Rodney Evans

Rodney Evans holds a B.F.A. in modern culture and media/film production from Brown University and an M.F.A. in film production from the California Institute of the Arts.  He has spent the past thirteen years creating films and videos that explore the intersection of race, class, sexuality, and history in the lives of African-Americans.  Mr. Evans is the recipient of The Independent Feature Project’s Gordon Parks Award for Screenwriting for his screenplay Brother to Brother.  He also received funding from the Independent Television Service (ITVS), the Jerome Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) towards the writing and production of that project.  Brother to Brother premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Special Jury Prize in Drama.  The film had its European premiere at Berlin International Film Festival in February, 2004, and was nominated for four IFP Spirit Awards including Best First Film and Best First Screenplay.  It aired nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens in June 2005.  His autobiographical film, Closer to Home, has been shown at over thirty film festivals throughout the world.  His earlier feature-length project, The Unveiling, opened theatrically in Los Angeles and New York in 1998.  He is currently developing his second narrative feature, Day Dream.  The script was the first-place winner of the 2008 Newfest Screenplay competition.  Mr. Evans is a Creative Capital Grantee.