Eliyannah Amirah Yisrael
I make cinema for Black America.
Hood New Wave, films with the formal seriousness of Italian Neorealism and the raw subjectivity of a Drill-era music video, shot on film, for the people the films are about. Fantasy, imagining worlds and magic and powers that reach the communities we inhabit and the ones to be created. Literary work that reaches deep into the hearts and minds of its subjects, movies with real meaning to and real stakes for the characters that live in them.
My work is character driven. My specialty is drama. My focus is the Black Midwest, the region too often left out of the story of Black America.
From the Forest — dispatches from the woman doing the building.
A personal letter from Eliyannah, once a month. What she's writing, directing, building, and reading. Cultural commentary, behind-the-scenes, the view from inside the forest. Launches May 3.
This site is a working document. A call sheet. A binder kept by a director who takes production seriously and takes her own joy seriously. Pages will be added. Scenes will be revised. The pink page means the revision matters.