Sekiya Dorsett

Some filmmakers chase spectacle. Sekiya Dorsett chases truth, finding it in quiet conversations, lived histories, and the resilience of queer life. The GLAAD award– winning filmmaker has built a body of work that centers the rich, complicated lives of Black women, queer people, and the working class—stories that are often overlooked but always unforgettable in her hands. Her first feature, The Revival: Women and the Word, followed a group of Black lesbian poets on tour across the United States, capturing a vibrant community in motion. Later, her four-part NBC News series Stonewall 50: The Revolution helped bring the history of the uprising to a new generation, earning both a GLAAD Media Outstanding Digital Journalism Award and the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Excellence in Digital Journalism Award. Dorsett’s filmmaking is as personal as it is political. Growing up in the Bahamas, she remembers the moment everything clicked: watching Gia alone during an HBO preview and realizing that she liked girls. “Queer films saved my life,” she says. Dorsett honors the queer films that once helped her understand herself. “If I had given up after the first ‘no,’ I would not be here,” she says. Faith, many tears, and the dedicated support of her wife of 20 years keep her grounded as she continues to dream bigger. Those dreams include 20 Years of Longing, her deeply personal feature documentary about Black queer love, migration, and building family; a surrealist short film; a future queer superhero story; and I Love Bed-Stuy, a cinematic love letter to her home base in Brooklyn. –AK