Biography
Stanley Nelson is an award-winning documentarian whose life’s work has been dedicated to depicting the histories and lived realities of African-Americans. His films combine compelling narratives with rich historical detail to shine new light on the under-explored American past.
His works include Miles Davis: Birth Of The Cool (2019); Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story Of Black Colleges & Universities (2017); The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution (2015); and Freedom Summer (2014).
His film Freedom Riders (2010) was an official selection for the Sundance Film Festival in 2010 and has won several Primetime Emmy Awards. Nelson received the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary and Stanley & Karen Kramer Award for Social Justice, African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) (2022). He was named one of the top five Documentarians of 2021 by the National Board of Review. He has been awarded the Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award; National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (2016); and Lifetime Award, George Foster Peabody Award (2015). He received the National Humanities Medal, presented by US President Barack Obama (2014) and a MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellowship (2002).
In 2000, Nelson co-founded (with Marcia Smith) Firelight Media, a non-profit organisation whose flagship Documentary Lab has helped launch the careers of more than 100 nonfiction filmmakers of colour. They also established Firelight Films, a production company that produces nonfiction films by and about communities of colour.
Nelson has a BA in Fine Arts from the City College of New York.