Leslie Harris
Directing
Biography
Leslie Harris (born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1960) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Her early film work consisted of animations and live action shorts. With her 1992 film Just Another Girl on the I.R.T., Leslie Harris became the first African-American woman director, writer, producer and executive producer to win a Special Jury Prize at The Sundance Film Festival for Best Feature Film. Harris has lectured on film making and film at Tulane University, Wellesley College, Portland State University, Columbia University and the Canadian Film Institute. Harris has also taught both screenwriting and film production classes as both a full-time and adjunct professor at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.
Known For
Indie Sex is a 2007 American television documentary film directed by Lesli Klainberg.
Indie Sex
A Paul Joyce documentary on the American independent film scene.
Made in the USA
New York Conversations is a documentary made of varied conversations revolving around cinema in New York. These conversations give us the opportunity to sketch some of the bad boys and girls -directors, actors or producers of New York cinema, whether they be famous, anonymous or blossoming talents. Young and impetuous for most, they are watched over by a few veterans. All share this iron will to remain independent, out of choice but above all, out of necessity. The necessity to create at any cost. Shot with a Super8 camera, this documentary groups together 15 short conversations about film making, life, independence, art and...New York.
New York Conversations
Underage sexual activity is one of the most taboo subjects on screen. The film traces the history and representation of adolescent love and sexual behavior from Splendor on the Grass to Thirteen. It examines both the sensational teen films of the 1980s and more modern youth cinema as mediums through which teen movies play a central role in adolescent sex education.
Indie Sex: Teens
A look at the development of film making and its contribution to the social and political times form the perspective of Black film makers.
Directors on Directing
Chantel Mitchell, a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, is determined not to become "just another girl on the IRT" (the IRT is one of NYC's subway lines). She dreams of medical school, a family, and an escape from the generational poverty and street-corner life her friends seem to have accepted as their lot. But personal and sexual challenges confront Chantel on her way to fulfilling these dreams.
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
A short film about Bessie Coleman, the first African-American to obtain an international pilot license, two years before Amelia Earhart