Susheel Bibbs Site
  • Female
  • Sacramento, CA
  • United States
  • I'm an SFF Filmmaker
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Welcome, Susheel Bibbs!

Profile Information

My current Project Title:
VOICES FOR FREEDOM & O Freedom! - a one-woman touring musical on Mary Pleasant with a new film as intro
I describe myself as a
I'm an SFF Filmmaker
My areas of expertise include:
director
About me - current project:
Full Areas of Expertise: Producer-Director-Writer-Performer

CURRENT CURRENT & CAREER WORK, BRIEF BIO,-RECOGNITION --
NEWS!
=Theatrical run of VOICES FOR FREEDOM - The Hyers Sisters' Legacy June 20-27, Hollywood at The Laemmle Noho7 theater, 6:30 pm daily

=Touring new documentary short and live show on Mary Pleasant -- Bibbs becomes Mary Pleasant on stage in a rousing, one-woman touring musical O Freedom! Bookings via mepleasant1@yahoo.com
Laurels, awards and other accomplishments:
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS/KEY AWARDS & RECOGNITION
EDUCATION:
ARTS: Opera and Vocal Performance
=Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Vocal Performance/Opera
=Apprenticeships at the Santa Fe Opera; diplomas at the Mozarteum in Austria
=26 years as a touring opera and concert singer and actress
Touring Artist (singer-actress) www.susheelbibbs.com

HUMANITIES
= Advanced degree in Communications, Breyer State University
= Certifications, State of CA, in Voice and Philosophy
=1978 Diploma in Vedic Philosophy & Culture, Sandeepany,Bombay
=1975 CPB Training Grant(Executive training)

RECENT INTERNATIONAL AWARDS:Documentary Film & other since 2007:

1) VOICES FOR FREEDOM: (Fall 2017-pres, documentary short) -- 2018 Bronze Telly, Grand Festival Award: Berkeley Int'l Video & Film Festival; Documentary Short Award: Houston Worldfest, Gold Kahuna Award for Excellence in Filmmaking: Honolulu International Film Festival, Award Hollywood Int'l Documentary Festival/Awards, Best Film (Cine Soul) Sacramento Int'l Film Festival, 2018 Gold Winner - International Independent Film Awards (Short Documentary), more

2) Film on Mary Pleasant on PBS through 2021. (see below*)
*MEET MARY PLEASANT Mother of Civil Rights in California - film and one-woman musical
(FEATURE/PBS: 2008; Film Re-issued PBS: 2018:in HD to 2020: 2010 --Gold Kahuna Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, Honolulu International Film Festival, Official Screening at Cannes Film Festival,Officially screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Best Director of a Documentary 09 in New York and Best Historical Documentary Feature (08) in Hollywood: NY Int'l Independent Film Festival, Screening Finalist in the Hollywood Black Film Festival,

=MEET MARY PLEASANT SHORT: 2007 Peace-reel Medallion - Best Documentary Short: Berkeley Int'l Video and Film Festival

=THE LEGACY OF MARY ELLEN PLEASANT (KVIE/PBS): Silver Telly* Award: Best short documentary. (Silver was the top award in 2008). This film tours with the short one-woman show.

3) One-woman shows: MEET MARY PLEASANT (drama) & O FREEDOM (musical) one-woman Enactments, 60-90 mins.: Bibbs has won SF Supervisors Highest Commendation, Commendations for enriching history from St. Louis City Museum, Los Angeles African-American Museum, National Park Service Network-to-Freedom Program Awards & more. See susheelbibbs.com or contact mepleasnt1@yahoo.com

4) AN UNSUNG MUSE - Classical Song of Black Composers SHORT (1991, 2007 reissue: 2001 on DVD) 2016 Willis Patterson Award for film research from The African American Art-song Alliance


OTHER CAREER AWARDS - Television & Radio
=National EMMY., Executive Producer of ZOOM:
=CPB Management Training Grant,
=2 CPB Best Program Awards, Action for Children's Television Award (The Spider's Web): Radio Producer/Music Program Dir. of The Spider's Web (WGBH/NPR) & Others

RECOGNITION HIGHLIGHTS
MEDIA
-Several NPR. KVIE-TV Film, and Discovery Channel Profiles about Mary Pleasant
-2018 - KVIE-PBS Arts Showcase Profile
-2017 - Good Day Sacramento Hyers film profile

