Diversity MBA Magazine - April 2008 - (Page 62) Faith Pennick – Filmmaker by Cardell Phillips Young Entrepreneur Profile: Faith Pennick was so impressed with the documentary Hoop Dreams she decided to become a filmmaker herself. At the time, she didn’t know anything about the art of filmmaking; had no connections, and not nearly enough money. “I had to do it,” she says. “I literally had an epiphany walking out of the theatre. Hoop Dreams was the most amazing cinematic experience I’ve ever had. The way the story unfolded, the way the stories were told. I just fell in love with that movie. If I could be a part of a film that has a fraction of the brilliance of Hoop Dreams, then that’s what I wanted to do.” Pennick, a Chicago native, didn’t have material resources but she was committed -- and her timing couldn’t have been better. She saw Hoop Dreams in 1995. The 90’s were the heyday for American independent films. “You had films like The Usual Suspects, Pulp Fiction, and, obviously, Spike Lee with his films,” she says. “A lot of great American film makers came out with really compelling work. I was going to see all of them, so it was something I was vibing off of anyway. Then I saw Hoop Dreams, and I just said, ‘Yeah, I need to do this.’” In 2007, Pennick’s dream came true when her first feature-length film, Silent Choices, a documentary about black women and abortion, won the Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Documentary Film Making at the Roxbury Film Festival in Boston. It was a long road from the theatre in Brooklyn where Pennick first saw Hoop Dreams to the Roxbury Film Festival. She credits her drive and spirit to her mother, who was a single parent who raised her and her sister and took in her own mother. During that time, Pennick watched her mom go to college, then graduate school, and finally law school. She helped found the Greenhouse Shelter, the first battered women’s shelter in Chicago. “My mom accomplished so much that she was my blueprint,” says Pennick, “There’re a lot harder things to do than make films; seeing her do what she did in her life…I think Black women w w w. d ive r s it y mb a ma g a z in e. c o m 62 http://www.diversitymbamagazine.com
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