Film phase:Completed
SYNOPSIS
Through the lens of a unique, annual mom-and-pop film festival in rural South Dakota -beleaguered amidst escalating racial and economic tensions – witness an 8-year behind-the-scenes chronicle of how worlds collide for a motley, off-beat band of dreamers, as their dwindling all-white, small-town champions their unsung black native son: early 1900s homesteader-turned-unlikely-film-pioneer, Oscar Micheaux – known to some as the Godfather of Independent Cinema.
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS
Oscar’s Comeback is co-directed by Lisa Miller & Mark Schwartzburt.
Lisa Collins earned her Masters in Screenwriting and Directing from Columbia University Film School, with a B.A. from Yale in American Studies/Photography. She wrote, directed and executive produced two shorts: Miss Ruby’s House, a mockumentary, and Tree Shade, a surreal black comedy that garnered the Gold Medal for Best Alternative Film at the Student Academy Awards, and was invited to festivals including: Sundance, Atlanta, Seattle, Newport, Avignon and Cannes. It headlined PBS’s “Reel New York” series; won several top fest prizes and a DGA award. She workshopped her script, The Grass Is Greener at the Sundance Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs.
Mark Schwartzburt earned his Juris Doctorate from Creighton University School of Law in 1994 after graduating from Emory University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Physics. He is a member of the NYS Bar. Having attended law school in Omaha, Nebraska, he’s traveled extensively through the rural Midwest. He works as a Marketing Analyst for the New York Power Authority that provides electricity in N.Y. State to companies and organizations for economic development. Mr. Schwartzburt is co-creator and associate producer on Call it Democracy, the critically acclaimed documentary feature inspired by the 2000 Presidential election.