Non-Fiction

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Embark on an enlightening journey with “Afrofantastic: The Transformative World of Afrofuturism” on PBS station WKAR.

This revealing documentary brings you face to face with the innovative spirit of contemporary Afrofuturism.

Written and directed by Julian Chambliss, produced and edited by myself.

A filmmaker, educator, and “creative” struggles to create during the pandemic. Featuring the short films, online lessons, musings and ramblings devised or elaborated on throughout the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond.

Commissioned for the “Creativity in the Time of COVID-19: Art for Equity and Social Justice” exhibit, funded by a Mellon “Just Futures” Grant.

Does an ice fishing expedition really count if there isn’t any safe ice to stand on, or is it more about drinking beer with your buddies in a cold cabin in the woods? A look back at a yearly tradition gone awry with the hindsight of living through a global pandemic.

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What Happens To A Dream Deferred is an intimate portrait of a day in the life of two DACA recipients, José Adrián Badillo Carlos and Osvaldo Sandoval, graduate students at Michigan State University whose lives were thrown into limbo after the Trump Administration rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program on September 5, 2017.

Facing an uncertain future and the prospect of returning to an undocumented life in the shadows, José and Osvaldo struggle to complete their Ph.D. degrees while maintaining a quiet dignity amid adversity and national debates over immigration.

The first cinematic treatment of those affected by the decision to rescind the DACA program, the film slows down time and invites viewers to take a few steps in the shoes of those whose dreams have been deferred by a decision that affects nearly 800,000 DREAMers.

Shot in Spanish and English, it presents José and Osvaldo as they are both at work and at home with their families: two normal people who move between the different languages and worlds that have shaped their identities like the millions of immigrant children and teenagers brought to the United States before them.

Purchase the film for your institution.

Walking For Ded is an award-winning meditation on the revival of the sanctuary movement in the United States in response to the anti-immigrant political agenda implemented by the Trump administration. It focuses on the case of Ded Rranxburgaj, an Albanian immigrant who has lived and worked in the U.S. for 17 years after being denied political asylum.

Ded has been in sanctuary with his family at the Central United Methodist Church in Detroit since January 16, 2018. Ded’s wife Flora, who immigrated to the U.S. with him 17 years ago, has multiple sclerosis and cannot be deported for health reasons. Ded is her primary caregiver. The couple has two children, one of whom is a DACA recipient.

In May 2018, members of the congregation led by Rev. Jill Zundel teamed up with Michigan United, an organization that fights for immigrant rights, to organize a 90-mile pilgrimage to “Keep Families Together” from Detroit to the state capitol in Lansing, Michigan. Walking For Ded follows their efforts to bring attention to Ded’s plight and convince Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to issue a stay of removal.

One year after the pilgrimage, ICE still considers Ded a fugitive.

Walking For Ded premiered in Detroit at the Central United Methodist Church on April 12, 2019. The following week the film was an Official Selection of the Capital City Film Festival in Lansing. In May, it won the Knight Foundation Award for Best Documentary in the Detroit Voices competition at the Cinetopia Film Festival.

Light-heavyweight boxer Ka-Dy King trained at the legendary Kronk Gym in Detroit under the late Emanuel Steward, trainer to some of boxing’s most respected talents. On a recent trip back to his old stomping grounds, Ka-Dy revisited the places, people, and stories that shaped him. This is the story of Detroit’s own Ka-Dy King.