Shola Lynch Discusses Filmmaking and Politics on March 7 at Adelphi University

Filmmaker, writer, and producer Shola Lynch will present a lecture on “History, Documentary Filmmaking, and Presidential Politics” on Monday, March 7, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in the Thomas Dixon Lovely Ballroom of the Ruth S. Harley University Center, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY. Ms. Lynch’s directorial debut CHISHOLM ’72 – Unbought & Unbossed won the Peabody Award in 2006. This documentary is about Shirley Chisholm who was the first black woman elected to Congress in 1968. In 1972, Chisholm was the first black woman to run for president. Ms. Lynch will discuss this documentary and how filmmaking continues to be a useful medium in history and politics. This event, part of the University’s Black History Month celebrations, is sponsored by the James Baldwin Lecture Series, the Communications Department, and the African, Black and Caribbean Studies Program.

Shola Lynch learned the craft of documentary making while working with Ken Burns and Florentine Films on the Peabody Award-winning Frank Lloyd Wright. Ms. Lynch was also one of producers of the Emmy Award-winning HBO sports documentary Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team. At Orlando Bagwell’s ROJA Productions, she co-produced a documentary short about the 2000 Census and racial identity that aired on PBS in 2003 as part of the last hour of the four-part series on race in America, Matters of Race. Ms. Lynch has recently been developing and fundraising for her work-in-progress feature-length documentary Free Angela & All Political Prisoners about Angela Davis and the high stakes crime, political movement, and trial that catapulted her to international notoriety.

Shola Lynch has also produced pieces for BET and TV One, as well as written, produced, and reported pieces in a short series on incarceration in America for CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360˚. While pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas, she became a nationally ranked track athlete in the 800m and 1500m. Her most important life lesson derives from her 15 year national and international athletic career as she states that, “The lesson is not one of being a champion but the payoff of perseverance in the pursuit of a goal.” Lynch also has a master’s degree in American History from the University of California, Riverside that culminated in a thesis and an exhibition at the California Museum of Photography titled “How Far Have We Come? Past and Present Images of African Americans.”

For more information about this and other events on campus, please visit adelphi.edu, or call the Cultural Events Hotline at 516.877.4555.