Marcia Smith Keynote | Getting Real '16

Marcia Smith is president and co-founder of Firelight Media, an award-winning non-profit film organization, and principal of Firelight Films, a documentary film production dedicated to nurturing projects by emerging independent filmmakers and impact producers of color. With a record-breaking eight films premiering at Sundance, and winner of several major awards--Primetime Emmys, Peabody, DuPont, and the International Documentary Association (IDA) Awards,--Firelight produced Stanley Nelson’s critically acclaimed The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution; Freedom Summer (2014); Freedom Riders (2011); Wounded Knee; Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple; Sweet Honey in the Rock:  Raise Your Voice; A Place of Our Own; and Beyond Brown.

Smith wrote or produced several Firelight documentaries, including the film O.J. Simpson:  A Study in Black and White for HBO, and the hour-length report High Stakes for CNN.  She was honored by the Writers’ Guild in 2003 for Best Documentary writing and nominated for a Primetime Emmy for The Murder of Emmett Till.  In 2005, she received the Trailblazer Award from the African American women’s film organization, Reel Sisters of the Diaspora.