Directors
Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson
Executive Producers
Codie Elaine Oliver, Taraji P. Henson
Producers
Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster, Tommy Oliver
Editors
Terra Long, Larry Jackman
Cinematographer
Greg Harriot
“The trip to Mars can only be understood through Black Americans.” Legendary poet Nikki Giovanni’s revelation is a launching pad to an inspiring exploration of her life and legacy. Through a collision of memories, moments in American history, live readings of her poetry, and impressions of space, Giovanni urges us to imagine a future where Black women lead, and equity is a reality. Directors Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (American Promise, The Changing Same) craft a vision fit for the radical imagination of Nikki Giovanni. Present-day Giovanni reckons with the inevitable passing of time, while an evocative melding of vérité and archival images act as openings into her mindscape, transcending time and place. Brewster and Stephenson’s approach is imaginative and dreamlike, akin to the way Giovanni’s words are hair-raising in their power to summon unrealized ways of seeing. The Afro-futuristic lens honors Giovanni’s complexity and transports us on a journey through Black liberation from the perspective of one of America’s most acclaimed and beloved writers, a profound artist and activist. Next stop, Mars.
Joe Brewster is a media-maker who believes in the healing power of stories. Brewster left his medical practice to create immersive, narrative, and documentary stories that provoke, challenge and inspire. He is a Spirit-award and four-time Emmy nominee, jury prize winner at Tribeca and Sundance, and a Guggenheim fellow.
Emmy Award–winning filmmaker, artist, and author Michèle Stephenson draws on her Haitian and Panamanian heritage to transform nonfiction storytelling. Through a Black Atlantic lens, she reimagines narratives of resistance and healing, weaving fiction, immersive, experimental, and hybrid forms that center the Black Radical tradition and the lived experiences of the Black diaspora.
Her nonfiction films GOING TO MARS: THE NIKKI GIOVANNI PROJECT and BLACK GIRLS PLAY: THE STORY OF HAND GAMES were both Oscar-shortlisted, with GOING TO MARS winning the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, and BLACK GIRLS PLAY receiving the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Video.
Her body of work also includes THE CHANGING SAME, a magical realist VR installation that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier Showcase and won Tribeca’s Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive Narrative, among other honors. Her newest work, TRUE NORTH: A MOVEMENT IN FIVE PARTS, is a creative nonfiction feature exploring the history of the Black liberation movement in Canada. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, Creative Capital Artist, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.