Reel Sisters & BAM Honor Trailblazing Documentary Filmmaker Samantha Knowles (Harlem Ice Director)

On Wed., Oct. 22, 2025 at 7 pm, Reel Sisters and the Brooklyn Academy of Music will present a trailblazer award to Brooklyn filmmaker Samantha Knowles, director of Harlem Ice (Disney+), for her distinguishing career in documentary film making. Her latest work includes directing an episode of “Katrina: Come Hell and High Water,” a highly acclaimed Netflix docuseries. The event will be held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave. Tickets: $25 ($15, Code: REELSIS2025). Visit BAM: Trailblazer Award.

Our celebration will showcase a retrospective of Samantha’s work including episodes from Harlem Ice (Disney), Eyes on The Prizes III: We Who Believe In Freedom Cannot Rest 1977-2015 (HBO) and The Coder, a short film about Jay Jay Patton, a rising star in the tech industry, who built her ground-breaking app Photo Patch at age 16.

Yoruba Richen, a Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker, will lead a dynamic conversation with Samantha on the power of the female lens in storytelling.
Join us for an exciting evening of film, conversation and inspiration!

Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series is celebrating our 28th Anniversary season presenting 50+ films by women of color. Our in-person screenings and events will be held from Oct. 25 through Oct. 29, 2025. Reel Sisters Virtual Showcase will stream online beginning Oct. 25 until Nov. 10, 2025. For information and schedule visit www.reelsisters.org.
“We’re proud to present our trailblazer award to Samantha for her outstanding and prolific filmmaking career in telling untold personal stories,” said Reel Sisters Founder Carolyn A. Butts. “I’m encouraging young filmmakers and families to attend our celebration — Sam’s films are something the entire family can enjoy together.”

Trailblazer Award Honoree Bio
Samantha Knowles is an award-winning director. She won a Cinema Eye Honors Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Nonfiction Series for co-directing the HBO docuseries “Black and Missing” and her film, “How We Get Free”, was shortlisted for the 2024 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

She has also won a Television Academy Honors Award, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Directing, and a Gracie Award for Best Director of a National TV Program. In 2023 she was named to the DOCNYC 40 Under 40 List, which honors and celebrates emerging talent in the documentary world. Her work has screened as part of Hot Docs, DOC NYC, the Tribeca Film Festival, the New York Times Op-Doc series, on HBO, Showtime, and more. Most recently, she directed the series “Harlem Ice” for Disney+, an episode of the seminal series “Eyes on the Prize” for HBO, and an episode of in the docuseries “Katrina: Come Hell and High Water” for Netflix.
Sam’s first short film, “Why Do You Have Black Dolls?” was the recipient of Reel Sisters Spirit Award 2012.

Moderator
Yoruba Richen is a Peabody award-winning documentary filmmaker who was awarded the Trailblazer award by Black Public Media. Her work has been featured on multiple outlets, including PBS, Netflix, MSNBC, Peacock and FX/Hulu. Her film, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks won a Gracie Award and was honored by the Television Academy.

Other recent work include the Emmy-nominated films American Reckoning, How It Feels to Be Free; The Sit In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show and Green Book: Guide to Freedom. Her film, The Killing of Breonna Taylor won an NAACP Image Award. Her films The New Black and Promised Land won multiple festival awards before airing on PBS’s Independent Lens and P.O.V.

Yoruba’s other work include directing an episode of the award-winning series Black and Missing for HBO and High on the Hog for Netflix.

She most recently directed The Fall of Diddy for ID and HBO Max. Yoruba is a past Guggenheim and Fulbright fellow and a recipient of the Chicken & Egg Breakthrough Filmmaker’s Award. She is Founding Director of the Documentary Program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

About Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival
Founded in 1997 by African Voices magazine and LIU Brooklyn Campus, Reel Sisters is among the first film festivals dedicated to supporting women of color filmmakers. Known for celebrating both veterans and rising stars alike, Reel Sisters has honored everyone from Radio One founder Cathy Hughes to HBO’s Insecure writer and director Issa Rae.
Reel Sisters is supported, in part, by Councilmembers Crystal Hudson, Farah Louis and Yusef Salaam, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Brooklyn Arts Council and private donors. Special thanks to our venue partners 651 Arts, BAM, Center for Fiction and BRIC.