Born in Dallas in 1950, Billy Woodberry is a graduate of the UCLA Film School and a founding figure of the L.A. Rebellion film movement, also known as the Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers. He made his directorial debut in 1980 with the short film The Pocketbook. His first feature film, Bless Their Little Hearts (1984), is an exemplary work of the L.A. Rebellion, drawing inspiration from Italian neorealism and the Third Cinema movement. Woodberry’s films have been showcased at prestigious venues such as the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals, the Viennale, Rotterdam, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Harvard Film Archive, Camera Austria Symposium, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, and BAMPFA in Berkeley, among others. In 2022, as part of the L.A. Rebellion, in which Bless Their Little Hearts was screened, Woodberry was present at LEFFEST. He currently resides in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2024, he directed Mário, which traces the life and legacy of Mário Pinto de Andrade, founder of MPLA, a Pan-African thinker and activist, which will be screened in the Official Selection Out of Competition at LEFFEST, having premiered at the Harbour Section of the Rotterdam Film Festival.
Billy Woodberry
Jury - Film Schools
