Career Highlights

Derek Fordjour:

• Earned a B.A. degree from Morehouse College and an Ed. M. degree from Harvard
• Married to Tony Award winning LaChanze Sapp
• Worked as a painter before he began producing documentaries

Jamar White:

• Earned a BFA from Pratt Institute School of Art and Design
• Began his career in special-effects

Career Overview

Derek Fordjour and Jamar White were classmates and friends while studying at the Pratt Institute School of Art and Design. Fordjour was a painting major while White studied special effects. Both men were interested in cross-disciplinary approaches to making art so they collaborated on many projects in things like internet design, art direction and classical painting. White graduated from Pratt with a BFA and Fordjour graduated from Morehouse with a BA and Harvard with an Ed.M.

In 2000, the two created a documentary short titled An Experiment in Brotherhood, their first historical project. After forming Derek&Jamar Productions, LLC they created The Black Sorority Project, the first piece to be written, produced and directed under their company. The Black Sorority Project tells the story of twenty-two Howard University females in 1913 that defied the limitations of race and sex. These women joined the Women’s Suffrage March and created a new sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, that became one of the nation’s most formidable women’s organizations.

Our Interview

Derek Fordjour and Jamar White join ThinkTalk host Kimberly Holmes to discuss their new film The Black Sorority Project. Fordjour and White also answer the questions of students regarding their inspiration for The Black Sorority Project, how they conducted their research for the film and how they kept their focus.