Beti Ellerson

{{Infobox person | name = Beti Ellerson | other_names = | image = Carthage film festival opening 26.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Ellerson at Carthage film festival | birth_date = | birth_name = | birth_place = United States | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | education = | years_active = 1996–present | party = | spouse = | children = | awards = | father = | mother = | signature = | website = | footnotes = | occupation = Director, feminist, social women activist }} '''Beti Ellerson''' is an American filmmaker and activist particularly active in African cinema.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://calendar.lafayette.edu/node/11423 | title=Speaker Beti Ellerson: African Women Filmmakers | publisher=Calendar | accessdate=3 October 2020 | archive-date=8 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008070841/https://calendar.lafayette.edu/node/11423 | url-status=dead }}</ref> She established the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.<ref name= woman>{{cite web | url=https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/beti-ellerson-of-african-women-in-cinema-25ae28a3f8e3 | title=Beti Ellerson of 'African Women In Cinema' | date=22 May 2016 | publisher=Medium | accessdate=3 October 2020}}</ref>

==Personal life== She completed PhD in African Studies from Howard University, USA.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.filme-aus-afrika.de/EN/film-database/persons/personen-details/w/3579/ | title=Biografie Beti Ellerson | publisher=Filme AUS Afrika | accessdate=3 October 2020 | archive-date=20 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020032948/http://www.filme-aus-afrika.de/EN/film-database/persons/personen-details/w/3579/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> It consisted with interdisciplinary specializations in Visual Culture, African Cinema Studies, and Women Studies. In 2004, she was lecturer at Howard University in Washington, D.C.<ref name= woman /> In 2017, Ellerson was a scholar-in-residence at Texas Tech University.<ref name= AFWC>{{cite web | url=https://www.africanwomenincinema.org/AFWC/About.html | title=Beti Ellerson: the director | publisher=AFWC | accessdate=3 October 2020 | archive-date=15 September 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915015343/https://www.africanwomenincinema.org/AFWC/About.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Career== When Ellerson started as a 1996–1997 Rockefeller Humanities Fellow, she continued post-doctoral research project with the title ''African Women in the Visual Media: Culture and Politics''.<ref name= open>{{cite web | url=https://openbeast.com/2052 | title=Sisters of the Screen | publisher=Open Beast | accessdate=3 October 2020 | archive-date=8 October 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008141820/https://openbeast.com/2052 | url-status=dead }}</ref> She later studied script writing, video production, editing and television production at the local public access community television. With the experience she gained through cultural community in Washington, D.C., Ellerson produce and host a series called ''Reels of Colour''.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.wmm.com/filmmaker/Beti+Ellerson/ | title=Beti Ellerson | publisher=WMM | accessdate=3 October 2020}}</ref> The series aired from 1997 to 2000, comprised a total of 27 episodes that ran on the local public stations in the Washington, D.C., area.<ref name= woman /><ref name= AFWC />

Later in 2000, she made a documentary project called ''Sisters of the Screen'',<ref name= LFFF>{{cite web | url=https://londonfeministfilmfestival.com/lfff-archive/lfff-2018/awards-and-jury/ | title=London Feminist Film Festival Awards | publisher=London Feminist Film Festival Awards official website | accessdate=3 October 2020 | archive-date=1 November 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201101002507/https://londonfeministfilmfestival.com/lfff-archive/lfff-2018/awards-and-jury/ | url-status=dead }}</ref> as well as a book titled ''Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television''.<ref name= open /> The project was later developed as a film with the same title in 2002 by Ellerson as her maiden cinema direction. Meanwhile, she continued to documenting the research on women. As a result, she created an extensive online teaching and learning guide on African women in cinema in 2004.<ref name= woman />

She wrote many articles for the African Women in Cinema Dossier of the Black Camera International Film Journal. In 2008, Ellerson created the online Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.<ref name= LFFF /> In 2012, she was the keynote speaker at the 2012 colloquy on Francophone African Women Filmmakers held in Paris.<ref name= AFWC /> Ellerson described ''On n'oublie pas, on pardonne -'' a film by Annette Jouamba Matondo - as "cathartic".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ellerson|first=Beti|date=2018|title=Onscreen Narratives, Offscreen Lives: African Women Inscribing the Self|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/blackcamera.9.2.29|journal=Black Camera|volume=9|issue=2|pages=460–476|doi=10.2979/blackcamera.9.2.29|jstor=10.2979/blackcamera.9.2.29 |s2cid=194986880 |issn=1536-3155|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

She was a Jury member in several film festivals across the world, including; 2011 International Images Film Festival for Women held in Harare, 2018 London Feminist Film Festival and 2018 Carthage Film Festival (JCC).<ref name= LFFF /> Apart from that, she was the president of the Diaspora Jury at Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) in 2013. At the Afrika Film Festival Cologne 2016, she was the moderator for Fokus: Sisters in African Cinema Roundtable in Germany.<ref name= AFWC />

==Filmography==

{| class="wikitable" |- ! Year !! Film !! Role !! Ref. |- | 2002 || ''Sisters of the Screen'' || Director || <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.wmm.com/catalog/film/sisters-of-the-screen/ | title=SISTERS OF THE SCREEN: African Women in the Cinema | publisher=WMM | accessdate=3 October 2020}}</ref> |}

==References== {{reflist|30em}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|nm11720380}} * [https://www.buala.org/en/afroscreen/the-woman-in-contemporary-african-cinema-protagonism-and-representation The woman in Contemporary African Cinema: Protagonism and Representation] * [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Beti_Ellerson Beti Ellerson at Research Gate]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellerson, Beti}} Category:Living people Category:American documentary film directors Category:African-American film directors Category:Howard University alumni Category:Howard University faculty Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:American women film directors Category:American activists Category:20th-century African-American women Category:21st-century African-American women