July 5, 2016
Student Director Sadé Clacken Joseph from the University of Southern California (USC) is the 2016 recipient of the John Frankenheimer Memorial Fellowship. The program, which awards a graduate student majoring in film directing a prize of $5000, was established in 2003 by John’s widow, Evans Frankenheimer, and named in honor of the former DGA Vice President.
The fellowship alternates annually between the Schools of Theater, Film & Television of both University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and USC. The recipient is chosen by the directing faculty on the basis of artistic merit and the prize drawn from a fund established by the Frankenheimer family in 2002 and administered by the Directors Guild Foundation.
“Words cannot express how deeply honored I am to be the recipient of this year’s Frankenheimer Fellowship award,” said Joseph. “There are many who believe that I can’t direct a Hollywood feature film, or be a professional camera operator, or run a top production company. The truth is that in this industry, women — particularly women of color — are vastly underrepresented and underserved. Their voices are unrecognized or invalidated. Through their generous contribution and recognition, the DGA and the John Frankenheimer Memorial Fellowship have told me that I can and for that I am forever grateful.”
Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Joseph began making short films in high school. After graduating with a degree in Anthropology from Columbia University in 2011, she joined the production team for the ABC Daytime Television show The View. Her documentary web-series Run Carlos Run, an epic real-time cross-country adventure and quest to uncover the “American Dream,” has been screened at universities across the country. At USC she continued to display her passion through fiction story-telling, writing and directing three short films in her first year including Good Girl, a story about a teenage Afro-Caribbean American trying to navigate where she belongs. Her current documentary project, Masafer Yatta, takes an intimate look into a group of shepherding communities in the South Hebron Hills of Palestine.
Previous Frankenheimer Fellowship recipients include Jerry Chan (2004), Michael Flores (2006), Valen Hernandez (2008), David Chen (2010), Monely Soltani (2012) Wesley Rodriguez (2014) from USC; and Mitchell Gettleman (2003), Zachary Godshall (2005), Walter Richardson (2007), Mira Lew (2009), Carlos Marques-Marcet (2011), Vanita Shastry (2013), and Balbinka Korzeniowska (2015) from UCLA. Many of these recipients have gone on to build careers in the entertainment industry.
In addition to being an extraordinary director for over 50 years, John Frankenheimer was one of the most active and important members of the DGA. His Guild service included three terms as Vice President, membership on the DGA National Board and Western Directors Council, and Co-Chairing the Creative Rights Committee.
Frankenheimer received DGA Award nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television for Path to War (2002), George Wallace (1997), Andersonville (1996), Against the Wall (1994); and nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Grand Prix (1966), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). His other works include the feature films Ronin (1998), Black Sunday (1977), Seven Days in May (1964); the movies for television The Burning Season (1994), The Rainmaker (1982), and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1960); and live television productions such as Studio One in Hollywood “The Last Summer” (1960), Danger “No Passport for Death” (1955), and You Are There “The Plot Against King Solomon [965 B.C.]” (1954).