Crystal Renee Emery is a filmmaker and founder and CEO of URU The Right To Be, Inc., a nonprofit content production company.[1] She is an If/Then ambassador and was featured in the Smithsonian's "#IfThenSheCan - The Exhibit", a collection of life-sized 3D-printed statues of role models in STEM.[2]
Emery grew up in the Brookside neighborhood of New Haven.[3] Her interest in filmmaking started from a young age.[4] In the third grade, she started directing plays with her brothers. By fifth grade she wrote and directed her first play about Harriet Tubman's work to free people who were enslaved.[5][6]
Emery has a B.A. from the University of Connecticut (1985)[7] and then worked as an apprentice in theater with Lloyd Richards[8] and as a production assistant for Bill Duke.[9] She went on to sharpen her producing skills under the tutelage of Suzanne de Passe during the filming of The Jacksons: An American Dream (1991-1992).[10] She returned to the East Coast to New York City and She then moved to New York City and earned an M.A. in media studies from The New School of Public Engagement.[2] In 2018 she received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Connecticut (2018).[8]
In 2018, Emery was the keynote speaker for the graduation of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences where she received two standing ovations from crowds of over 10, 000 people.[11]
Emery began directing plays while she was in college.[12] She has directed multiple documentary films including The Deadliest Disease in America[13][14] and Changing the Face of Medicine.[15] In 2010[16] she began working on the documentary Black Women in Medicine in which she interviews seven black physicians and combines the interviews with historical videos from the 1950s and 1960s.[17] The film was well-received, having a theatrical run in 2016 and later airing on American Public Television. It was also screened internationally as part of the American Film Showcase.[18]
Her written works include Sweet Nez,[9][19] the play A Way Out of No Way[20] and a book titled Against All Odds, which features 100 prominent Black women medical doctors.[15] She worked on a virtual reality game called You Can't Be What You Can't See which allows players to step into a virtual reality world as a medical professional.[21]
She is a member of the Producers Guild of America and New York Women in Film and Television. Emery has also served as an If/Then Ambassador for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), where she was featured in the Smithsonian's #IfThenSheCan - The Exhibit, a collection of life-sized 3D-printed statues of women in STEM. [22]
^McLoughlin, Pamela (9 June 2014). "Former tenants honored for making New Haven apartment complex special in its early days". New Haven Register; New Haven, Conn. [New Haven, Conn]. pp. A.4 – via ProQuest.
^Doherty, Donna (24 July 2011). "PIONEER PHYSICIANS; Filmmaker Crystal Emery needs funds to complete her homage to these women". New Haven Register; New Haven, Conn. [New Haven, Conn]. pp. F.1.
Williams, Jhodie-Ann (June 23, 2016). "'Black Women in Medicine' is forcing the need for Black women doctors to the forefront". New York Amsterdam News – via Gale.
Amarante, Joe (12 November 2015). "New Haven filmmaker Crystal Emery spotlights pioneering black women docs". New Haven Register; New Haven, Conn. [New Haven, Conn] – via ProQuest.
^Matthews, Nadine (28 January 2021). "Filmmaker Crystal Emery focuses on Black women doctors". New York Amsterdam News; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. p. 16 – via ProQuest.
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