Celebrated filmmaker and stage director Pamela Sherrod Anderson will be hosting a virtual workshop on filmmaking Saturday, February 27th, at 10am CST. This exclusive virtual event is open to all as part of the No Malice Film Contest. The contest is currently inviting young filmmakers who are residents of Illinois between the ages of 11 and 21 to create short films that explore and promote racial healing. It is presented by the Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation with a grant from Healing Illinois and the Chicago Community Trust. The film entries can be submitted up until Friday, April 30th. You can find all the details here, and you can also watch my video discussing the contest rules here

To promote justice and a better world by highlighting important voices in film and supporting young artists, I have arranged for virtual presentations every Saturday in February and the first Saturday in March. The winners of the contests will have their films exhibited at a red carpet screening at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois on July 31st of this year, and at the Ebertfest Film Festival in Champaign, Illinois September 8-11. They will also win cash prizes ranging from $500 to $2,000.

Ms. Anderson’s workshop is the fourth in our series of five. She won awards for her amazing documentary, “The Curators of Dixon School,” about an elementary school located in the heart of the Southside of Chicago where the principal and the teachers made it their mission to expose their students to works of art by having it exhibited at all times on the walls in the halls and in the classrooms. They also invited in various artists as guest lecturers. Not your usually image of a school on Chicago’s Southside. This is a must-see film.

You may watch the previous three phenomenal workshops as webinars and register for the contest at bit.ly/NoMaliceFilmContest. To watch the recorded first three workshops, click on the following links: Troy Pryor’s “Create, Don’t Wait!“, Rita Coburn’s “Directing: The Storyteller“; and Steve James’ “The People in My Films: Portrayal and Relationships.”             .

To register for the upcoming workshop “Seeds For Story,” click here.  

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 2021

PAMELA SHERROD ANDERSON PRESENTS “SEEDS FOR STORY”

Pamela Sherrod Anderson, founder of Graceworks Theater and Film Productions LLC, is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, playwright, educator and journalist. She is currently Board Chair of Kartemquin Films, which celebrates its 55th anniversary in 2021 and remains even more committed to social justice and democracy through documentary. Her films have been shown in national and international film festivals and are available on streaming services. 

She has taught in film and journalism departments at DePaul University and Columbia College of Chicago. Her illustrious journalism career includes editor, reporter and columnist at Chicago Tribune newspaper and United Press International. Pamela is a proud product of Chicago’s South Side and proud of her family’s Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi roots.

We also have one more filmmaking workshop scheduled for next week…

SATURDAY, MARCH 6TH, 2021

T. SHAWN TAYLOR PRESENTS “TRUST YOUR GUT: THE STORIES YOU WERE BORN TO TELL”

Register for the Zoom session here.

Chaz Ebert

Chaz is the CEO of several Ebert enterprises, including the President of The Ebert Company Ltd, and of Ebert Digital LLC, Publisher of RogerEbert.com, President of Ebert Productions and Chairman of the Board of The Roger and Chaz Ebert Foundation, and Co-Founder and Producer of Ebertfest, the film festival now in its 24th year.

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