SIUE Professor Directs Michael Brown Film to Debut at St. Louis International Film Festival

SIUE Professor Directs Michael Brown Film to Debut at St. Louis International Film Festival

The world premiere of the film "TEN YEARS - Michael Brown, the Ferguson Uprising and The Impact on a Generation" by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville professor Geovonday Jones will screen at the St. Louis International Film Festival (SLIFF) on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 4 p.m. Jones, MFA, is an assistant professor of performance in the Department of Theater and Dance. He joins six filmmakers who created a series of short films centered on the 2014 death of Michael Brown at the hands of police.

"Each film explores the impact of the ten years after Michael Brown," said Jones who felt a personal connection to Brown's fatal encounter.

"A few months after Michael Brown, Jr. was killed by a police officer, my cousin was killed in STL. Louis by an off duty officer. Because I was in NYC, far away from my family and others protesting on the ground, I turned my energy to my art. It awakened artivism in me. Thereafter, I committed myself to telling stories through a social music lens."

Jones joined SIUE faculty in 2021 and continues to work as an actor, director, teaching artist and coach. He recently worked as both actor and a director in a season of The Black Rep in St. Louis. Directing his short in "TEN YEARS - Michael Brown, the Ferguson Uprising and The Impact on a Generation" expands his work in storytelling to film.

"This medium--the film--is one of my passions. Of course, theatre will always be included in my creative journey, but the camera allows us to reach far more people; it allows us to share these stories about real people dealing with real issues more broadly," said Jones. "Victims like Michael Brown, Jr., VonDeritt Meyers, Jr., and Tamir Rice deserve to have their stories told on film and television and in the theater and on the radio and whenever else possible and however else is possible."

"TEN YEARS - Michael Brown, the Ferguson Uprising and The Impact on a Generation" screens at SLIFF as a free event at Hi-Pointe Theatre in St. Louis. Visit the registration page for more information.

PHOTO: Geovonday Jones, MFA, assistant professor of performance in the Department of Theater and Dance