Zac Manuel
Birth : , New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
History
Zac Manuel is an award–winning, New Orleans bred-and-based cinematographer and director whose work in documentary film and music video explores intimacy, Black masculinity, class, identity and inheritance. His cinematography credits include Buckjumping (New Orleans Film Festival 2018, Winner Best Cinematography), The Earth is Humming (Field of Vision; SXSW 2018), Alone (NYT Op-Doc; Sundance 2017 Jury Award Winner – Best Non-Fiction Film), and America (Sundance 2019 Jury Award Winner), and Time (Sundance 2020). His work as a director has been exhibited at festivals and on platforms around the world, including The Washington Post, BBC, MTV News, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Pitchfork, and many more. Zac’s is a grantee of the Tribeca All-Access program, the IFP Documentary Story Lab, and is a recipient of the 2017 Create Louisiana Grant, and the 2017 SDF Production Grant for his debut documentary feature, Bloodthicker, which is currently in post production.
Director of Photography
A remarkably intimate portrait of an artist on tour navigating identity, family, expectations, and acceptance, all while reflecting on his place within the legacy of Black, queer performers.
Director
A remarkably intimate portrait of an artist on tour navigating identity, family, expectations, and acceptance, all while reflecting on his place within the legacy of Black, queer performers.
Director
The interconnected daily journeys of bus riders and operators on the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority bus lines illuminate why the black community here has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. While the bus operators fight for proper PPE, hazard pay, and sick time off they continue to provide a necessary, but dangerous service to frontline workers, the sick, and the homeless population through a pandemic.
Director
As Sydney Hall participates in an experimental coronavirus vaccine trial in hopes of protecting her beloved New Orleans community, she and her loved ones confront the history of medical abuse and experimentation on Black bodies
Director of Photography
Sam Langberg began training for the ironman triathlon 4 months before the COVID-19 pandemic would turn his typical day as an ER doctor on its head. Even though his race was canceled two months into the New Orleans quarantine, he decided to embark on the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run – solo. This documentary short follows Sam’s day long journey, shifting through his memories of struggles in the hospital, and ultimately, showing his ability to endure.
Producer
Sam Langberg began training for the ironman triathlon 4 months before the COVID-19 pandemic would turn his typical day as an ER doctor on its head. Even though his race was canceled two months into the New Orleans quarantine, he decided to embark on the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run – solo. This documentary short follows Sam’s day long journey, shifting through his memories of struggles in the hospital, and ultimately, showing his ability to endure.
Editor
Sam Langberg began training for the ironman triathlon 4 months before the COVID-19 pandemic would turn his typical day as an ER doctor on its head. Even though his race was canceled two months into the New Orleans quarantine, he decided to embark on the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run – solo. This documentary short follows Sam’s day long journey, shifting through his memories of struggles in the hospital, and ultimately, showing his ability to endure.
Director
Sam Langberg began training for the ironman triathlon 4 months before the COVID-19 pandemic would turn his typical day as an ER doctor on its head. Even though his race was canceled two months into the New Orleans quarantine, he decided to embark on the 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and 26.2 mile run – solo. This documentary short follows Sam’s day long journey, shifting through his memories of struggles in the hospital, and ultimately, showing his ability to endure.
Director
The traditions of a black barbershop in New Orleans transform during the pandemic.
Director of Photography
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
Director of Photography
A cinematic omnibus rooted in New Orleans, challenging the idea of black cinema as a "wave" or "movement in time," proposing instead a continuous thread of achievement.
Editor
After a contentious race last fall, the runoff for mayor of New Orleans came down to two candidates: Desirée Charbonnet and LaToya Cantrell, two very different black women. The winner of this election would take office as the first female mayor of New Orleans and the city's fourth black mayor. Through news footage, campaign advertisements and archival audio and video, All Skinfolk Ain't Kinfolk is the unprecedented story of this mayoral runoff told through the eyes of black women living in this city.
Director of Photography
Buckjumping is a cinematic journey through the soul of New Orleans. The film explores different communities as they express themselves through movement, painting a dynamic portrait of a city's spirituality, defiance and resourcefulness.
Director of Photography
When a woman undergoes a frightening transition, her vigilant five year old daughter must decide between saving her or protecting herself in this haunting tale of inheritance, daughterhood, and demons.
Director of Photography
In Japan, earthquake preparedness is a way of life — and a full- blown industry.
Director of Photography
This investigation into the layers of mass incarceration and its shaping of the modern black American family is seen through the eyes of a single mother in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Director of Photography
A dancer emerges from the earth.
Director of Photography
In our current world, where worth is often gauged by online popularity, an economy has developed for paying for followers and likes. Through access inside the “click-farms” of Bangladesh, Like explores the multi-million dollar industry that grows social media followings for celebrities and brands alike.
Director of Photography
In a distant galaxy, traveling carnivals feature famous mystics. The most popular of all is The Great Bazandini. Villagers clamor to see his act, but one person knows it’s a sham...his daughter, Mirza. She desperately wants to escape this world of swindlers, but standing in her way is the carnival’s ringleader, notorious conman, Dr. Leopold Rundy. MIRZA THE MIRACULOUS is a short lo-fi sci-fi experimental B-movie adventure incorporating dubbed gibberish voices, abstract art, remnants of Mardi Gras costumes, toy props, dustbuster spaceships, on-screen text and analog electronic music. It’s absurd, kaleidoscopic and homemade. The movie was originally shot on an abandoned Western movie set on the Texas-Mexican border in 1999, but was abandoned due to technical difficulties. 15 years later, the project was revived by a successful Kickstarter fund-raising campaign. The original footage was reimagined and re-edited with new technology to create a one-of-a-kind film.
Director of Photography
A young musician tries to find her place in New Orleans, city of musical dreams and failures. Bradley expresses the musician's inner life with remarkable editing and a moving soundtrack that reinforces the city's slow pace.
