The District of Columbia Office of Motion Picture and Television Development (MPTD) is pleased to honor filmmaker Michon Boston, founder and principal of the Michon Boston Group LTD, as the July 2013 Filmmaker of the Month.
As the principal and executive producer at the Michon Boston Group LTD, Michon Boston provides consulting services for the production of public programs, media projects, and outreach campaigns. She has developed outreach initiatives in the humanities, arts, and media including recent client projects DC Public Library’s DC By the Book launch event, The Big Read – D.C. (part of the Big Read national initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts), ITVS Community Cinema, DC Community Heritage Project, and community outreach campaigns for WHUT.
Michon’s latest project, “The Church Lady Cake Diaries,” explores her fascination with a phenomenon she grew up on called “Church Lady cakes (and pies)”. The project is comprised of two parts: The Church Lady Cake Diaries, a documentary examining baking traditions that build community; and “The Church Lady Cake Project”, an on-line digital media channel that features first person stories about women (and on occasion men) who were part of a divine tradition – making cakes from scratch. The project also fueled the launch of the Makes-Me-Wanna SHOUT! Baking Challenge in 2011, presented with Eatonville Restaurant highlighting amateur home bakers and their stories. The baking challenge was created by Michon Boston and produced by the Michon Boston Group LTD.
Previously, Michon served as Director of Programs for the Humanities Council of Washington, DC, producing television programs “Maya Angelou: Gather Together in Her Name (A Heart’s Day special), “DC Humanities,” and “Humanities Profiled”. She also has worked in television programming with PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) where she managed program evaluation for the national broadcast schedule.
In addition to her media-related work, Michon is a produced and published playwright. Her play, “Iola’s Letter,” based on the events that transformed Ida B. Wells from a journalist to a staunch anti-lynching activist, was published in the anthology “Strange Fruit: Plays On Lynching By American Women” edited by Kathy A. Perkins and Judith L. Stephens (Indiana University Press).
MPTD launched the Filmmaker of the Month initiative to feature a District-based filmmaker who exemplifies the vast amount of talent and creativity based here in the nation’s capital. The Filmmaker of the Month initiative is part of its mission to elevate the national and international profile of the city’s most talented filmmakers. Previous filmmakers honored include documentary filmmaker and founder of redfitz productions Nick Fitzhugh; filmmaker and screenwriter of Kettle of Fish Claudia Myers; Park Triangle founder Gemal Woods, and creator and director of web series Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden Otessa Ghadar .
You can visit the Filmmaker of the Month section to learn more about Michon and previous Filmmaker of the Month recipients.