STORMING CESARS PALACE (INDEPENDENT LENS FEATURE FILM | PBS)

CREDIT

Cinematographer

Selected Screenings

Blackstar Film Festival (2022) - World Premiere opening night feature; Nominated Best Documentary Feature, Winner - Shine Award

Big Sky Film Festival (2023)

When Ruby Duncan faces the stigma and harassment of a fraud-obsessed and broken system she ignites “Mother Power,” mobilizing a welfare rights group to march down the Strip demanding dignity, justice, democratic participation, and an adequate income in 1971.

Based on the book Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty by Annelise Orleck, the film challenges the pernicious lie of the “Welfare Queen,” and highlights the visionary leadership of low-income grassroots organizers whose courage, tenacity and dreams could not be quashed, against all odds.

Storming Caesars Palace was nominated for Best Documentary Feature and won the Shine Award for a first-time filmmaker at BlackStar Film Festival in 2022. Hazel and the film received support from Big Sky Pitch, Black Public Media’s Incubator 360+ and PitchBLACK, Firelight Media's Documentary and Impact Labs, Film Independent's Documentary Lab, The Gotham’s Film & Media Institute, and Brown Girl Doc Mafia’s Feedback Loop.