Hill, Lumbly and Reuben THE SIX nominees for the 'Doctor Bird Awards' in film and television (DBA) 2002 have been announced. This year, Gloria Reuben, Chris Browne, Richard Lannaman, Stephen Hopkins, Carl Lumbly, and Dule Hill will vie for awards.
The awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday, November 5 at the Hilton Hotel in New Kingston. The awards emerged out of the Mediamix 25th anniversary initiative but has since then been taken over by the Doctor Bird Awards Foundation (DBAF) in 2002. The DBAF is chaired by Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, Professor Rex Nettleford.
The six nominees all fall in the director/producer/performer/ cinematographer category. Of this group, there are three actors - Dule Hill, Carl Lumbly and Gloria Reuben, and three who have worn multiple caps behind the camera - Chris Browne, Stephen Hopkins and Richard Lanaman.
Of the three actors nominated, Gloria Reuben is the only female. Born of Jamaican parents in Toronto, Canada, Reuben is best known for her role in the award-winning NBC programme ER. She was a member of the cast from 1994 to 1999, where she portrayed Jeannie Boulet, a Physician's Assistant who contracted AIDS from her husband.
Reuben has also made her mark in several movies including, Shaft and Time Cop. Prior to her stint on ER, Reuben had notable guest appearances on two other television serials, Silk Stalkings in 1991 (where she played Hattie Morgan, a pathologist) and later, in 1993, she appeared in Homicide: Life on the Streets where she played Detective Theresa Walker.
Lumbly is also of Jamaican parentage. He has been noted for his work on the stage and on the screen. Lumbly was the narrator in Marcus Garvey: Look For Me in the Whirlwind. He earned a National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) Image Award nomination for his role in Buffalo Soldiers. Lumbly's work in television dates as far back as the hit series Cagney and Lacey, in 1981 and 1982, making it back for the movie, Cagney and Lacey: The Return. Since then he has had several notable appearances in leading series. These include The X-Files on Fox and The West Wing on NBC.
The third actor nominated, Dule, is also of Jamaican parentage and is the youngest of the three. Nonetheless, his biography is none too shabby. Dule has already received an Emmy Awards nomination for his present role, as Charles Young in The West Wing, one of NCB's current crop of successful series. Dule's face has also cropped up in several movies including She's All That, Men of Honour and Sugar Hill.
The other three nominees were all born in Jamaica. Christopher Browne has worked in the film industry as a producer, director, cameraman, writer, and director of photography. He has worked in a variety of genres ranging from film, to documentaries and even music videos. Included in the projects on which Browne has worked as a producer and director include The Country of The One-Eyed God, Entry Denied and A Hard Road to Travel, the documentary about the making of The Harder They Come on which he also functioned as writer. Browne's directing efforts have also been displayed in Third World Cop and several other short films. He has worked as the director of photography on documentaries such as Tuff Gong and Ziggy Marley.
Browne has been the recipient of several awards for his efforts. He has received the 'Black Reel' for a feature film from the Toronto Film Festival for Third World Cop (1999). Crossfire, on which he functioned as writer, director and producer, won the award for best short film at the Caribbean Film Festival in Martinique (1992).
Stephen Hopkins is another producer/director/writer nominated for the awards. Although his writing career is limited to a segment of one television show, Tube Tales (1999), his producer and director career has been much more prolific. His major projects as a director include Predator 2, Judgement Night and Blown Away. Hopkins functioned in both capacities in the Fox network series 24, and for the movies Under Suspicion and Lost In Space.
The sixth nominee, Richard Lannaman, has worked in the capacities of cameraman, lighting and director of photography. Films on which he has worked as a director of photography include Third World Cop, Life and Debt, Entry Denied, and Now Jimmy. Lannaman has also worked on several music videos and local commercials.
One other award, the Caribbean Award, will also be given out. Haitian writer, director, editor and producer, Raoul Peck, will receive this award.
