
Directing
Michèle Stephenson
Known for
Directing
Credits
42 titles
Michèle Stephenson is an American documentary filmmaker, artist, and author who pulls from her Panamanian and Haitian roots, and experience as a human rights attorney to tell compelling, deeply personal stories that are created by, for, and about communities of color. With spouse Joe Brewster, Stephenson founded the Rada Film Group. While raising a family in Brooklyn, New York, they directed and produced documentary and fiction films. In 2008, they directed Slaying Goliath, a documentary that follows 10 days in the life of their son's fifth grade basketball team in Harlem, New York, as they experienced a culture clash at a national tournament in suburban Florida. Brewster and Stephenson als…
Known for
6.5Centers on the 1969 student protests against racism at Montreal’s Concordia University and their contribution to the story of Black liberation.
True North: Canadian Myths and Black Power
2025
6.4Intimate vérité, archival footage, and visually innovative treatments of poetry take us on a journey through the dreamscape of legendary queer poet Nikki Giovanni as she reflects on her life and legacy.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
2023
NRThe Changing Same is a magical realist, immersive, episodic virtual reality experience where the participant travels through time and space to witness the connected historical experiences of racial injustice in America.
The Changing Same - Episode 1: The Dilemma
2021
6.7In the golden age of documentaries, who benefits? SUBJECT reveals the unintended consequences – good, bad, and complicated – of having your life shared on screen. Featuring the protagonists of acclaimed documentaries The Staircase, Hoop Dreams, The Wolfpack, Capturing the Friedmans, and The Square, as well as the filmmakers of Minding the Gap, Cameraperson, An Inconvenient Truth, and more.
Subject
2023
6.7In 1999, filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson turned the camera on themselves and began filming their five-year-old son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, as they started kindergarten at the prestigious Dalton School just as the private institution was committing to diversify its student body. Their cameras continued to follow both families for another 12 years as the paths of the two boys diverged—one continued private school while the other pursued a very different route through the public education system.
American Promise
2013
5.0Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows families of those affected by the 2013 legislation stripping citizenship from Dominicans of Haitian descent, uncovering the complex history and present-day politics of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the grassroots electoral campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris.
Stateless
2020
Film credits
Behind the camera
6.5Centers on the 1969 student protests against racism at Montreal’s Concordia University and their contribution to the story of Black liberation.
True North: Canadian Myths and Black Power
2025
6.4Intimate vérité, archival footage, and visually innovative treatments of poetry take us on a journey through the dreamscape of legendary queer poet Nikki Giovanni as she reflects on her life and legacy.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
2023
6.4Intimate vérité, archival footage, and visually innovative treatments of poetry take us on a journey through the dreamscape of legendary queer poet Nikki Giovanni as she reflects on her life and legacy.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
2023
6.4Intimate vérité, archival footage, and visually innovative treatments of poetry take us on a journey through the dreamscape of legendary queer poet Nikki Giovanni as she reflects on her life and legacy.
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
2023
NRThe Changing Same is a magical realist, immersive, episodic virtual reality experience where the participant travels through time and space to witness the connected historical experiences of racial injustice in America.
The Changing Same - Episode 1: The Dilemma
2021
NRThe Changing Same is a magical realist, immersive, episodic virtual reality experience where the participant travels through time and space to witness the connected historical experiences of racial injustice in America.
The Changing Same - Episode 1: The Dilemma
2021
6.7In 1999, filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson turned the camera on themselves and began filming their five-year-old son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, as they started kindergarten at the prestigious Dalton School just as the private institution was committing to diversify its student body. Their cameras continued to follow both families for another 12 years as the paths of the two boys diverged—one continued private school while the other pursued a very different route through the public education system.
American Promise
2013
6.7In 1999, filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson turned the camera on themselves and began filming their five-year-old son, Idris, and his best friend, Seun, as they started kindergarten at the prestigious Dalton School just as the private institution was committing to diversify its student body. Their cameras continued to follow both families for another 12 years as the paths of the two boys diverged—one continued private school while the other pursued a very different route through the public education system.
American Promise
2013
5.0Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows families of those affected by the 2013 legislation stripping citizenship from Dominicans of Haitian descent, uncovering the complex history and present-day politics of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the grassroots electoral campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris.
Stateless
2020
5.0Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows families of those affected by the 2013 legislation stripping citizenship from Dominicans of Haitian descent, uncovering the complex history and present-day politics of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the grassroots electoral campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris.
Stateless
2020
5.0Director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary follows families of those affected by the 2013 legislation stripping citizenship from Dominicans of Haitian descent, uncovering the complex history and present-day politics of Haiti and the Dominican Republic through the grassroots electoral campaign of a young attorney named Rosa Iris.
Stateless
2020
6.0An illuminating look at the influence that hand games played by Black girls has had on the American creative landscape.
Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games
2023
6.0An illuminating look at the influence that hand games played by Black girls has had on the American creative landscape.
Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games
2023
6.0Killing Zone is the story of an affluent Harlem psychiatrist living an unexamined life until his adoptive father- a doctor who plucked him from a Nigerian refugee camp as a child - is gunned down by an eleven-year-old in Brooklyn. In an instant, everything he's absorbed in twent years in America is thrown into question, and his search for the boy resurrects memories of his own buried past.
The Killing Zone
2003
A story to honor actor-singer-activist Paul Robeson and his contributions to today's social climate and inspire new generations to engage in the ongoing fight for justice and equality.
