Education

  • MFA, Film Directing, Columbia University School of the Arts, United States, 2010
  • MA, English, Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, United States, 2000
  • BA, English, Morehouse College, United States, 1999

Biography

KHARY SAEED JONES engages film projects that explore the tensions between fiction, memory, and everyday life. His films and collaborations have screened at Sundance, SXSW, MoMA (NY), CIFF (ME), Full Frame (NC), ICA Boston, and many other festivals and venues. As a writer-director, his work includes the short films Hug, Three and a Half Thoughts, Chrysalis, and the forthcoming feature-length films Night Fight and Gumbo. Jones has also served on the editorial teams behind the documentary features: Where the Pavement Ends (PBS WORLD Channel/America ReFramed), Black Memorabilia (PBS/Independent Lens), Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart (PBS/American Masters), He Named Me Malala (Fox Searchlight), Sembene! (Kino Lorber), and The World According to Dick Cheney (Showtime).

Born and raised in Camden, New Jersey, Jones is the recipient of awards, grants, and fellowships from AFI Dallas, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Mass Cultural Council, the LEF Foundation, the Points North Institute, and the Telly Awards. He studied at Columbia University (MA, MFA) and Morehouse College (BA), and he is currently a Professor of the Practice in Drama and Film at Tufts University where he teaches storytelling for the screen and advises students developing both scripted and documentary projects from inception to edit. He is a recent recipient of grants from the Sundance Documentary Film Fund and Firelight Media's William Greaves Fund and fellowships from the Harvard Film Study Center and the Tufts Center for the Humanities.