CONVERGE FILMMAKERS
Aishamanne Williams
Aishamanne Williams is a filmmaker and writer born and based in Brooklyn, NY. In addition to arts and culture journalism, she uses narrative, documentary, and experimental filmmaking to explore themes of paradise, childhood, familial relationships, gender, and construction of identity, especially as these themes relate to blackness. Her films reflect her passion for illustrating the beauty and complexity that exists among black people and the communities they share, and her approach to filmmaking is distinctly imaginative, deeply contemplative, and at times spiritual. Aishamanne is currently a student at The New School studying Journalism and Film Production, and she is in production for her thesis film, a narrative short called A Smaller Sun that explores the relationship between utopia and childhood for black youth.
CONVERGE FEATURED FILM(S):
Give Me Death (2020)
the pieces of our garden (2019)
Joshua Jackson
Joshua Jackson is an independent documentary producer and cinematographer. He started his career working at PBS and ABC affiliates. Joshua organized live streamed events, managing video and audio delivery via the internet. He debuted his short film, From Prisoner to Professor, in 2017, which later was featured at the Black Harvest Film Festival, the Pan African Film Festival, and won Best Short Documentary at the American Filmatic Awards. He was the cinematographer for Chosen Foe Life, a short film of an inner-city youth conflicted by the neighborhood pressures and school influences, which aired on WTTW. His passion is filming and still shoots documentaries for other independent producers.
CONVERGE FEATURED FILM:
From Prisoner to Professional: Ep. 3, Celia Colón (2020)
Danilo Herrera Fonseca
Danilo Herrera Fonseca created LAMBERT HALL in 2017, while he was still a senior in college, and released the first season on YouTube in April 2020. He was born and raised in the region of Cerrado in the Brazilian savanna. He started making films at the age of 9 using his mother's 8mm camera. He earned his B.A. in Film and Media Culture from Middlebury College, where his student film LILY was licensed and distributed by Vermont PBS. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked on the sets of Netflix and Warner Bros. productions and in script development for Eric Newman (Narcos) and Bryan Unkeless (I, Tonya). Nowadays, he lives in Brazil, where he serves as the Scripted Development Coordinator for Brazil Originals at Amazon Studios.
CONVERGE FEATURED FILM:
Lambert Hall: Ep. 1, Laura (2020)
Daryl Brown
Daryl Brown is a Black filmmaker from the South Side of Chicago. His first film, Eyes of a Survivor, was created and produced as apart of the master’s documentary program at Chapman University. Eyes of a Survivor has been an official selection of the Newark International Film Festival in New Jersey, the San Francisco Black Film Festival, the 2020 Virginia Dares Cinematic Art Awards for Decolonizing / Re - Indigenizing Media, the Gary International Black Film Festival in Indiana, and the Small Axe Radical Film Festival in England; It also took home the “Best Student Film” Audience award at the Small Axe Radical Film Festival. In addition to documentary filmmaking, Daryl helps organize for revolutionary or abolition agendas, and is a member of Black Lives Matter LA and the Philippines - U.S Solidarity Organization So-Cal. He also works as a digital organizer at Rethink - New Orleans in efforts to radicalize and help guide Black organizing youth.
CONVERGE FEATURED FILM(S):
Blood on its hands (2020)
Eyes of a Survivor (2019)
Ebony Bailey
Ebony Bailey is an award-winning filmmaker and video producer from Central California whose work explores cultural intersections, diaspora and social justice. Her documentaries have screened at film festivals and forums in the US, Mexico, South America, and Europe. She has produced videos and visual content for organizations such as Mijente, LA Times, NPR, and Remezcla.
Ebony has been awarded the Samuel L. Coleman Scholarship for emerging filmmakers at the Haitian International Film Festival, and she was selected for the Tomorrow's Filmmakers Today program by HBO and Hola Mexico Film Festival. Her latest film “Jamaica y Tamarindo” won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short at the San Diego Latino Film Festival.
As a “Blaxican,” Ebony tells stories with the intention of representing her communities and building spaces of empowerment between diverse populations.
She is currently completing her Master’s in Documentary Film at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
CONVERGE FEATURED FILM:
Life Between Borders: Black Migrants in Mexico (2017)
Sierra Jackson
Sierra (she/they) is interested in the design and space of language, building and collapsing worlds in between text images. She is a writer, producer, and director guided by studio thinking approaches to art and education. The creative paths Sierra finds herself most excited by are those that strive to enhance image-based media literacy and offer space for viewers to self-reflect.
In 2021 Sierra creative produced “Family Values,” an episode for the MANIFOLD docuseries exploring the lives of Queer, Black Chicagoans. MANIFOLD premiered at the Reeling Film Festival in 2022 and is available on OTV’s streaming platform. In 2023, Sierra published her first chapbook DON’T BLUNDER and has joined Chicago’s non-traditional skate collective, froSkate, as their Storytelling Producer.
CONVERGE FEATURED FILM:
Home Tapes ‘98-’04 (2021)
CONVERGE TEAM
Produced by: Dig3x
Assistant Producer: Wengel Kifle