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Black Table

Directors

John Antonio James, Bill Mack

Executive Producers

Luis A. Miranda Jr., Michael Stolper, Sam Pollard, Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne

Producers

Katie Taber, John Antonio James, Bill Mack

Editors

Brett Mason, Vito DeCandia

Cinematographer

Derek Wiesehahn

The largest class of black students in Yale University’s history arrived in 1993, just as the country entered a period now known as the Great American Divide: the unofficial beginning of today’s culture wars. Together, the students create for each other an education that challenges the official curriculum, whose central texts are the stories they share, and the experiences they bring to a university dining hall table as old as the 20th Century itself. Told against the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to no longer allow race as a consideration in college admissions, Black Table examines the personal, sociological, and political impact of affirmative action policies during this historic moment.

Post-screening discussion with co-directors John Antonio James and Bill Mack, moderated by Christine Emba, Staff Writer for The Atlantic.

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John Antonio James

Co-director, Black Table

John Antonio James is a director, writer, and producer. Siempre, Luis, a 2020 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection, was his first feature documentary film. The film won the audience award at the Port Townsend Film Festival, was nominated for an Urban World Film Festival award, and premiered on HBO in 2020. John’s latest documentary, Black Table, traces the largest black class to attend Yale University during the mid-1990s as America’s culture wars unfolded. He is currently in post-production on The Genius, a documentary about boxing’s fall from grace. He is also in development on The Ling Sisters and Steadily Emerging with Grace, charting a Midwestern family’s struggles with addiction.

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Bill Mack

Co-director, Black Table

Bill Mack started his entertainment career on Sesame Street at three years of age. As a child actor, he became a regular on the soap opera All My Children and appeared in numerous TV commercials. Bill studied film at NYU and majored in Psychology and Film Studies at Yale. He produced and starred in the Student Academy Award-winning film Short Change in 1996. In the late ’90s, Bill started a multimedia production company based in Harlem. For the next ten years, he produced films, developed websites, and managed ad campaigns for numerous startups, artists, NGOs and large corporations such as Urban Box Office, Ralph Lemon, MacKenzie-Childs, American Express, the Schomburg Center, and AT&T. Bill runs his own production company, Cinomadic, producing independent films and supporting the artist community. Bill produced and starred in The Obituary of Jasper James, which won awards at various international festivals, including Best Short and Best Actor.