Stanley Nelson

Director

Born: July 7, 1955 (age 71)
From: New York City, New York, USA

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…

Filmography (25)

Critical Condition: Health in Black America (2025)
Director
We Want the Funk! (2025)
Director
San Juan Hill: Manhattan’s Lost Neighborhood (2024)
Director
Sound of the Police (2023)
Director
Becoming Frederick Douglass (2022)
Director
Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom (2021)
Director
Attica (2021)
Director
Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre (2021)
Director
Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy (2021)
Director
Vick (2020)
Director
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2019)
Director
BOSS: The Black Experience in Business (2019)
Director
The Story of Access (2018)
Director
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (2017)
Director
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)
Director
Freedom Summer (2014)
Director
Focus Forward: Short Films, Big Ideas (2012)
Director
Freedom Riders (2010)
Director
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)
Director
A Place of Our Own (2004)
Director
Beyond Brown: Pursuing the Promise (2004)
Director
The Murder of Emmett Till (2003)
Director
Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind (2001)
Director
The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords (1999)
Director
Two Dollars and A Dream: The Story of Madame C.J. Walker (1987)
Director