Award-winning independent filmmaker Yvonne Welbon will be sitting in on MFAEDA work reviews Wednesday, April 4.
Originally from Chicago, Webon received a B.A. in history from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Thereafter, she spent six years in Taipei, Taiwan, where she taught English, learned Mandarin Chinese, and at the age of 23, founded and published a premiere arts magazine with $300 dollars. She ran the magazine for five years.
Welbon returned to the United States and enrolled in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and obtained a Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in film and video in 1994 and Ph. D. in Radio/TV/Film at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 2001. She is also a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women.
Welbon had successfully produced and distributed over 20 films. Her films have screened on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, the Sundance Channel, BET, HBO and in over one hundred film festivals around the world including Toronto, Berlin, and Sundance.
As a business consultant for independent filmmakers, she focuses on distribution and niche marketing, employing new media and social networking techniques. She has presented nationally on numerous topics including producing, the state of black independent cinema, and self-distribution.
Welbon is also Chair of the Journalism and Media Studies Department and Assistant Professor of Africana Woman Studies at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, NC.
