ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

News 

WEEK IN WOMEN: Nzingha Stewart to helm Misty Copeland biopic – Brandy McDonnell reports

Brandy McDonnell 0 Comments , ,
0 Flares 0 Flares ×

The biopic of the first African-American woman to be promoted to principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre is to be helmed by a woman of color.

Nzingha Stewart will direct the New Line feature Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina, an adaptation of famed ballerina Misty Copeland’s compelling best-selling memoir of the same name.

The movie will chronicle Copeland’s rise from her poor and tumultuous beginnings — she only began ballet at the relatively late age of 13 and soon found herself in the middle of a custody battle between her mother and the ballet teachers who were her legal guardians at the time — to becoming a crossover star. Continue reading on THE WEEK IN WOMEN

0 Flares Twitter 0 Facebook 0 0 Flares ×

Brandy McDonnell

Brandy McDonnell writes features and reviews movies, music, events and the arts for The Oklahoman, Oklahoma's statewide newspaper, and NewsOK.com, the state's largest news Web site. Raised on a farm near Lindsay, Okla., she started her journalism career in seventh grade, when she was elected reporter for her school's 4-H Club. Taking her duties seriously, she began submitting stories to The Lindsay News, and worked for the local weekly through high school. She attended Oklahoma State University, where she worked for The Daily O'Collegian and earned her journalism degree with honors. She worked for three years at small Oklahoma dailies The Edmond Sun and Shawnee News-Star. In 2002, she joined The Oklahoman as a features reporter, writing about movies, the arts, events, families and nonprofits. She moved to The Oklahoman's entertainment desk in 2007. In 2004, she won a prestigious Journalism Fellowship in Child & Family Policy from the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Along with her membership in AWFJ, she also is a founding member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. Brandy writes The Week In Women blog for AWFJ.org.