RODNEY EVANS – WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
SHORTS/DOCUMENTARIES
2022 PORTAL
12 minute HD Video/16mm film, Documentary
Director, producer and editor of a documentary about the lack of touch for single people during the COVID-19 pandemic and how two, queer BIPOC friends sustain each other through communication and connection.
Written by and featuring Rodney Evans and Homay King.
Cinematographer-Kjerstin Rossi. Supported by the NEH/Firelight Media Spark Fund.
2019 VISION PORTRAITS
75 minute HD Video, Documentary
Director, producer and co-editor of a documentary feature that chronicles the experiences of several blind and visually impaired artists including John Dugdale (photographer), Kayla Hamilton (dancer) and Ryan Knighton (writer). It specifically focuses on the ways each artist was impacted by the loss of their vision and how their creative process thrives in spite of their blindness/low vision. Funding provided by The Ford Foundation-JustFilms Program. *World Premiere-SXSWDocumentary Feature Competition. *Winner-Frameline-Jury Award for Outstandingcumentary. *Winner-Outfest-Award for Artistic Achievement. Distributed by New Day Films. National Broadcast, America Reframed-World Channel. U.S. Streaming: The Criterion Channel, The Whitney Museum, pbs.org, Kanopy, U.K. Streaming: True Story U.K.
2016 PERSISTENCE OF VISION
10 minute digital video, Narrative Drama
Director, producer and editor of an intimate documentary that chronicles the experiences of a
blind photographer, John Dugdale, and the changes in his creative process after his loss of vision
due to an HIV related illness.
**Screened at BAMcinemaFest and Frameline in June 2016.
2009 BILLY AND AARON
10 minute digital video, Narrative Drama
Writer, director and producer of a short drama about African-American composer Billy Strayhorn and the personal and professional consequences of his decision to live as an openly gay man within the homophobic jazz milieu of the 1940’s. Filmed on location in Amsterdam.
**Official Selection 2010 Tribeca Film Festival
1999 TWO ENCOUNTERS
7 minute 16mm film, Experimental Documentary
Producer, director, and editor of a film which utilizes hidden camera footage recorded by two gay men of different ethnicities in order to examine racial divisions within New York's gay male community.
Distributed by Stimulus Pictures/Rodney Evans
1996 THE UNVEILING
58 minute 16mm film, Documentary
Producer, director and editor of a film which chronicles the lives and experiences of two present-day exotic dancers, one male and one female, who perform for gay and lesbian audiences and one former burlesque queen who performed during the 1950's.
Distributed by Stimulus Pictures/Rodney Evans
1998 CLOSE TO HOME
24 minute 16mm film, Experimental Documentary
Producer, director, writer and editor of a film which documents the filmmaker's journey as he comes out to a conservative Jamaican family and negotiates a painful relationship with a 21-year old heterosexual man.
Distributed by Stimulus Pictures/Rodney Evans