HENRY HAMPTON AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING

Henry Hampton (1940 – 1998) was the Founder and Executive Director of the Boston based independent film and television company, Blackside, Inc, the largest Black owned documentary film production company in America. He was a renowned producer whose films “Eyes on the Prize,” “The Great Depression,” “America’s War on Poverty,” and “I’ll Make Me a World,” to name a few, were not only critically acclaimed but important in chronicling political and social movements in America, told from a wider perspective His life was dedicated to using the power of the media to inform and education people of the often unknown pieces of our history and hopefully inspiring a change hearts and minds.

Henry Hampton grew up in St. Louis, MO and graduated from Washington University his first calling was to be a Dr. but dropped out of medical school and went to work for the Unitarian Universalist Church as Director of Information.  This would be life changing as it took him to the march from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and event that would Eyes on the Prize.  

Henry Hampton had always felt that history of black lives was always being told from the perspective of white filmmakers and he sought to change the narrative by creating films that offered a different perspective and coordinated a team of diverse filmmakers to help tell that story. His attention to detail and deep appreciation of research from his days in journalism, he set out to create a standard among filmmakers who worked with him on his projects.    

Henry Hampton has been widely recognized for his outstanding contributions to history and journalism.  His true legacy is the incredible number of filmmakers that were led, trained and inspired by his commitment to excellence and truthful storytelling. Among them and Boston based at one point in their filmmaking careers, Orlando Bagwell, Lillian Benson, Callie Crossley, Jim DeVinney, Jon Else, Judith Vecchione, Louis Massiah, Sam Pollard, Judy Richardson, Terry Rockefeller, Paul Stekkler, Tracy Strain and dozens of others helped him to make his dreams come true and change the face of documentary filmmaking in the 21st century.

Henry Hampton Filmography

America's War on Poverty (5-part series)

Boston Black United Front

Breakthrough: The Changing Face of Science in America (6-part series)

Code Blue

Crisis to Crisis: Voices of a Divided City

Easy Street

Eyes on the Prize (14-part series)

Eyes on the Prize I: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965

Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads 1965-1985

The Great Depression (7-part series)

Head Start to Confidence

Hopes on the Horizon: Africa in the 1990s

I'll Make Me A World: A Century of African American Arts (6-part series)

In Search of Help: Welfare or Survivor's Benefits

Kinfolks

Malcolm X: Make It Plain

This Far By Faith: African American Spiritual Journeys (6-part series)

Reorganizing the Nation's Hospitals (1975)

IMPACT AWARD

Given to a film that has had a significant real-world impact on social justice, potentially leading to policy changes, increased awareness, or social movements.

 AMY HOOD VISIONARY AWARD

At the 24th Annual Roxbury International Film Festival, on what would have been Amy’s 76th birthday the Roxbury International Film Festival named the Amy Hood Visionary Award in her honor.  This award is named in honor of Roxbury native Amy Hood who attended the Roxbury International Film Festival for over twenty years and for most of those years was present for every film screening even after the festival expanded ten days. Amy had a deep love of film, especially independent films that celebrated and uplifted people of color. She cherished the time she could spend at the festival each year with her best friend Paula Diggs and others.  This monetary award is funded by friends, family and others who share Amy’s love of film, filmmakers and the power of telling stories about people of color.

This award is given out to the filmmaker who has gone beyond the traditional narrative to create and tell stories that engage, educate, inspire and challenge the way we think about ourselves, our environment and our narrative.  Given to a filmmaker whose films have changed the way we understand and see  filmmaking through deconstructed  narratives allowing audiences to think deeply about a subject matter and more broadly about the way we see  people of color in film.

KAY BOURNE EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD

A journalist and editor since 1966, Kay Bourne, served as arts editor for the Bay State Banner for 45 years.  She moved on from the Banner to become the Chief Editor and writer of The Kay Bourne Arts Report produced by the Color of Film Collaborative.  In addition until her retirement was the Theatre and Fine Arts Assignment Editor of EDGE/Media Network, an on-line publication for LGBTQ readers and others with 18 portals nationwide. Her reviews of Black cultural programs and artists were a cornerstone in lifting up Black Arts in and around the Boston area.  She also regularly contributed stories on jazz performances and artists for the “Christian Science Monitor”

She has been honored with a Puddingstone Award from Discover Roxbury for her journalism that has strengthened Roxbury’s social, cultural, and economic development and a citation from the Elliot Norton Boston Theater Critics Organization for her decades of championing Boston’s African American arts.  Her commitment to supporting Black film is evident by the annual award in her name bestowed upon an emerging filmmaker who is creating film about the Black experience and whose work exhibits promise and commitment to stories of the diaspora. 

Her archives which have been donated to Emerson College covers arts as well as reporting on school desegregation, police and the courts. 

In addition to her passion for Black Arts, Kay was the artistic director of the Harvard Radcliffe Forum Theater which presented new works at the Loeb Drama Center and elsewhere on campus as well as at the Rose Coffee House in the North End of Boston. She was also the  founded and ran the school at the Suffolk County House of Correction at Deer Island.

She was the Education Coordinator for the Dept. of Transitional Assistance and its liaison to the Dept. of Education working on behalf of education and training services for single parent head of households and the homeless.  Kay trained for classroom teaching at Keene State College receiving her bachelor of education in 1960 and received a master’s of education from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

A recipient of the Melnea A Cass Award, she was a summer NEH journalism fellow at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is listed in various editions of Who’s Who. She served as an elected member of the board for the Boston Branch of the NAACP in the years of Tom Atkins leadership when school busing was launched in Boston.