The multi-talented Dr. Donald Griffith, organizer of Black International Cinema*

There is an article (in German and English) in the 2011 program book for the Black International Cinema festival of Berlin entitled ¨Great accomplishments by a multi-talented artist regarding international exchange:  Dr. Donald Muldrow Griffith."

The term "multi-talented" is completely appropriate.

I know Dr. Griffith as the organizer and presenter of the Black International Cinema festival, and as the host and director of the television program "the Collegium."  I also know through conversations that he started his professional life as a psychological therapist.

Those, however, do not fully describe him and his work.  He is also a dancer, and co-founder plus director/producer of the Fountainhead Tanz Theatre of Berlin.

Born and raised in Chicago, his father was a psychologist and his mother, a concert pianist.  Dr. Griffith trained as a therapist, and practiced that profession but at the same time, partly due to native ability and inclination and partly due to the pressures of his work, he began studying acting and dance.  At a certain point, he decided to leave the psychological profession and devote himself more fully to the arts.

He performed in several musicals including "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off," and won several awards including "Best New Off-Broadway Actor."  As a dancer, he performed in several companies in New York and Chicago, acting at times as solo dancer.

He also acted as manager for Oscar Brown, Jr., for a period.

As if this were not enough, he began acting and found roles in both television and regular cinema.

In the late 1970s, The Belin Theater des Westerns invited him to come to that city to act as performer and choreographer.  As time passed and he realized he enjoyed cultural exchange and the Berlin life, in 1980 he and several collegues founded the Fountainhead Tanz Theatre.

And in 1986, he founded the festival that is now called the Black International Cinema festival.  A truly international festival, this year (2012), it screened films from several African countries, from the United States, from severl middle-eastern countries and from Europe.  The festival does not normally give prizes, but instead seeks to promote intercultural exchange and serve the black community of Berlin.

In 2009, he founded the television program, The Collegium.  An interview show, its most famous guest is Pres. Barack Obama.  It airs regularly in Berlin and throughout Europe.  Dr. Griffith is producer, director and host.

So you can see, the term "multi-talented" is indeed best to use when describing the life and activities of Dr. Donald Muldrow Griffith.

*Material for the article came from personal conversations with Dr. Griffith, on-line research, and from an article by Shiu-Chin Yu in the 2011 program of the Black International Cinema.

OUR NEXT POST will be about Mike Wiley, Don Underwood, and their film, Dar He, the Lynching of Emmett Till.  We will have two more posts related to the Black International Cinema festival and films that sceened in it this year, then we will return to Afro-Peruvians.