Eli Steele is an award-winning American filmmaker and his latest film is “What Killed Michael Brown?” Upon release, the film was initially banned by Amazon and, after a public outcry, it was reinstated onto the platform where it reached the number one spot for documentaries. It remained in the top five for several weeks.
Steele’s other films include “How Jack Became Black,” a documentary on identity politics, “What’s Bugging Seth,” a narrative romantic comedy featuring a deaf man that won top prize at twelve film festivals, and “Katrina,” an MTV pilot that won him the Breakthrough Filmmakers Award. He has also produced over 18 short documentaries in the last two years as well as “Rooftop Revelations,” a Fox series that featured stories from the South Side of Chicago for 100 consecutive days. Steele’s writing has been featured in a variety of publications including the LA Times, Fox News, and Commentary Magazine.
Though Steele comes from a very diverse background — deaf, black, Jewish, etc. — he rejects the notion of exploiting his identity and intersectionality as a means to power. Instead, his background informs his individual look at life.
Steele is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy.
“I’ve faced a lot of discrimination. It’s not a perfect world. You will run up against idiots. You have to focus on your own power. I tell my daughter and my son, you have to develop yourself so you have all that power inside of yourself, so when someone comes and slams that door in your face, you have the resilience to move forward.”
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