Yvonne Welbon

Yvonne Welbon (she/her) is an award-winning filmmaker and founder and CEO of the Chicago-based non-profit Sisters in Cinema, inspired by her documentary of the same name, about the history of Black women feature film directors. She has produced and distributed dozens of award-winning films broadcast on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, the Sundance Channel, BET, HBO, Netflix, and iTunes and screened in over one hundred film festivals around the world. Projects in development include "The Spies Who Loved Me," a thrilling expose on surveillance that focuses on the six years she lived in Taipei, Taiwan, and "American Pride," a Black lesbian coming-of-age series set on the south side of Chicago inspired by true events. She has taught at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. She was an Associate Professor and chaired the Journalism & Media Studies Department at Bennett College in Greensboro, NC. Raised in a Honduran household on the South Side of Chicago, Welbon holds a B.A. from Vassar College, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women. In 2020 she became a member of the Documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences.