2nd Annual Inclusive Inquiry Speaker Series

The Inclusive Inquiry Speaker Series Film Festival will take place in Commonwealth Auditorium in the Sadler Center.

Thursday, February 22, 2024
5:00 p.m. Screening of Sitelines BLM Films: 
Break
Bleach
Still Fighting
6:00 p.m.  Screening of Mass Ave
6:30 p.m.  Q&A with screenwriters Brittany Fisher, Margarette Joyner, dl Hopkins, and Omar S. Kamara
7:00 p.m.  Welcome Table

Friday, February 23, 2024
4:30 p.m.  Screening of African Giants 
6:30 p.m.  Keynote and Q&A
7:30 p.m.  Reception

Writer/Director Omar S. Kamara is a first-generation Sierra Leonean American, Virginia native, and graduate of the College of William and Mary and AFI. His debut feature film, AFRICAN GIANTS, which he independently wrote, directed, and produced, had its World Premiere at Slamdance Film Festival in 2024 where it won Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature and was picked up by Juno Films for worldwide distribution.

His previous short film, MASS AVE, won the Grand Prize at the DGA Student Film Awards, was named a Finalist in HBO's Short Film Competition at ABFF, and was nominated for the Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival. The film was licensed by HBO and is currently streaming on HBO Max.

In addition to winning the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award at AFI, he was selected as an inaugural Resident for the Rideback Rise BIPOC Content Accelerator. Kamara’s films touch on his first-generation experiences and strive to highlight and honor the African Diaspora.

Brittany Fisher (she/her) is an NYC-based playwright with roots in Richmond, VA, and graduate of Juilliard's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. Her play How to Bruise Gracefully won the 2021 Kennedy Center Lorraine Hansberry Award and was recognized by the Rosa Parks Award and Paula Vogel Award. Her play Your Regularly Scheduled Programming was a 2022 O’Neill NPC selection and recognized by the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Award. She was a 2018-20 Pipeline New Works Playwriting Fellow, and her work has been featured at and developed with the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, National Black Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Alliance Theatre's Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, Cadence Theatre Company and Virginia Repertory Theatre. She received her B.A. from James Madison University.

dl Hopkins is an award-winning actor, poet, and the former Artistic Director of the African American Repertory Theatre of Virginia. Hopkins is a founder of the Southern Revolutionist Literary Guild (SRLG), a collective of poets and spoken word artists. While serving on the Board of Directors of James River Writers, Hopkins created the Just Poetry Slam, Richmond’s first and longest-running poetry slam. Hopkins is a founding member of the Jazz Actors Theatre established by his mentor, Ernie McClintock, founder of Harlem’s Afro-American Studio for Acting and Speech and the 127th Street Repertory Ensemble. 

Margarette Joyner (she/her) is a Director, Actress, Poet, Singer, and Costume Designer based in Charlotte, NC. Joyner is a Visiting Professor of Costume Design at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. She graduated with a MFA from VCU after receiving her undergraduate degree from the University of South Alabama. Joyner founded The Heritage Ensemble Theatre Company in 2012 and served as the Artistic/Executive Director for 10 years. She has taught theatre and served as an academic advisor at the university level for six years. In addition to writing several stage plays, Joyner recently co-authored a book, When I Kill Him, Jesus Can Have Him, released through Pecan Tree Publishing. She also served as an Actor Interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg, where she not only performed but wrote several of her own solo programs. She was honored to give voice to those of the enslaved community of Williamsburg's 18th Century. Joyner has designed costumes and props for Cadence Cinema Film & TV’s "Still Fighting," "Bleach," "Break," and "Bloodlines". Of all these accomplishments, her greatest is to have raised a daughter who is a loving human being and her best friend. Says Joyner of her talents, "I am humbled by the fact that God has chosen me to represent His work in so many ways."