Paul Robeson Documentary
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A story to honor actor-singer-activist Paul Robeson and his contributions to today's social climate and inspire new generations to engage in the ongoing fight for justice and equality.
Paul Robeson Documentary
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A story to honor actor-singer-activist Paul Robeson and his contributions to today's social climate and inspire new generations to engage in the ongoing fight for justice and equality.
Paul Robeson Documentary
—
7.0When the water in her small Mexican town proves to be radioactive, a young mom suddenly finds herself leading a local resistance movement. Her life is upended when she has to face a powerful and corrupt government hellbent on burying the truth.
The Age of Water
2024
NREighty years after the lynching of Claude Neal, Florida's last spectacle killing, his ghost arises from the grave and we are all better off for it. In the Florida Panhandle lies the provincial town of Marianna, Florida, where one native resident runs a particular marathon in hopes of lifting the veil of racial terror caused by the town’s buried history.
The Changing Same
2018
NREighty years after the lynching of Claude Neal, Florida's last spectacle killing, his ghost arises from the grave and we are all better off for it. In the Florida Panhandle lies the provincial town of Marianna, Florida, where one native resident runs a particular marathon in hopes of lifting the veil of racial terror caused by the town’s buried history.
The Changing Same
2018
NREighty years after the lynching of Claude Neal, Florida's last spectacle killing, his ghost arises from the grave and we are all better off for it. In the Florida Panhandle lies the provincial town of Marianna, Florida, where one native resident runs a particular marathon in hopes of lifting the veil of racial terror caused by the town’s buried history.
The Changing Same
2018
In this short documentary, young black men explain the particular challenges they face growing up in America.
A Conversation About Growing Up Black
2015
In this short documentary, Latinos grapple with defining their ethnic and racial identities.
A Conversation With Latinos on Race
2015
Movie Details
A Conversation With Asian-Americans on Race
2015
This short documentary features interviews with white people on the challenges of talking about race.
A Conversation with White People on Race
2015
This short documentary features interviews with white people on the challenges of talking about race.
A Conversation with White People on Race
2015
After learning yoga changes one woman's life, she brings its transformative power to her community of working-class African Americans. Together, they realize the power of mind, body, spirit and community.
Drawn to the Mat
2019
After learning yoga changes one woman's life, she brings its transformative power to her community of working-class African Americans. Together, they realize the power of mind, body, spirit and community.
Drawn to the Mat
2019
In this short documentary, black women talk about the challenges they face in society.
A Conversation with Black Women on Race
2015
In this short documentary, black women talk about the challenges they face in society.
A Conversation with Black Women on Race
2015
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina the New Orleans City Council decides to demolish public housing leaving thousands of people without homes. Staging a courageous battle that reminds us of how much home means to us all, residents became activists, attracting the attention of international human rights monitors and taking their cause to the highest levels of HUD (Housing and Urban Development Agency) in Washington DC.
Coming Home: The Dry Storm
2010
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina the New Orleans City Council decides to demolish public housing leaving thousands of people without homes. Staging a courageous battle that reminds us of how much home means to us all, residents became activists, attracting the attention of international human rights monitors and taking their cause to the highest levels of HUD (Housing and Urban Development Agency) in Washington DC.
Coming Home: The Dry Storm
2010
NRIn 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were exterminated by the Dominican army, on the basis of anti-black racism. Fast-forward to 2013, the Dominican Republic's Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929, rendering more than 200,000 people stateless. Elena, the young protagonist of the film, and her family stand to lose their legal residency in the Dominican Republic if they don't manage to get their documents in time. Negotiating a mountain of opaque bureaucratic processes and a racist, hostile society around, Elena becomes the face of the struggle to remain in a country built on the labor of her father and forefathers.
Elena
2021
NRIn 1937, tens of thousands of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were exterminated by the Dominican army, on the basis of anti-black racism. Fast-forward to 2013, the Dominican Republic's Supreme Court stripped the citizenship of anyone with Haitian parents, retroactive to 1929, rendering more than 200,000 people stateless. Elena, the young protagonist of the film, and her family stand to lose their legal residency in the Dominican Republic if they don't manage to get their documents in time. Negotiating a mountain of opaque bureaucratic processes and a racist, hostile society around, Elena becomes the face of the struggle to remain in a country built on the labor of her father and forefathers.
Elena
2021
NRSLAYING GOLIATH takes an unprecedented intimate look at the world of amateur youth basketball through the eyes of the New York Select Huskies team as they seek to win the AAU National Basketball Championship. The grueling price the team must pay to win exposes the hidden dark side of amateur sports.
Slaying Goliath
2008
NRSLAYING GOLIATH takes an unprecedented intimate look at the world of amateur youth basketball through the eyes of the New York Select Huskies team as they seek to win the AAU National Basketball Championship. The grueling price the team must pay to win exposes the hidden dark side of amateur sports.
Slaying Goliath
2008
NRSLAYING GOLIATH takes an unprecedented intimate look at the world of amateur youth basketball through the eyes of the New York Select Huskies team as they seek to win the AAU National Basketball Championship. The grueling price the team must pay to win exposes the hidden dark side of amateur sports.
Slaying Goliath
2008
A feature documentary about the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in 2015.
Freddie Gray Documentary
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No synopsis available yet.
A Mother's Dream
2016
No synopsis available yet.
A Mother's Dream
2016
