Darius
Clark Monroe

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.

Portrait photo by Chioke Nassor.