ABOUT
Contessa Gayles makes films about and for the culture.
She is an award-winning film director, writer, DP, editor and an Emmy-nominated producer. She brings intimacy and artistry to stories of identity, community, coming-of-age, liberation and the radical imagination.
Contessa’s formally innovative and critically acclaimed feature documentary-visual album, SONGS FROM THE HOLE (Netflix), world premiered at SXSW 2024, where it won the Audience Award, Visions category. The film went on to earn many accolades, including the Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the BlackStar Film Festival, the Cinema Eye Honors Heterodox Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations and an IDA Award nomination for Best Music Documentary.
Contessa premiered THE DEBUTANTES (Xumo) at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in documentary competition and her documentary short FOUNDER GIRLS (BET) was executive produced by Queen Latifah and premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Her work has been supported by Impact Partners, Field of Vision, Sundance Institute, International Documentary Association and more. She has been awarded fellowships and artist residencies with Film Independent, SFFILM, Firelight Media, Chicken & Egg Pictures, the Bay Area Video Coalition, and Open Society Foundations. She was named to DOC NYC’s 40 Under 40 list and is currently a Concordia fellow.
Previously, she was on staff at CNN, where she directed, produced, shot and edited award-winning original series and documentaries, including her first feature documentary, THE FEMINIST ON CELLBLOCK Y.
CONTACT
Artist Management / Alexis Galfas, Cinetic Media: alexisg@cineticmedia.com