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Films

Producer/Director:  Barbara E. Allen

Writers: Gail F. Baker, Barbara E. Allen & Shelley Spencer

Genre:  Documentary

 

Do we really live in a colorblind society?

The Emmy Award winning documentary, "Colorblind: Rethinking Race," examines

institutional racism in health, wealth, education and the justice system.

Featuring Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow," anti-racism activist

and writer, Tim Wise and others. Hosted and narrated by Regina Taylor. 
Original music by Orbert Davis ï»¿

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COLORBLIND: RETHINKING RACE
STANDING ON COMMON GROUND: My Spring Break in New Orleans - TEN YEARS LATER

Director:   Evan Allen-Gessesse

Producer: Barbara E. Allen

Writers:    Barbara E. Allen, Evan Allen-Gessesse, Gail F. Baker

Genre:      Documentary

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On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and became one of the deadliest disasters in U.S. history.   Six months after the storm college student Evan Allen-Gessesse volunteered for five days in New Orleans with a group called Common Ground, established days after the hurricane to provide immediate assistance to victims.   He produced an award-winning film, “Standing on Common Ground,” which chronicled his journey through the voices of survivors and those who came to help.

 

Allen-Gessesse revisited the disaster 10 years later. Remarkably, he found that many of the subjects of from the original documentary remain attached to the city. Many predicted that New Orleans would recover and become a better place, but it turns out to be much more complicated than that.

 

A decade in the making, “Standing On Common Ground My Spring Break in New Orleans, Ten Years Later,” tries to make sense of this unnatural natural disaster and the lives of those it affected and shows that human spirit is stronger than catastrophe. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DuSable to Obama

Producers Barbara E. Allen & Dan Andries

Director:/Editor  Barbara E. Allen

Writers: Gail F. Baker,  Barbara E. Allen & Dan Andries

Genre:  Documentary

 

"DuSable to Obama: Chicago's Black Metropolis" is an epic story of struggle and triumph. Spanning more than two hundred years of African-American history, including the Chicago's founding, the Civil War, the Great Migration, the Civil Rights movement, the Black Arts Movement and the successful building of an African-American political base leading to the election of Barack Obama. 
Narration is combined with interviews of more than forty leading citizens, scholars, artists, politicians, and business leaders to create the impression of single voice telling a rich and complex story. Archival prints, engravings, drawings, letters, historical documents, photographs, film and TV footage are used to bring to life the evolving intimate relationship between a people and a city in a changing America.

MORNING DUE

Writer/Director:  Barbara Allen

Producers: MJ Allen and Michael A. Foster

Based on a short story by: Oubria Tronshaw

Genre:  Drama

 

A young couple anticipating their first child ponder their future. Screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, "Morning Due" is the story of binding family love as they face the unthinkable.

 

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     ERIC'S HAIRCUT

Writer/Director:  Evan Allen-Gessesse

Producers:   Barbara E. Allen and Michael A. Foster 

Genre:  Comedy 

 

A young boy's trip to the barbershop becomes a painfully funny ordeal. This autobiographical short was written and directed by Evan Allen-Gessesse.

If you don't like my films, make your own.

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-- Spike Lee
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