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Don Amis

Don Amis

Don Amis is a documentary filmmaker who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After serving in the Air Force, he joined his sister in Los Angeles.  He enrolled at UCLA in 1970 through the High Potential Program, an initiative to recruit talented minority students.  After obtaining his B.A., Amis earned his M.F.A. at the university in 1983. He directed Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School (1974), a day-in-the-life documentary about an Afrocentric primary school in South Central Los Angeles.  In a later short documentary, Festival of Mask (1982), we see the ethnic and racial diversity of Los Angeles through the Craft and Folk Art Museum’s annual festival.

A National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Amis later returned to Pennsylvania, where he worked on documentaries for the Commonwealth Media Service.  Amis has also covered political events for the Governor, made training films and public safety projects, and handled satellite feeds for WHYY-TV (Public Television) Philadelphia. 

Birthplace: 
Philadelphia, PA
Education: 
UCLA, B.A., M.F.A. 1983

Filmography

Film Role(s) Year
Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School Ujamii Uhuru Schule Community Freedom School

Don Amis’ documentary chronicles the day-in-the-life of an Afrocentric primary school located in South Los Angeles. Learn, baby, learn.

Director
Producer
Cinematographer
Editor
1974
Gidget Meets Hondo (1980) Gidget Meets Hondo

Filmed by Bernard Nicolas in response to the LAPD’s shooting of Eulia Love in 1979, Gidget Meets Hondo asks whether such police brutality would be tolerated if the victim were a middle-class white woman.

Cinematographer 1980
Festival of Mask (1982) Festival of Mask

In this documentary by Don Amis about the Craft & Folk Art Museum’s annual festival, L.A.’s diverse racial and ethnic communities (African, Asian, Latin American), express themselves through a shared traditional form.

Director
Producer
Writer
Cinematographer
Editor
1982