Serena's on the list...."The Black List"

The always caring and concerned Serena Williams contributes to "The Black List." “The Black List” is a documentary which seeks to bury the negative weight of the term by allowing African-Americans to provide an up-to-the-minute answer to the grim origins of “blacklist.” In a film that works as series of living portraits, twenty-five prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in this country and manage to re-define “blacklist” for a new century in the process.

It is comprised of an HBO documentary film, a museum exhibition of photographic portraits, a forthcoming book of those photographs and a national interactive, curriculum-based educational program. The film is presented as a series of vignettes – a kind of living portraiture – in which the subjects address the camera directly as they tell their stories.

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders directed the film in collaboration with Elvis Mitchell who conducted the interviews. Mitchell is never seen on camera or heard, thus allowing the subjects’ own voices to remain the focus. "The Black List" film premieres on HBO August 25th. Each compelling interview serves as a potent illustration of empowerment in the face of unique limitations and broader obstacles. For more information, visit www.blacklistproject.com.