Yvonne Welbon

Yvonne Welbon is an award-winning filmmaker and founder and CEO of the Chicago-based non-profit Sisters in Cinema, inspired by her documentary of the same name, about the history of Black women feature film directors. She has produced over two dozen award-winning films, which have been broadcast on PBS, Starz/Encore, TV-ONE, IFC, Bravo, the Sundance Channel, BET, HBO, Netflix, and iTunes, and screened in over one hundred film festivals around the world. She has taught at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and Bennett College. Raised in a Honduran household on the South Side of Chicago, Welbon holds a B.A. from Vassar College, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women. In 2020, she became a member of the Documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.