Photo courtesy of the artist.
“My connection to Nature has deepened, and become my supreme teacher. Second to that is Toni Morrison. In her words, “I was always a little bored by demonstrations of evil. It always has this top hat, and a cape, and a cane. [But] Goodness never has anything, because it doesn’t want anything. Can’t use anything. It’s just there.” May our art continue to expose evil, but valorize even more the simple splendor of Good.”
Keisha Rae Witherspoon is a sci-fi, fantasy, and documentary filmmaker. Witherspoon was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film 2020” and the inaugural grantee of the Lynn Shelton “Of a Certain Age” Grant for women.
Her first short film, T, a hybrid doc-style narrative set in her hometown of Miami, won the 2020 Golden Bear at Berlinale; screened at Sundance, AFI, and New Directors/New films, among others; and won audience awards for best short at the BlackStar and New Orleans film festivals. T and 1968<2018>2068, another of her hybrid shorts, are part of the Criterion Channel’s Afrofuturism program.
She is cofounder of the Third Horizon film Festival, a Caribbean film, art, and music festival presented annually in Miami. It was rated one of the top 25 coolest film festivals by MovieMaker in 2019 and 2021.
Witherspoon is currently writing her first feature film—a Black sci-fi story, also set in Miami; it has received early support from Cinereach, Sundance, and SFFILM/Westridge.
Donor -This award was generously supported by Katie Weitz, PhD.
This artist page was last updated on: 07.08.2024