David M Massey
Director / Producer
David Massey is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker who holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications and Education from Ohio Dominican University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Advanced Film and Television from the American Film Institute. He is recognized as the first African American in the history of the Academy Awards to receive a nomination for an Oscar in the Live-Action Short Film category for his work on Last Breeze of Summer.
Massey has produced and directed a variety of films and television programs. His notable projects include Men of Courage, an hour-long docudrama that garnered an NAACP Image Award and aired on BET; Dare to Struggle, Dare to Win, a documentary focusing on the 31st December Women’s Movement in Ghana; and Fespaco, a feature documentary narrated by Danny Glover that highlights Africa’s largest and oldest film festival. Additionally, Massey has produced six short films, including Island Song, which received the Audience Award at the Pan African Film Festival in 2013, and When Justice Isn’t Just, a short documentary distributed by First Run Features in 2015 that explores the law enforcement shootings of unarmed African Americans.
Massey’s recent projects include Where We’re From, a feature documentary that chronicles independent artists in Los Angeles and chronicles the hip-hop movement of the early 1990s, which is currently distributed by Shout Studios; Not All Lost, a reality-based, celebrity-driven program for PBS; Hinika, which is in post-production and documents the opening of a new hospital and medical school in rural Ethiopia; Conscience of the Congress, in pre-production, provides a historical overview of the Congressional Black Caucus; Passage, a live-action film set in 1600 Western Africa; and Golden Flower, a narrative short film depicting Taino culture and history.
Massey previously served as the co-chair of the Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers, West (BAD-West) in Los Angeles. He has received several prestigious accolades, including the 2011 PBS Innovation Award and the National Education Association’s “Advancement of Learning Through Broadcasting” award. Furthermore, Massey is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where he serves on the Short Films Branch Executive Committee and the Student Academy Awards Committee.