Crystal R. Emery
Other namesCrystal Emery-Kerr

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]

Early life and education

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 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]

Career

Emery began directing plays while she was in college.[10] She has directed multiple documentary films including The Deadliest Disease in America[11][12] and Changing the Face of Medicine.[13] In 2010[14] 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.[15]

Her written works include Sweet Nez,[9][16] the play A Way Out of No Way[17] and a book titled Against All Odds, which features 100 prominent Black women medical doctors.[13] 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.[18]

Personal life

While in college, Emery was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a degenerative nerve disease[7] and she lives with quadriplegia and diabetes.[11]

References

  1. ↑ "Home - URU The Right To Be". www.urutherighttobe.org. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  2. 1 2 "| IF/THEN® Collection". www.ifthencollection.org. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ 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.
  5. ↑ "Energy in Motion: FIlmmaker Crystal R. Emery is a Force for Change in STEM - AWIS Magazine". AWIS. 2021-04-22. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  6. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Jackie (1991-12-22). "Director Writes Her Own Script in Life, Too". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  7. 1 2 Megan, Kathleen (May 6, 2018). "Quadriplegic Filmmaker, Producer Urges UConn Grads To 'Never Stop, Never Give Up'". Hartford Courant. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  8. 1 2 Cole, Kristen (2018-04-27). "2018 Commencement Speakers". UConn Today. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  9. 1 2 Toppman, Lawrence (1993-04-25). "How to make a movie cheaply: That's the ticket". The Charlotte Observer. p. 67. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  10. ↑ Dunne, Susan (2016-08-21). "Medical struggle for black women". Hartford Courant. pp. , . Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  11. 1 2 Fitzgerald, Toni. "New Documentary Focuses On Health Care's Greatest Threat. It's Not Covid". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  12. ↑ "The deadliest disease in America". Ability; Costa Mesa. October–November 2021. pp. 20–25 – via ProQuest.
  13. 1 2 Hall, Mia (August 30, 2016). "Documenting and supporting Black women doctors in America". NBC News. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  14. ↑ Raven, Kathleen (2016-05-05). "Still against all odds: 'Black Women in Medicine'". YaleNews. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  15. ↑ Reviews of Black Women in Medicine
    • 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.
    • Manning, Kimberly D. (2017-10-10). "Black Women in Medicine —A Documentary". JAMA. 318 (14): 1306. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.11551. ISSN 0098-7484. PMID 29049567.
    • 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.
  16. ↑ Fitzpatrick, Jackie (1994-10-23). "The State's Already Got Live-In Stars, Now to Organize Supporting Casts". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  17. ↑ Carty, Linnet (1998-06-12). "Musical at Atheneum was a stirring tribute". Hartford Courant. p. 32. Retrieved 2022-12-27.
  18. ↑ 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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