Shola Lynch

Shola Lynch is an award-winning American filmmaker with two decades of experience in film based in New York. Shola is currently working on several film projects including her first narrative feature tentatively titled The Outlaw which she was awarded a prestigious Creative Capital grant for development. Since 2013 she has also served as the Curator of the Moving Image & Recorded Sound division of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Her critically acclaimed second feature documentary FREE ANGELA & All Political Prisoners about the iconic Angela Davis premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012. Shola’s first independent feature documentary, CHISHOLM ’72 – Unbought & Unbossed, about Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm’s historic run for president in 1972, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004, aired on PBS’s POV series, and garnered two Independent Spirit Award nominations and a prestigious Peabody for excellence.

Shola honed her filmmaking skills as a visual researcher and Associate Producer for Ken Burns and Florentine Films. Her work on the two-part Frank Lloyd Wright documentary and the ten-part JAZZ series inspired her to pursue the craft of storytelling. Since then she has produced and scripted stories that have aired on BET, CNN, ESPN, HBO Sports, and PBS. Shola was born in Buffalo, NY and grew up in New York City.  She attended the University of Texas where she was a world class track athlete and two-time captain of the women’s track team.  In 2005 she was inducted into the University of Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Shola graduated from the University of Texas with a Liberal Arts Honors Degree. She also holds a Master’s degree in  American History & Public History Resource Management from the University of California at Riverside.  She also earned a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She currently lives in Harlem, NY with her husband, Vince Morgan, and their two children, Julian and Violet.

Works by Shola Lynch