Yvonne Welbon is an American independent film director, producer, and screenwriter based in Chicago. She is known for her films, Living with Pride:Ruth C. Ellis @ 100 (1999), Sisters in Cinema (2003), and Monique (1992).
Welbon has directed nine films and produced fifteen others. Her work has been screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, BET, the Sundance Channel and in the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, and over one hundred other film festivals around the world. Living with Pride:Ruth C. Ellis @ 100 won ten best documentary awards, including the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Her ongoing Sundance Documentary Fellowship project is Sisters in Cinema, a documentary, website, and forthcoming book based on her doctoral dissertation about the history of African American women feature film directors and the personal struggles they face within the industry based on their identities.[1]
She is also working on a web based online community project, Sisters in the Life: 25 Years of Out African American Lesbian Media-making (1986-2011), which includes a collection of essays, a documentary, an archive, and a mobile app.[2]
Having grown up as the daughter of a Chicago police officer, Welbon received an undergraduate degree in history from Vassar College. Thereafter, she spent six years in Taipei, Taiwan, where she taught English, learned Mandarin Chinese at the age of 23, and founded and published an alternative arts magazine.[7] She ran the magazine for a total of five years.[8]
Welbon is associate professor and department chair of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Bennett College for Women, an HBCU in Greensboro, North Carolina. Welbon has also been a visiting scholar at Duke University (2013-2014), and is working on a project to curate her "Sisters in Cinema" archive to allow it to become a resource for academic use.
Currently Welbon is the Interim Creative Director of Chicken and Egg Pictures and has produced a documentary, The New Black, by Yoruba Richen.[9] She also has begun a web based community called Sisters in the Life: 25 Years of Out African American Lesbian Media-making (1986-2011).[2]
^"Compensation". Women Make Movies. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
^"Work". Cheryl Dunye. Archived from the original on September 3, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
^"Chimpanzee Productions". Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^"Film Work". Catherine Crouch. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
^Cross, Vida (Winter 2003). "A Sister in Cinema: An Interview with Yvonne Welbon". Journal of Film and Video.
^ ab"Yvonne Welbon". Women Make Movies. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
Ehrenstein, David. Sisters with Cameras. The Advocate, February 17, 2004.
Lindsey, Craig D. 'Sisters' gives Fascinating Insight. The News & Observer, February 6, 2004.
Moss, Marilyn. Sisters in Cinema. The Hollywood Reporter, February 6, 2004.
Sumner, Jane. Filmmaker finds 'Sisters' in cinema but not Hollywood, Dallas Morning News, February 6, 2004.
Bianco, Robert. Critics Corner- What to Watch This Weekend. USA Today. February 5, 2004.
Mertes, Cara. Yvonne Welbon: The Indies' Own Self-Help Guru, The Independent, March 2003 Koehler, Robert. Sisters in Cinema. Variety. March 11, 2003.
Merk, Ron. Be Your Own Distributor: If You Want Something Done Right..., Release Print, April 2002
"The Innovators – Featuring 117 Gay and Lesbian Trend-Breakers: Yvonne Welbon" The Advocate. August 14, 2001
Juhasz, Alexandra – Yvonne Welbon. Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Film and Video Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
"She Said Cinema: Yvonne Welbon," broadcast on the Sundance Channel, April 2001
Stein, Rob. "Living With Pride," In The Life, #904, broadcast on PBS, April/May 2000
Raab, Barbara. "The Book of Ruth," The Advocate, April 11, 2000
Graham, Renee. "Life in the Pop Lane: Inspiring 'Pride' Depicts Life of Oldest Black Lesbian," The Boston Globe, April 11, 2000
Wisco, Albert. "Yvonne Welbon at the Toronto Film Festival." Studio2, TV Ontario, broadcast November 12, 1999
Willis, Holly. "Fifty Creatives to Watch." Variety, August 23–29, 1999
Shen, Ted. "Film Explores Pride, Prejudice of a Lifestyle." The Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1999
Willis, Holly. "Twenty-Five New Faces of Indie Film." Filmmaker, Summer 1998
Redding, Judith M. and Victoria A. Brownworth "Yvonne Welbon: Memory." Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors, Seattle, WA: Seal Press, 1997, pp. 112–116.
Walker, Cary. "Rethinking the Past: Learning to Question Mainstream Perceptions" Focus, Vol. XVII, 1997, pp. 13–22.
Carter, Tammy."Soul Searching in the Far East." Times-Picayune, (New Orleans) July 28, 1996.
Mura, David. "Alternative Gazes." New Observer, (Philadelphia, PA), July 17, 1996.
Scott, Tony. "P.O.V. Remembering Wei Yi-fang..." Variety, July 29, 1996,
Shen, Ted. "Reel Life: The Kindness of Strangers," The Reader, February 2, 1996.
Miller, Cheryl. "In The Life: New Works by Black Lesbian Filmmakers." Hot Wire Vol 8, No. 3, September 1992.
