NOVEMBER 8, 2021, 7 PM

CHRIS IVEY

Chris Ivey is an award-winning commercial director who is best known internationally for his documentary series East of Liberty. The series has chronicled race, class and gentrification issues in Pittsburgh, for over a decade. The East of Liberty series is a historical document and the only interactive documentation project in recent Pittsburgh history. The series continues as a short film series in partnership with language software company Duolingo, which is headquartered in the neighborhood Ivey's work is focused.

Chris’s work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered: Going There in Pittsburgh segment about the unaddressed impacts of urban renewal and gentrification on the city’s Black community.

Besides new work, The Promised Land Will Be Green, created in collaboration with Tara Fay Green premiered at the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2020, Chris is currently at work on Youth Rising, a film that interweaves the experiences of youth in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New Orleans and Philadelphia with additional related footage of youth in Cape Town and Johannesburg. This installment in his East of Liberty series of the series presents the voices of young people on topics including teen pregnancy, gangs, and the prospects for their futures.

Chris also continues to work on his ongoing video immersive installation We Are Here tackling globally civil rights issues through personal narratives. The installation premiered May 2018 at the Mattress Factory Museum in Pittsburgh, PA and features interviews from Pittsburgh, Cape Town, Johannesburg, New Orleans and Charlottesville and London. Most recently We Are Here screened in Charlottesville, VA at the McGuffey Arts Center on the anniversary of the Alex Field attack during the United the Right rally. During that time, Chris hosted a community dialogue with Susan Bro, Heather Heyer’s mother and President and Board Chair of the Heather Heyer Foundation.

Ivey's most recent work in progress is a feature documentary about acclaimed writer Brian Broome and his new memoir, Punch Me Up To The Gods.