Narberth Filmmaker Recieves 2012 Pew Fellowship in the Arts

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Saint Joseph's University filmmaker Deron Albright.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (08/27/2012)(readMedia)-- Deron Albright, M.F.A., associate professor of film at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia has been awarded a 2012 Pew Fellowship in the Arts from The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.

The Pew Fellowship awards $60,000 to each artist who has developed a significant body of work. Recipients utilize the fellowship to advance their creative endeavors. "The Pew Fellowship is designed to support mid-career artists ready to take the next step, based on work they have already accomplished," Albright says. "The work on my film The Destiny of Lesser Animals (Sibo ne kra, Dabo ne kra), and the success from that was a major part of the Pew's decision to grant the award."

Albright produced and directed Destiny while he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the National Film and Television Institute in Ghana, West Africa, during the 2008-09 academic year. A taut police drama set in Accra, Ghana's capital, as well as in other Ghanaian cities and New York, it has played in numerous top-tier film festivals and movie houses across the U.S. and in Ghana.

The filmmaker has also been selected for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Talent Lab, and the Independent Feature Project (IFP) Emerging Narrative Program. TIFF, held in Toronto, Canada, has been known as the "Festival of Festivals" since it began in 1976, and is recognized as one of the most important international cinema events. As a delegate to the Talent Lab, which runs during the Festival, Sept. 6-16, Albright will connect with established industry figures to develop his own work in progress, and will also network with other filmmakers.

The Emerging Narrative Program is held in New York City, Sept. 16-20, as part of the IFP's Independent Film week, and offers established writers, directors and producers the opportunity to discuss and connect new projects with producers, financiers and potential partners for development. Albright will be featuring his Invisible Son project, and hopes to build the pieces toward production.

Since 1994, Albright has been making films with work spanning documentary, agit-prop, installation, poetic animation and short and long-form narrative. He views these new recognitions as an important achievement in his career. "It's gratifying to be recognized for the work that went into Destiny," he says. "But beyond that film, I see this recognition as a validation of the kind of work I am doing and the enormity of effort that has gone into it, which is very rewarding."

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