TTFF Talk with Michèle Stephenson

Her work is no stranger to TTFF – but this September marks Emmy-award-winning director Michèle Stephenson’s first time at the festival in person. Her documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, was shortlisted for an Academy Award and named Best Documentary at TTFF/23. A filmmaker, artist and writer of Haitian and Panamanian descent, Michèle brings the eye of a former human rights attorney to some of the most urgent stories on screen today, from American Promise to Stateless. Michele’s work is authentic and urgent, and confronts hard-hitting realities to provoke thought, inspire action, and drive meaningful change.

For this year’s TTFF Talk, Michele sits down with TTFF/26 programmer, Farrah Rahaman, for a wide-ranging conversation about storytelling, craft and courage.

Michele Stephenson

Emmy Award–winning filmmaker, artist, and author, Michèle Stephenson, draws from her Haitian and Panamanian heritage to transform non-fiction storytelling. Through a Black Atlantic lens, she reimagines narratives of resistance and healing, weaving fiction, immersive, experimental, and hybrid forms that center a Black Radical tradition and the lived experiences of the Black diaspora. Her non-fiction films Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games were both Oscar-shortlisted, with Going To Mars winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the prestigious Emmy Award for Outstanding Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and Black Girls Play winning the Edward R. Murrow for Excellence in Video. Her other body of work includes The Changing Same, a magical realist VR installation that premiered at Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier Showcase and won Tribeca’s Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive Narrative, along with several other projects recognized with Emmy nominations and a Canadian Screen Award nomination. Her newest work, True North: A Movement in Five Parts, is a creative non-fiction feature that explores the history of the Black liberation movement in Canada. She is a Guggenheim Artist Fellow, Creative Capital Artist, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.