Nailah Jefferson Filmmaker

Nailah Jefferson is a native New Orleans filmmaker whose fiction and nonfiction work explores the enduring human spirit. Nailah’s debut documentary Vanishing Pearls: The Oystermen of Pointe a la Hache, told the story of the little known African American oyster fishing community in Louisiana in the aftermath of the 2010 BP Oil Spill. In 2017, Nailah’s short documentary Essence Magazine’s Black Girl Magic Episode 4 was nominated for a National Magazine Ellie award. That same year, Nailah’s first narrative film Plaquemines was chosen as an American Black Film Festival HBO Shorts finalist and streamed on HBO platforms.  In 2021, Nailah’s short documentary Descended From A Promised Land: The Legacy of Black Wall Street screened at the 2021 DOC NYC and Martha’s Vineyard Black Film Festival. Nailah is currently wrapping the feature documentary Commuted about Danielle Metz, a woman whose triple life plus twenty year drug sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2016 after serving 23 years in prison. Commuted is the winner of the 2019 Black Public Media PitchBlack competition. The project is also supported by the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Perspective Fund, Southern Documentary Fund, Black Public Media, ITVS and Firelight Media. Nailah’s latest documentary Donyale Luna: Supermodel is a co-production between Lightbox Entertainment and the American Black Film Festival and will be distributed by HBO Fall 2023.