Darius Clark Monroe

Profile

Darius Clark Monroe screened and discussed EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL at the Savoy. On campus, he showed examples of his early to recent shorts in a lecture called Short Films: Capturing a Moment in Time.

Monroe won the National Board of Review Award and the Wasserman Award for his third year film MIDWAY.

MIDWAY went on to screen at over 60 international film festivals (Woodstock, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs) and has won numerous awards including the HBO Short Film Award and Warner Bros. Filmmaker Award. In 2008, MIDWAY made its cable television debut on HBO and Cinemax.

After MIDWAY, Monroe wrote, produced, and directed the acclaimed short film TRAIN (2010), which premiered at the Palm Springs International Shortfest. TRAIN went on to screen at 50 international film festivals and was selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick. Monroe also wrote, produced and directed the short film SLOW (2011), which premiered at Outfest 2011 and online simultaneously via Vimeo (going viral). SLOW has screened at 40 international film festivals (Outfest, Martha’s Vineyard, Frameline) winning numerous awards, including another HBO Short Film Award.

Monroe’s most recent screenplay, YEAR OF OUR LORD, won Best Screenplay Award at the 2013 Urbanworld Film Festival. The feature-length screenplay was selected for the 2013 Sundance Writers Intensive and work-shopped at the 2013 Screenwriters Colony.

In March of 2014, Monroe world premiered his feature length documentary EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL at SXSW. EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL has screened at over 100 international film festivals, winning numerous awards including the International Documentary Association Emerging Filmmaker Award and Grand Jury prizes at Full Frame, Docuwest, and Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. “Its images, its shape, its tone, and its implications make it a terrific movie, as well as the birth of an artist,” described The New Yorker. The film went on to be nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and Cinema Eye Honor. In 2015, EVOLUTION OF A CRIMINAL made its nationwide television broadcast debut on Independent Lens (PBS).

Monroe has received fellowships and grant support from Austin Film Society, Tribeca Film Institute, Charles and Lucille King Fellowship, Spike Lee Fellowship, Warner Bros, Cinereach, Independent Filmmaker Project, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), DCTV and the Rooftop Filmmakers’ Fund. He was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” and “10 Filmmakers to Watch” from The Independent.