the first AfricanAmerican women to produce a featurelength film Almas Rainbow 1993 She has earned international acclaim for her work Her work as well as her efforts as one of the first African American woman film educators have led some in the press to describe her as a media activist for social justice and challenging representations of African American stereotypes in the mainstream media She has formed or otherwise been involved with several companies and nonprofits dedicated to Black films including the Black Filmmakers Foundation Red Carnelian and Production Partners Along with 14 other panelists Chenziras contributions for the Minority Task Force on Public Television resulted in the first Multicultural Public Television Fund She has also served as a media panelist for the Jerome Foundation the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts Chenzira served as the Chair of the Department of Media and Communication Arts at the City College of New York where she managed programs in advertising public relations journalism film and video she also cocreated their first MFA in media arts production graduate program In the mid 1990s Chenzira was consultant to the MNet Television of South Africa and taught screenwriting and directing in Kenya Nigeria Senegal and South Africa In 2001 Chenzira was invited to serve as the first William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Arts at Spelman College where she created and directed the awardwinning Digital Moving Image Salon DMIS a yearlong research and documentary production course Chenzira also created and served as director of Oral Narratives and Digital Technology a joint venture between Spelman College and the Durham Institute of Technology DIT where she designed and taught documentary filmmaking primarily for Zulu students at DIT She has received numerous accolades including the 2020 Cultural Innovator Award from Black Women Animate and Cartoon Network the inclusion of her 2018 work Hair Piece in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress two awards from the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and a NAACP Award nomination In 2019 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts Sciences began to restore and preserve Chenziras films She has been honored for her contributions to Black cinema by the thenmayors of New York City and Detroit Description above from the Wikipedia article Ayoka Chenzira licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia