On Fri., June 10, 2022, 6:15 pm, we cordially invite you to join award-winning film director Neema Barnette and special guests for a screening of Civil Brand in memory of Cliff Frazier, co-founder of the Dwyer Cultural Center with Ademola Olugebefola. A pioneer, Cliff Frazier was a renaissance man in film, theater and art who mentored hundreds of young artists. He was an institution builder whose Dwyer Cultural Center helped train many artists in film and television. The event will be held at the Dwyer Cultural Center, 258 St. Nicholas Ave. in Harlem.
Voza Rivers, founder of New Heritage Theatre and the Harlem Arts Alliance; LaZette McCants, founder of Volunteer Divas & Divos for the Arts, artist Minerva Diaz and many special guests will join Neema Barnette, director of Civil Brand, for an evening remembering his visionary work as an artist and community leader.
Leon Pinkney, an actor and friend mentored by Cliff, will unveil a sculptor of Cliff Frazier designed by artist Stan Watts. Stan Watts decided that he wanted to honor Cliff Frazier for the great man and human being he had been to many across the country.
The Civil Brand screening will follow the community dedications to Cliff Frazier. Neema Barnette received one of Reel Sisters’ first trailblazer awards for her contributions to passing forward the knowledge from her mentors.
CIVIL BRAND
Director: Neema Barnette Writer: Preston A. Whitmore II
Narrative, 95 min.
Frances is in the pen for killing her abusive husband. The abused prisoners rise up against the “new plantation” that harvest human labor for profit. Nothing will stop Frances and her fellow inmates in this brutal battle for justice. The film stars LisaRaye McCoy, N’Bushe Wright , Yasiin Bey, Monica Calhoun, and Clifton Powell.
Tribute to A Friend & Mentor – CLIFF FRAZIER
Cliff Frazier was a successful humanitarian, executive, educator, lecturer, writer, television & motion picture producer, director, actor, and social activist. Cliff Frazier served as the Executive Director of the New York Metropolitan Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolence (NYMLK) and founder and President of the International Communication Association (ICA). He co-founded the Harriet Tubman Charter School, which was the first charter awarded by the NYS Board of Regents. Frazier was the chair of Woodie King, Jr.’s New Federal Theatre. Cliff Frazier won an Emmy Award as producer, writer director for his ABC-TV special, “To Be A Man.” He produced or executive produced over 40 films or television productions.
NEEMA BARNETTE
Neema Barnette is an award-winning director of films and TV series, including Civil Brand, Woman Thou Art Loosed: On the 7th Day, and the OWN drama Queen Sugar. The winner of both a Peabody and an Emmy, Barnette is the first African-American woman sitcom director ( a 1986 episode of What’s Happening Now) and the first African-American woman to sign a three-picture deal with Sony. Her recent credits include Luke Cage (2018), Black Lightning (2019), Paradise Lost (2020), The Equalizer (2022), and Naomi (2022).
Barnette and her husband, filmmaker and writer Reed McCants, serve as executive producers of the project Black History Mini Docs. Its YouTube channel and website feature 90-second videos to educate viewers on the contributions of Black people in American history such as writer James Baldwin, inventor Annie Malone, and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. It’s their way of giving back, she said.
Barnette is an alumna of the program Third World Cinema, founded by the late Cliff Frazier and Ossie Davis in 1971. Both were Harlemites. The program introduced Black youth to the film industry with a goal of increasing representation of people of color working in all aspects of the industry.