PERFORMANCE AND CAREER
=2018 Marquis Who's Who of Women Lifetime Achievement award
=2018 PBS Arts Showcase: Career Profile
=2001 CA Humanities/California History Alive touring artist and Grant recipient - Meet Mary Pleasant
=1990-2003: Featured artist: California Touring Artist Roster
=2001-pres: Grant recipient & performer: The Missouri Arts Council and The National Park Service Network to Freedom Program (Meet Mary Pleasant, O Freedom, Mother of civil Rights exhibit)
1999:2001 Commendations: St. Louis City Museum, Los Angeles African American Museum. Highest Commendation: Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco

AREAS OF WORK (1970-Present)
=touring classical singer-actress
=Independent Filmmaker
=Founder/Exec.Director,The Living Heritage Foundation (Sacramento)
=Director-Performer-writer, M.E.P. Productions/Publications (books,documentary scripts)
=Producer & Director of Music Program Development, WGBH Radio
=Producer-Executive Producer, WGBH-TV
My home region is:
Capital Region

About VOICES FOR FREEDOM - The Hyers Sisters' Legacy

Please plan to come to the next screening of  Voices for Freedom – the Hyers Sisters’ Legacy, African American Museum and Library at Oakland, June 23, 2 pm. Free to the public.  

 This documentary is now on PBS nationally and the festival version has won 6 international awards. See  detail here and at www.TheHyersSisters.com

   The Hip-hop poet who appears periodically in the film to comment on this period story for our day says, "What do you bring to the table of life? Do you just wait some time?  Life passes by."  The Hyers made a way in perilous times with their talents where there had been no way.  They refused to wait and used love, laughter and talent to create works that changed minds and hearts in their mainstream audiences.  Their inspiring story is colorful and important because it reveals hidden history and sheds light upon many of the social attitudes that persist today.

   Who?  Anna and Emma Hyers were operatic prodigies, products of the 1860's civil-rights communities of Sacramento and San Francisco.  They who used their art to fight against the profiling and ridicule of their people from 1876-1894. The first African-American women to tour successfully across the Land in concert opera, they  are also credited with commissioning and popularizing the first American musicals.  

   The year 1876 ushered in a period of widespread oppression for workers and terror for African Americans, and in 1877, when federal troops were withdrawn from the South, lynching and night riding increased as black-face minstrel shows mocked black people across the Land.  The attitudes that they produced later fueled social restrictions, such as  “separate but equal.” 

   Despite the perilous times, The Hyers Sisters, as products of their  civil-rights communities, stood up for the dignity of their people -- They left concert opera and used their popularity to bring black leading players and integrated casts to American Music Theater  for the first time; they produced characters who were like real people rather than caricatures within sympathetic and entertaining musical stories. These "stories" changed minds and hearts and are now known as the first American musicals. And, they were the first black women to tour under top management.  

   The musical troupes that followed copied many of the Hyers' innovations, so US Music Theater and human rights owe them a debt of thanks.

VOICES FOR FREEDOM tells this story for the first time.

Here's an appearance on Good Day Sacramento about the film when it was first broadcast:

 http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/3752785-the-hyers-sisters/

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Susheel Bibbs Site's Blog

Bibbs screens Telly-winning Short this Sat. 3/16 and premieres new Short and Live Show 3/23-24

Posted on March 13, 2019 at 6:04pm 1 Comment

HI

News!!

=SCREENING SATURDAY!

I'm screening my Telly Award winning short film The Legacy of Mary Ellen Pleasant at the Sojourner Truth Museum's African Marketplace as a Women's History special this Saturday 3/16/19. Its a whirlwind look at her life and hasn't been seen in Sacramento in a while .  I'll be there to answer questions and to let people know about my upcoming new short on Pleasant and my live shows (see below).  The…

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Voices for Freedom screens on PBS and in the Bay Area 6/23/18

Posted on October 8, 2018 at 12:46pm 0 Comments

Dear Friends. 

Here is the correct url for my films. Please use this one.  Somehow I have two sites:

A lot is happening.

=Both films --Voices for Freedom and MEET MARY PLEASANT are on PBS nationally now, and next, you can hear me talk about Mary Ellen Pleasant and my work with her in film on stage

Oct. 26 at 4pm on NPR - The California Report. Tune into…

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