Uploaded May 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
For the final Wednesdays at the Center presentation of Spring 2022 we were thrilled to host filmmaker Bennett Singer, who has been making social-issue documentaries for more than 25 years. His award-winning films have reached millions of viewers worldwide and have been shown by organizations including Amnesty International, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Action Network, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. While his documentaries address a broad range of topics - including civil and human rights, voter suppression, and LGBTQ equality - they are united thematically by their focus on activists striving to bring about systemic change and, in some cases, achieving surprising and unexpected victories.
In this session, Singer shared clips from 2 films he has co-directed (Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, and his latest doc "Cured") along with his reflections on the elements of effective activism.
To watch trailers and learn more, visit www.bennettsinger.com.
The event was moderated by Nishani Frazier (University of Kansas) and Giovanni Zanalda, Duke University professor and the Director of the Duke Center for International and Global Studies.
About Bennett Singer:
Born and raised in Chicago and currently based in Los Angeles, Bennett Singer is a documentary filmmaker whose work has been shown at The United Nations, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, and The British Museum, among other venues. His latest film, CURED, premiered on PBS' Independent Lens series in the fall of 2021. Described as "fascinating" (Hollywood Reporter) and "one of the best documentaries of this or any year" (British Film Institute), the film - which Singer produced, directed, and wrote with Patrick Sammon - won the American Historical Association's John E. O'Connor Film Award for best historical documentary of 2021, along with a $50,000 award in the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.
The event was part of Wednesdays at the Center, a series produced by Duke University's John Hope Franklin Center and the Duke Center for International & Global Studies.
Learn more about the series: https://igs.duke.edu/series/wednesdays-center-series
For the final Wednesdays at the Center presentation of Spring 2022 we were thrilled to host filmmaker Bennett Singer, who has been making social-issue documentaries for more than 25 years. His award-winning films have reached millions of viewers worldwide and have been shown by organizations including Amnesty International, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Action Network, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. While his documentaries address a broad range of topics - including civil and human rights, voter suppression, and LGBTQ equality - they are united thematically by their focus on activists striving to bring about systemic change and, in some cases, achieving surprising and unexpected victories.
In this session, Singer shared clips from 2 films he has co-directed (Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, and his latest doc "Cured") along with his reflections on the elements of effective activism.
To watch trailers and learn more, visit www.bennettsinger.com.
The event was moderated by Nishani Frazier (University of Kansas) and Giovanni Zanalda, Duke University professor and the Director of the Duke Center for International and Global Studies.
About Bennett Singer:
Born and raised in Chicago and currently based in Los Angeles, Bennett Singer is a documentary filmmaker whose work has been shown at The United Nations, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, and The British Museum, among other venues. His latest film, CURED, premiered on PBS' Independent Lens series in the fall of 2021. Described as "fascinating" (Hollywood Reporter) and "one of the best documentaries of this or any year" (British Film Institute), the film - which Singer produced, directed, and wrote with Patrick Sammon - won the American Historical Association's John E. O'Connor Film Award for best historical documentary of 2021, along with a $50,000 award in the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film.
The event was part of Wednesdays at the Center, a series produced by Duke University's John Hope Franklin Center and the Duke Center for International & Global Studies.
Learn more about the series: https://igs.duke.edu/series/wednesdays-center-series
