Dream Hampton

Early life and education

Hampton was born to an African American family in Detroit in 1972, and has said she was named after Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. She stylizes her name in all-lowercase as a nod to author bell hooks. She studied filmmaking at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Career

Hampton has written for Vibe, Essence, Harper's Bazaar, The Village Voice, Detroit News, and Spin. She co-wrote Jay-Z's 2010 memoir Decoded.

As a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, an African-American activist group inspired by Malcolm X's "Message to the Grass Roots" speech, hampton co-organized Black August, a benefit concert for political prisoners. Her concert film about the event, Black August: A Hip-Hop Documentary Concert, premiered at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in 2010. In 2013, hampton directed Treasure, a documentary about the 2011 killing of Shelley Hilliard, a 19-year-old transgender woman, in Detroit. She made the short documentary We Demand Justice for Renisha Mcbride after organizing a protest over Mcbride's death.

Hampton was executive producer of Surviving R. Kelly, a 2019 documentary series about the decades of sexual-abuse allegations against R. Kelly. Page six reported that a Homeland Security agent had watched the series and started a federal investigation into the victims' allegations. After its release, Kelly was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse and other crimes for an eventual total of 18 federal charges.

She has been a Visiting Artist with Stanford University's Institute for Diversity in the Arts and a Kresge Artist Fellow.

As of 2020, hampton served on the board of the advocacy group Color of Change.

Recognition

Hampton's short film I Am Ali was selected for the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and won "Best Short Film" at the Newport Film Festival.

In 2015 she received a Richard Nichols Luminary award and Treasure: From Tragedy to Trans Justice Mapping a Detroit Story won Best Documentary at the BlackStar Film Festival.

In 2019 hampton received a Ms. Foundation Gloria Award and was named on the Time 100. She and Brie Miranda Bryant and Tamra Simmons, who worked with her on Surviving R. Kelly, were named to Variety's 2019 Power Women New York list.

Surviving R. Kelly received a Peabody Award. It received an MTV Movie Award for Best Documentary. It received a Rockies Award for "Program of the Year" at the Banff World Media Festival.

In 2023 she received a Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center Residency.

In 2024 she was selected by The New Museum as the Stuart Regen Visionary, for "individuals who have made major contributions to art and culture and who are actively imagining a better future".

Filmography

• Behind The Music: The Notorious B.I.G. (1997), associate producer
• I Am Ali (2002), director
• Notorious B.I.G.: Bigger Than Life (2007), executive producer
• Black August: A Hip-Hop Documentary Concert (2010), director
• QueenS (2012 music video) by recording artists THEESatisfaction
• An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (2012), co-executive producer
• The Russian Winter (2012), associate producer
• Treasure: From Tragedy to Trans Justice Mapping a Detroit Story (2015), executive producer
• We Demand Justice for Renisha Mcbride
• The War on Drugs is an Epic Fail (New York Times 2016)
• It's A Hard Truth Ain't It (HBO 2019), executive producer
• Finding Justice (BET 2019), executive producer
• Burial of Kojo (Netflix 2019), co-executive producer
• Surviving R. Kelly (2019), executive producer
• We Hold These Truths (2022), director
• Freshwater (2022), director
• Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop (2023), director, executive producer
• It Was All A Dream (2024), director

References

References

1. link. (October 15, 2020.)
2. (January 30, 2009). "D Original: Interview With dream hampton".
3. Gross, Terry. (February 20, 2019). "'Surviving R. Kelly' Producer Dream Hampton Takes On Ecosystem That Supported The Star". [[NPR]].
4. Kornhaber, Spencer. (October 2023). "The Joy and the Funk and the Mire".
5. (January 3, 2019). "Surviving R. Kelly executive producer Dream Hampton has deep Detroit roots". [[Michigan Chronicle]].
6. link. (October 15, 2020, ''Vibe'', 1998 Dec–1999 Jan;'''6'''(10):44.)
7. Andres Jauregui. (May 18, 2015). "Jay-Z And Beyonce Bailed Out Ferguson And Baltimore Protesters, Dream Hampton Says".
8. (May 16, 2011). "33 Women Music Critics You Need to Read".
9. link. (March 5, 2012", ''The Smugger'', November 19, 2010.)
10. "[http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/atrium-art-revolution-aug-5 Art + Revolution: Honoring Black August!] {{Webarchive. link. (October 7, 2011", Lincoln Center website.)
11. Morgan, Glennisha. (June 21, 2013). "'Transparent' Documentary Highlights Shelley Hilliard's Murder". Huffington Post.
12. Tiggett, Jai. (June 8, 2015). "Social Justice at the Forefront of LA Film Fest's June 11 #BlackLifeBlackProtest Event".
13. Fortin, Jacey. (January 4, 2019). "'Surviving R. Kelly' Documentary on Lifetime Details Sex Abuse Accusations". [[The New York Times]].
14. "dream hampton Didn't Expect R. Kelly To Be Charged After 'Surviving R. Kelly'".
15. (February 22, 2019). "Singer R Kelly 'charged with sexual offences'". BBC.
16. Miller, Julie. (June 13, 2019). "The TV Documentaries With the Power to Change Culture".
17. "About Us – Institute for Diversity in the Arts".
18. "Meet the Kresge Artist Fellows".
19. Rao, Sonia. (June 8, 2020). "TV shows shape how law enforcement is viewed. Where will they go from here?". [[The Washington Post]].
20. [http://history.sundance.org/films/2698 I Am Ali] {{Webarchive. link. (March 12, 2012, Sundance Institute Archives)
21. Hairston, Gail. (March 25, 2014). "Writer, Producer dream hampton Shares New Film {{!}} Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies".
22. (July 24, 2015). "Join BlackStar Film Festival July 30 â€" Aug 2 in Philadelphia".
23. "2015 BlackStar Film Festival Announces Award Winners".
24. (May 9, 2019). "Ms. Foundation Honors dream hampton, Sana Amanat at Gloria Awards".
25. "The 100 Most Influential People of 2019".
26. (April 2, 2019). "Variety's 2019 Power of Women New York Impact List".
27. "Surviving R. Kelly".
28. ""For Sama", "Surviving R. Kelly" among 2020 Peabody Award-winning docs".
29. Walsh, Savannah. (June 17, 2019). "'Surviving R. Kelly' Won Best Documentary At The MTV Movie & TV Awards & The Twitter Reactions Show There Is A Lot Of Work To Do".
30. (June 12, 2019). "Sheffield Doc/Fest, Banff announce 2019 award winners".
31. "The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Announces 2023 Residents and Opens Call for 2024 Applicants".
32. "Visionaries: dream hampton in Conversation with Rashida Bumbray and Jon Gray".
33. "The Russian Winter {{!}} 2012 Tribeca Film Festival".
34. Wilson, Brandon. "LAFF Review: dream hampton's Devastating 'Treasure: From Tragedy to Trans Justice; Mapping a Detroit Story'".
35. (April 11, 2017). "An Interview With Legendary Writer and Activist dream hampton".
36. (June 1, 2020). "Dream Hampton to Executive Produce and Direct New Limited Documentary Series from Cineflix Productions".
37. West Savali, Kirsten. (March 10, 2019). "'Finding Justice' on BET: A Conversation with Executive Producer dream hampton".