Michelle Materre

Ms. Materre’s professional background spans 25 years in television, film and video with a concentration on independent film. She has worked in myriad capacities in the nonprofit and commercial entertainment industry as a producer, writer, arts administrator, strategic advisor, outreach consultant, distribution/marketing specialist and/or educator.

Having earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Media from Boston College early in her career she learned a core aspect
of the industry at CBS’ headquarters in their business division. She also worked a staff writer/producer for over three years at Henry Hampton’s Blackside Productions, and was an assistant story editor at MGM in the feature film division for over three years.

This core decade of experience led Ms. Materre to become a founding partner and Vice President of Creative Affairs of KJM3 Entertainment Group, Inc., a film distribution and marketing company that specialized in multicultural film and television projects. Over the span of nine years (1992 – 2001), Ms. Materre directly managed the marketing, positioning and distribution of over twenty-three films by filmmakers of the African Diaspora. KJM3 was responsible for the marketing and positioning of the successful theatrical release of Daughters of the Dust, the highly acclaimed film by Julie Dash, as well as L’Homme Sur Les Quais (The Man By The Shore) by Raoul Peck.

Since then, Ms. Materre continues to serve as an independent media consultant to filmmakers and film/video organizations on issues related to strategy, fundraising, distribution, marketing, outreach, and programming and production issues. In this capacity, Ms. Materre has worked with award-winning independent filmmakers and noteworthy film projects such as Sisters in Law by Kim Longinotto released by Women Make Movies; The Boys of Baraka by Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing; Sweet Honey in the Rock: Raise Your Voice by Stanley Nelson; Chisholm ‘72-Unbought & Unbossed by Shola Lynch; Channel Thirteen/WNET’s national series, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow; COLORVISION for American Public Television; “West 47th Street” by Bill Lichtenstein and June Peoples; “Love and Diane”, by Jennifer Dworkin; “E Minha Cara” by Thomas Allen Harris; and Ralph Bunche:The Odyssey Continues by William Greaves, among others. She is currently the Director of Distribution for Third World Newsreel, the oldest progressive media arts organization in the country.

Highly sought after for her expertise on national and local media initiatives, she served a three year term as curator of the Channel Thirteen/WNET series Reel New York, a showcase of independent film and videomakers and is active as an advisory member. Michelle was formerly the Director of Outreach for ROJA Productions, an independent film production company based in Harlem, overseeing the outreach campaign for PBS national series “Matters of Race”.

For the past ten years, she has programmed the Harlem Film Festival series at Aaron Davis Hall on the campus of City College, and recently coordinating marketing and outreach for the “Haiti on Screen” film festival sponsored by New York University in March 2004. She is formerly the Executive Director of International Film Seminars, sponsoring organization of the Annual Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. She was also Associate Director and Marketing Director of Educational Video Center, a media arts center for urban youth; and Associate Director of Women Make Movies, a national film and video distributor of independent work by women artists.

Ms. Materre is a core faculty member at The New School where she recently won the “University Distinguished Teaching Award”, as well as an adjunct professor at New York University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of New York Women in Film and Television, is on the advisory board of Reel New York, and is a frequent guest lecturer at colleges, universities and libraries around the country on a variety of film related topics.

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