Stanley Nelson
Biography
Stanley Earl Nelson Jr. (born June 7, 1951) is an American documentary filmmaker and a MacArthur Fellow known as a director, writer and producer of documentaries examining African-American history and experiences. He is a recipient of the 2013 National Humanities Medal from President Obama. He has won three Primetime Emmy Awards. Among his notable films are Freedom Riders (2010), Wounded Knee (2009), Jonestown: The Life & Death of People's Temple (2006), Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice (2005), A Place of Our Own (2004), The Murder of Emmett Till (2003), and The Black Press: Soldiers without Swords (1998).
Personal Details
Also Known As
Movies (45)
American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez
Executive Producer (Production)
2026
True North
Executive Producer (Production)
2025
Sun Ra: Do the Impossible
Executive Producer (Production)
2025
The Inquisitor
Executive Producer (Production)
2025
Free for All: The Public Library
Executive Producer (Production)
2025
Critical Condition: Health in Black America
Director (Directing)
2025
We Want the Funk!
Director (Directing)
2025
San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood
Director (Directing)
2024
Sister Úna Lived a Good Death
Executive Producer (Production)
2024
Bulls and Saints
Executive Producer (Production)
2023
Sound of the Police
Director (Directing)
2023
Birthing a Nation: The Resistance of Mary Gaffney
Executive Producer (Production)
2023
Sydney G. James: How We See Us
Executive Producer (Production)
2023
Jonathan Thunder: Good Mythology
Executive Producer (Production)
2023
Becoming Frederick Douglass
Director (Directing)
2022
After Jackie
Producer (Production)
2022
Hazing
Executive Producer (Production)
2022
Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom
Director (Directing)
2021
Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day
Executive Producer (Production)
2021
Attica
Director (Directing)
2021
Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre
Director (Directing)
2021
Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
Director (Directing)
2021
Vick
Director (Directing)
2020
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
Director (Directing)
2019
BOSS: The Black Experience in Business
Director (Directing)
2019
The Story of Access
Director (Directing)
2018
Black Memorabilia
Script Supervisor (Directing)
2018
American Carnage
Executive Producer (Production)
2017
Gavin Grimm vs.
Executive Producer (Production)
2017
Picket Line
Executive Producer (Production)
2017
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities
Director (Directing)
2017
Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band
Executive Producer (Production)
2015
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Director (Directing)
2015
Freedom Summer
Director (Directing)
2014
Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas
Director (Directing)
2012
Jesse Owens
Producer (Production)
2012
Freedom Riders
Writer (Writing)
2010
Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans
Executive Producer (Production)
2008
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Director (Directing)
2006
A Place of Our Own
as Self - Narrator (voice)
2004
Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise
Director (Directing)
2004
The Murder of Emmett Till
Director (Directing)
2003
Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind
Director (Directing)
2001
The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords
Producer (Production)
1999
Two Dollars and A Dream: The Story of Madame C.J. Walker
Director (Directing)
1987
