Deborah Riley Draper

An advertising executive by trade, Deborah Riley Draper extolled the importance of storytelling when it came to marketing products and brand names. She became inspired to expand into filmmaking after listening to a radio interview given by black fashion model and educator Barbara Summers, which detailed the breakout of women of color within the fashion industry in the 1970s. Draper subsequently assembled a documentary to shed light on this relatively obscure moment in time, releasing "Versailles '73: American Runway Revolution" (2012) to critical acclaim. She followed up the effort with another inspirational documentary, "Olympic Pride, American Prejudice" (2016), which profiled the accomplishments of the 18 black athletes who represented the United States at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Draper's choice of subjects was born from both a personal fascination and a desire to reveal the overlooked achievements of African-Americans. She belonged to the Film Fatales, a collaborative network of women filmmakers. She became a fellow of the Film Independent Documentary Lab in 2016. Her work as an advertising executive earned her two regional Emmys, a Gold Effie and numerous Addy awards.