Episode 21 - April Dobbins - “No Agreement”

Black Filmmakerswomen filmmakersSouthern Filmmakers

May 7

May 7, 2021

In this episode, I speak with writer, photographer, educator, filmmaker, and proud mom, April Dobbins. During our conversation, we chat about her many, many, many artistic endeavors and the joys and challenges of making her first feature documentary, Alabamaland. Because we are so often defined by the situations to which we say, “Yes,” this week’s song, Fela Kuti’s “No Agreement” challenges us all to find power in small and large acts of resistance. Remember, “No,” is a complete sentence.

April’s Bio

[Photo Credit: Gabriela Williams]

April is pictured from the neck up from the side as she glances into the camera. She wears a black and white floral top and a black and white paisley scarf with a hint of blue around her neck. Her hair is pulled back with a headband and she wears silver hoop earrings.

April Dobbins is a writer and filmmaker based in Miami. She is in production on her feature documentary Alabamaland, which explores a black family farm in the South through the eyes of three women. She has received support from Sundance Institute, Southern Documentary Fund, ITVS, Fork Films, the IDA, and Firelight Media, to name a few. She was a 2017 Sundance Institute Knight Fellow and a recipient of the Firelight Media Documentary Lab Fellowship, Wyncote Filmmaker Fellowship, and Ellies Creator Award.

Her short films have screened at film festivals across the globe, and her writings and photographs have been published in a number of places, including Calyx Journal, Cimarron Review, Philadelphia City Paper, and Harvard’s Transition Magazine. She currently writes for the Miami New Times and Sugarcane Magazine.

She serves as Director of Prestigious Awards and Fellowships and Lecturer in the Department of Cinema and Interactive Media at the University of Miami. She is a graduate student at Harvard University in the Arts in Education program.

About Alabamaland

Jones Farm is a lush, 688-acre family farm situated in the heart of western Alabama. Three generations of black women explore their very different ties to the place that shaped them and continue to exert a strange hold on their identities. This is the same plot of land that their ancestors once worked as slaves—a history that is important to their identities and to how they navigate the world