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Neema Barnette
Neema Barnette is an American film director and producer, and the first African-American woman to direct a primetime sitcom. Barnette was the first African-American woman to get a three-picture deal with Sony Pictures. Since then, she accumulated a number of awards, including a Peabody, an Emmy and an NAACP Image Award.
Neema Barnette, born on December 14, 1949, to African parentage. She attended the High School For The Performing Arts, and began her career as a stage actress. Barnette continued her education by attending The City College of New York earning a BA. She also received a MFA from NYU School Of The Arts.
At age 21, Barnette directed the play The Blue Journey by OyamO, at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. In 1982, Barnette co-produced the Emmy Award-winning After-School Special, "To Be a Man" along with Cliff Frazier, who was also the writer and director. The both won Emmys for Outstanding Children's Programming. The movie starred Robert Earl Jones, Estelle Evans, Stuart Bascombe, Julius Hollingsworth and Curtis Worthy. James Earl Jones was executive director.
Barnette has directed for the stage, episodic television, made-for-TV movies and feature films. Sky Captain was her first short film, which she directed as part of the American Film Institute's (AFI) Directing Workshop for Women in 1985.
In 1990, she founded Harlem Girl Productions Corporation. Since 1997, Barnette has also worked for the Harlem Lite Productions. She has directed multiple seasons and episodes of various television sitcoms including A Different World, The Cosby Show, Gilmore Girls, and 7th Heaven.
In 1997, Barnette directed the film Spirit Lost, a psychological thriller with a love triangle with a ghost. Robin R. Means Coleman wrote in her book Horror Noire that Spirit Lost was a "rare horror film that was nearly an all-female affair" and that the film prominently featured characters that served as moral arbiter and saviors. She would later revisit the film in her 2023 work The Black Guy Dies First, further noting the codependent relationship between John and the ghostly Arabella.
In 2002, she was selected as one of ten artists to judge the American Film Institute's "Best Films Award".
In 2003, Barnette directed her first feature film, Civil Brand. She told the Los Angeles Times it was inspired by the original screenplay by Preston A Whitmore II and an urban women's prison tale. The shoot was extremely difficult, with members of cast and crew coming down with pneumonia, leading to production being shut down for a year. Before her mother died, she encouraged Barnette to continue pursuing the film. Once the movie was completed, it earned many awards and played film festivals like Sundance, the American Film Institute, and the American Black Film Festival in Miami where Civil Brand won the $15,000 Blockbuster audience award.
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Neema Barnette
Neema Barnette is an American film director and producer, and the first African-American woman to direct a primetime sitcom. Barnette was the first African-American woman to get a three-picture deal with Sony Pictures. Since then, she accumulated a number of awards, including a Peabody, an Emmy and an NAACP Image Award.
Neema Barnette, born on December 14, 1949, to African parentage. She attended the High School For The Performing Arts, and began her career as a stage actress. Barnette continued her education by attending The City College of New York earning a BA. She also received a MFA from NYU School Of The Arts.
At age 21, Barnette directed the play The Blue Journey by OyamO, at Joseph Papp's Public Theater. In 1982, Barnette co-produced the Emmy Award-winning After-School Special, "To Be a Man" along with Cliff Frazier, who was also the writer and director. The both won Emmys for Outstanding Children's Programming. The movie starred Robert Earl Jones, Estelle Evans, Stuart Bascombe, Julius Hollingsworth and Curtis Worthy. James Earl Jones was executive director.
Barnette has directed for the stage, episodic television, made-for-TV movies and feature films. Sky Captain was her first short film, which she directed as part of the American Film Institute's (AFI) Directing Workshop for Women in 1985.
In 1990, she founded Harlem Girl Productions Corporation. Since 1997, Barnette has also worked for the Harlem Lite Productions. She has directed multiple seasons and episodes of various television sitcoms including A Different World, The Cosby Show, Gilmore Girls, and 7th Heaven.
In 1997, Barnette directed the film Spirit Lost, a psychological thriller with a love triangle with a ghost. Robin R. Means Coleman wrote in her book Horror Noire that Spirit Lost was a "rare horror film that was nearly an all-female affair" and that the film prominently featured characters that served as moral arbiter and saviors. She would later revisit the film in her 2023 work The Black Guy Dies First, further noting the codependent relationship between John and the ghostly Arabella.
In 2002, she was selected as one of ten artists to judge the American Film Institute's "Best Films Award".
In 2003, Barnette directed her first feature film, Civil Brand. She told the Los Angeles Times it was inspired by the original screenplay by Preston A Whitmore II and an urban women's prison tale. The shoot was extremely difficult, with members of cast and crew coming down with pneumonia, leading to production being shut down for a year. Before her mother died, she encouraged Barnette to continue pursuing the film. Once the movie was completed, it earned many awards and played film festivals like Sundance, the American Film Institute, and the American Black Film Festival in Miami where Civil Brand won the $15,000 Blockbuster audience award.