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Darius, a Black man with cropped hair, wearing a blue-jean shirt, stands contemplatively upon a balcony in profile surrounded by plush green trees, looking out into the distance.

Photo by Chioke Nassor.

Artists

Darius Clark Monroe

He // Him // His

Filmmaker

Brooklyn, New York

Darius Clark Monroe is a writer, producer, and director from Houston living and working in Brooklyn. Monroe is known for a range of works, both documentary and fiction, that delve into the interior spaces of our existence. His films grapple with the innumerable experiences and environments that shape our psyche and behavior, oftentimes investigating fear, vulnerability, spirituality, and media (archival and present-day) through varied visual techniques and instruments.

He wrote and directed for the Peabody Award–winning HBO series Random Acts of Flyness. He also directed Black 14, an archival social study examining cognitive dissonance via media coverage of a 1969 racial protest at the University of Wyoming; the film screened at a number of festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, True/False, BlackStar, Chicago, and Camden, and received a 2019 National Magazine Award. Monroe’s autobiographical film Evolution of a Criminal was awarded the IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award and the Grand Jury Prize at Full Frame; it also received nominations for an Independent Spirit Award and Cinema Eye Honor. Other projects have been featured on or in Topic, HBO, Netflix, PBS, Time, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Most recently, his four-part documentary quadtych, Racquet, had its world premiere at the 2019 Whitney Biennial.

Monroe received his master’s degree in Film Direction from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and graduated with honors from the University of Houston’s School of Communication.

Donor -This award was generously supported by the USA Board of Trustees.

This artist page was last updated on: 09.03.2024

<em>Black 14</em> by Darius Clark Monroe thumbnail.

Black 14 by Darius Clark Monroe, 2018. Video. 15 minutes.

Video courtesy of the artist.

Two men walk toward the camera. The man on the left wears a skull mask, skeleton t-shirt, and a black leather trench coat. The man on the right wears a dark colored beanie on his head, sunglasses, a plaid collared shirt, and a brown trench coat

Set image of Evolution of a Criminal by Darius Clark Monroe, 2014.

Photo by Daniel Patterson.

DIRT by Darius Clark Monroe, 2016. Video. 7 minutes.

Video courtesy of the artist.