Marc Peeples
Mr. Peeples was born and raised in Detroit, MI. He watched as the houses he grew up in were boarded up and condemned. He took the initiative to create something out of the destruction he saw and turn the abandoned lot in his older neighborhood, into a community garden known as Liberated Farms. He is known for the Gardening While Black incident of 2019.
Update: Marc is currently reestablishing Liberated Farms and working on STEAM programs for kids in the greater Detroit area. For more information see Liberated Farms
The Team
Chico Colvard (Director) Chico Colvard is an Assistant Professor of Race, Law and Media related courses in Boston. He is the former Founding Curator of the University of Massachusetts Film Series. Chico is the founding member of C-LineFilms, which produces short and long form documentaries, as well as online commercial content. His feature doc, FAMILY AFFAIR, premiered in competition at Sundance and was the first film acquired by Oprah Winfrey for her cable channel, OWN. The film streamed on Netflix, iTunes and other online platforms. The film screened at festivals and aired on TV stations around the world. He is a two-time Sundance Fellow, WGBH Filmmaker-in-Residence, Firelight Media Fellow, and Flaherty Fellow. Chico is a frequent guest speaker, moderator, festival panelist and film industry juror. His recent film, BLACK MEMORABILIA examines the manufacturing, consumption and reclamation of this material culture. The film premiered at MoMA in New York City and screened at festivals, colleges, universities and museums nationally and internationally. The film broadcast on PBS’s Independent Lens.
Madison O’Leary (Producer) is a Boston-based producer. She received her BA in Communications from UMass Amherst. After working around the country as a Trauma and Abuse Counselor in federal prisons, she came to work as an Assistant Producer and Researcher on FAMILY AFFAIR (Sundance, 2010). She worked as a Producer on BLACK MEMORABILIA (MoMA 2018) and currently heads-up operations at C-LineFilms, LLC.
Yance Ford (Advisor) Yance Ford is a Sundance Institute Fellow, a Creative Capital Grantee and featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. A graduate of Hamilton College and the Production Workshop at Third World Newsreel, he is a former series producer of the PBS anthology series POV. The Root 100 recently named Ford among the most influential African Americans of 2017 and in December the International Documentary Association will present him with their Emerging Filmmaker Award.
Kate Davis (Advisor) Academy-Award Nominated Kate Davis has made acclaimed documentaries for HBO, BBC, PBS, A&E Networks, Court TV and The History Channel. An AMPAS member, her film SOUTHERN COMFORT won dozens of awards including The Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Hot Docs, Seattle Film Festival, and the Berlin Film Festival Special Jury Award. She co-directed THE CHESHIRE MURDERS, THE NEWBURGH STING (Peabody Award), and JOCKEY (Emmy, Best Direction), and also produced/co-directed STONEWALL UPRISING (Peabody Award) for American Experience. She directed the 2018 Oscar-nominated short documentary, Traffic Stop, which also won the Grand Jury Prize at Docs NYC, and is currently co-directing BORN INTO THE GIG.
Shannon Kennedy (Editorial Advisor) is a documentary editor and consultant whose credits include Esther Robinson’s A Walk into the Sea, which won, amongst other awards, a Teddy Award at the Berlin Film Festival, and Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern’s The Trials of Daryl Hunt, which won a DuPont Award and aired on HBO. Along with director Kimberly Reed, Kennedy edited Prodigal Sons, which has won numerous awards. She also edited Sam Green’s The Universal Language, Cathryn Collins’ VLAST (POWER), Cameron Yates’ The Canal Street Madam, and Mai Iskander’s Words of Witness. In addition, she co-edited Mark Kendall’s La Camioneta, which received an IDA award. As a contributing editor, Kennedy worked on Jason Springarn-Koff’s Life 2.0 as well as Natalia Almada's El General, which won the Documentary Directing Award at Sundance. She has consulted on numerous other films, including Almada's El Velador, which premiered at Cannes, Zachary Heinzerling’s Oscar nominated Cutie and the Boxer, and Cameron Yates’ Chef Flynn.
David Heilbroner (Advisor) Academy-Award Nominated David Heilbroner has been directing and producing award-winning documentaries for more than 15 years. He most recently produced "Traffic Stop," a short documentary which won the Grand Jury Prize at NYC Docs and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2014, David co-directed and co-produced "The Newburgh Sting" which premiered at The Tribeca Film Festival before airing on HBO and winning numerous awards including a 2014 Peabody.In 2010, David wrote, produced and co-directed "Stonewall Uprising" which played theatrically in more than 60 cities nationwide before airing on PBS and winning a Peabody Award, among many others. His other feature-length titles include: "The Cheshire Murders," "Pucker Up: The Fine Art of Whistling," and the Emmy-winning "Jockey."
Stanley Nelson (Advisor) is among the premier documentary filmmakers working today. His feature-length films combine compelling narratives with rich and deeply researched historical detail, shining new light on both familiar and under-explored aspects of the American past. In addition to honors for his individual films, Nelson and his body of work have garnered every major award in the industry. He is a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, and was awarded an individual Peabody Award, the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and received the National Medal in the Humanities from President Barack Obama. Nelson’s latest film, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool, the definitive look at the life and career of the iconic Miles Davis, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. The screening marked Nelson’s tenth premiere at the prestigious festival in twenty years, the most premieres of any documentary filmmaker.
Khalik Allah (Editorial Advisor) is a New York-based photographer and filmmaker whose work has been described as "street opera" simultaneously visceral, hauntingly beautiful and penetrative. Khalik's passion for photography was sparked when he began photographing members of the Wu-Tang Clan with a camera he borrowed from his dad. Real and raw, his profoundly personal work goes beyond street photography. His eye for daring portraiture and bold aesthetics takes us into an entire world. His film FIELD NIGGAS and book Souls Against the Concrete depict people who inhabit the notorious Harlem corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in New York City. His film BLACK MOTHER depicts people on the island of Jamaica and is currently touring globally.
