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Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities

Though much of its history was eclipsed by the explosiveness of the 1960s, the essential role the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) played in shaping black life, creating a black middle class and dismantling segregation cannot be overstated.

Premiere Date

February 19, 2018

Length

90 minutes

Funding Type

Co-Production

Awards & Recognition

Nominee

2018 News and Documentary Emmy Awards - Outstanding Historical Documentary

Older man with short white hair and a beard, in a light blue collared shirt, gazes seriously at the camera. Soft-focus green foliage fills the background.
Stanley Nelson

Producer/Director

Stanley Nelson is a leading documentarian of the African American experience. His films combine compelling narratives with rich historical detail to shine light on the under-explored American past. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, five Primetime Emmy Awards, and lifetime achievement awards from the Emmys and IDA.

Marco Williams

Co-Director/Co-Producer

Marco Williams is a filmmaker and film educator, best known for Two Towns of Jasper, which won a Peabody Award and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. His directing credits include: The Undocumented (Independent Lens/PBS); Inside the New Black Panthers (National Geographic); Banished (Independent Lens/PBS); Freedom Summer (History Channel); I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown v. Board of Education (MTV); MLK Boulevard: The Concrete Dream (Discovery Times); Making Peace: Rebuilding our Communities (PBS); The Pursuit of Happiness: With Arianna Huffington (PBS); Without a Pass (PBS); In Search of Our Fathers (Frontline/PBS); and From Harlem to Harvard (The Learning Channel). In addition to the Peabody, Williams’ awards include a Beacon, an Alfred I duPont, a Pan African Film Festival Outstanding Documentary Award, a Full Frame Documentary Festival Spectrum Award, and the National Association of Black Journalists First Place Salute to Excellence Award.

Cyndee Readdean

Producer

Cyndee Readdean is a New York-based independent producer, director, and writer. Her work includes producing the Peabody Award-winning documentary Freedom Summer. The film premiered at Sundance and aired on PBS’s American Experience. Also for PBS, Cyndee produced and directed Native American Boomtown and Politics of the New South (America by the Numbers series) and No Obama Drama (Postcards From the Great Divide series).