Stanley Nelson
Directing
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).
Behind the camera
2025We Want the Funk!
Director
2025Critical Condition: Health in Black America
Director
2024San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood
Director
2023Sound of the Police
Director
2022Becoming Frederick Douglass
Director
2021Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom
Director
2021Attica
Director & Writer
2021Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre
Director
2021Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
Director
2020Vick
Director
2019Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
Director
2019BOSS: The Black Experience in Business
Director
2018The Story of Access
Director
2017Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities
Director & Screenplay
2015The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
Director & Writer
2014Freedom Summer
Director & Writer
2012Jesse Owens
Writer
2012Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas
Director
2010Freedom Riders
Director & Writer
2006Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Director
2004Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise
Director
2004A Place of Our Own
Director & Writer
2003The Murder of Emmett Till
Director
2001Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind
Director