A HYBRID DOCUMENTARY IN DEVELOPMENT
Black people have contributed mightily to every facet of American life, from laborers to business leaders, scientists to noted inventors, athletes to team owners, storytellers to entertainment superstars, local politicians and national office holders. Their contributions are inextricably woven into our societal fabric. There exists, however, a gaping hole in that fabric – the near total absence of Black people conceiving, building and owning a major technology business. David Tarver, a Black electrical engineer from Flint, Michigan, was determined to control his own destiny.
BLACK TECHNOLOGY PIONEERS
In the early 1980s, he had one of the most coveted tech jobs in the world – Member of Technical Staff at the legendary Bell Labs. He chose to leave that vaunted position behind, and he convinced two Black colleagues – Steven Moore and Charles Simmons – to join him in the effort to create their own world-class telecommunications technology company. If they succeeded, it meant there were no limits on what a Black technology entrepreneur could accomplish. If they failed, well …
…they had to find out.
PROVING GROUND needs your support to become reality -
you can donate to our fiscal sponsor by clicking the link below.
You can make a tax-deductible donation to our fiscal sponsor, Video Veracity, at the button above, or by reaching out to videoveracity@gmail.com for wire or check mailing instructions. If you are interested in learning more about supporting the project in other ways, please reach out to producer Darcy McKinnon at darcy@gustomovingpictures.com.
DIRECTOR: NAILAH JEFFERSON
Nailah Jefferson is a native New Orleans filmmaker whose internationally distributed films span fiction and nonfiction. Nailah’s debut documentary Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe a la Hache, told the story of the little known African American oyster fishing community in Louisiana in the aftermath of the 2010 BP Oil Spill. Nailah’s first narrative film Plaquemines was chosen as an American Black Film Festival HBO Shorts finalist and streamed on HBO platforms. In 2021, Nailah’s short documentary Descended From A Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wall Street screened at the 2021 DOC NYC and Martha’s Vineyard Black Film Festival. Nailah is currently wrapping the feature documentary Commuted
about Danielle Metz, a woman whose triple life plus twenty year drug sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2016 after serving 23 years in prison. After winning the 2019 PitchBlack competition, Commuted was also supported by the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Perspective Fund, Southern Documentary Fund, Black Public Media, ITVS and Firelight Media. Nailah’s latest documentary Donyale Luna: Supermodelis a co-production between Lightbox Entertainment and the American Black Film Festival and will be distributed by HBO Fall 2023.
PRODUCER: DARCY McKINNON
Darcy McKinnon is a documentary filmmaker based in New Orleans. McKinnon’s recent work includes the upcoming docuseries Algiers, America (NOFF22 Audience Award Winner, Hulu), Sundance 2023 short Under G-d (dir. Paula Eiselt), Hulu’s Look at Me! XXXTENTACION (dir. Sabaah Folayan, SXSW 2022 ) and the Emmy-nominated The Neutral Ground (dir. CJ Hunt, Tribeca 2021, POV). McKinnon is currently in production on Nailah Jefferson’s Commuted, Katie Mathews’ Roleplay, and Jason Fitzroy Jeffers’ The First Plantation among others. Her prior work (A Fine Girl, Animals, Maquilapolis and Live Nude Girls, UNITE!) has screened and been broadcast internationally, and has been supported by SFFILM, CAAM, Chicken and Egg, Firelight Media, ITVS, Black Public Media, Sundance Institute and the Tribeca Film Institute. Darcy is an alum of the Impact Partners Producing Fellowship, the Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellowship, and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 2020 25 new faces in independent film.