Dee Rees Biography

Dee Rees is an alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a 2008 Sundance Screenwriting & Directing Lab Fellow. She has written and directed several short films, including "Orange Bow" (centering on a teenage boy) and "Pariah." The latter, completed in 2007, screened at over 40 festivals worldwide (including Sundance) and garnered 25 Best Short awards. Additionally, "Pariah" was a finalist for the 2009 Sundance/NHK International Award. Ms. Rees was also selected as a 2008 Tribeca Institute/Renew Media Arts Fellow for her work; was chosen as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” for 2008; and was nominated for a USA Fellowship in 2009. "Pariah" has now been expanded into "Pariah," which world-premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was honored with the Festival’s [U.S. Dramatic Competition] Excellence in Cinematography Award (Bradford Young).

The Nashville native’s most recent short film, "Colonial Gods," aired on the BBC in the fall of 2009. The short chronicles a complicated friendship between a Somali man and a Nigerian man, set against the backdrop of gentrification in the small immigrant community in Cardiff, Wales known as Tiger Bay.

Also prior to making "Pariah," Ms. Rees directed a documentary feature, "Eventual Salvation." The film, which she also edited, received a 2007 Sundance Documentary Fund Grant and premiered on the Sundance Channel in October 2009. It follows her grandmother’s return to Liberia on to help rebuild a community following the country’s civil war.

She previously worked as a script supervision intern on Spike Lee’s epic documentary "When the Levees Broke" and feature "Inside Man"; and earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Florida A&M University.

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