Latest in Ben Proudfoot

EXCLUSIVE: MINK!, filmmaker Ben Proudfoot's follow up to his Oscar-winning documentary short The Queen of Basketball, will launch this week, a project that teams him with tennis star Naomi Osaka and her newly-announced production company. MINK! tells the story of Patsy Takemoto Mink, a Hawaii Democrat who became the…

Matthew Baskharoon is joining United Talent Agency as an agent in the unscripted TV department. Based in the Los Angeles office, Baskharoon will work alongside UTA Partner Darnell Strom and the culture & leadership division. "Matthew is not only a terrific agent but also an incredible human, said Matt Rice, UTA head…

Updated from original 4:19 p.m. story with quotes from Proudfoot’s acceptance speech. Proper recognition for the achievements of Lusia “Lucy” Harris has been a long time coming, but it happened emphatically tonight at the Academy Awards. The Queen of Basketball, which documents Harris's unsung accomplishment as one of…

For the children of Lusia "Lucy" Harris, the woman at the center of The Queen of Basketball, the prospect of the upcoming Oscar ceremony brings a feeling of joy, along with a measure of sadness. "It's bittersweet," admits Christina Jordan, one of Harris's twin daughters. The short documentary directed by Ben Proudfoot…

EXCLUSIVE: NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal is booking theaters in Los Angeles this weekend for free screenings of The Queen of Basketball, in honor of Lusia "Lucy" Harris, the late subject of the Oscar-shortlisted documentary. Harris, who led Delta State University in Mississippi to three national championships in the…

In the mid-1970s when the horn sounded for a Delta State University Lady Statesmen's basketball game, center Lusia "Lucy" Harris could not be stopped. "The pass comes into No. 45 in the lane, she spins to the basket, elevates. Score!" That scene was repeated over and over again as she led her team to three straight…

EXCLUSIVE: Basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal wants the world to know about an overlooked star of the game, Lusia "Lucy" Harris, the woman Shaq calls "the greatest of all time." "She’s a power center. I’m a power center. She was dominant," O'Neal tells Deadline about Harris. "For a long time she was denied the…

EXCLUSIVE: NBA great Shaquille O'Neal is joining a new team—the one behind the award-winning documentary The Queen of Basketball. The Hall of Fame center and four-time NBA champ has signed on as an executive producer of the New York Times Op-doc short, which tells the story of Lusia "Lucy" Harris, one of the greatest…

EXCLUSIVE: The Los Angeles Times is premiering the short documentary The Beauty President Tuesday, part of a new initiative that will showcase nonfiction shorts "with a West Coast perspective." The Beauty President, directed by Whitney Skauge and executive produced by Emmy-winning actor-writer-producer Lena Waithe and…

EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, fresh from an Academy Award nomination, is heading to the Tribeca Film Festival with his latest short documentary The Queen of Basketball, the remarkable story of Lusia "Lucy" Harris. Harris' name may not be familiar, but Proudfoot describes her as "one of the most important…

The Oscar-shortlisted short documentary A Concerto Is a Conversation is a classic two-hander, the kind of story with two protagonists of equal importance. In this case the characters are Horace Bowers Sr., a 92-year-old entrepreneur in South Los Angeles, and his grandson, 31-year-old Kris Bowers, a much sought-after…

Ava DuVernay has boarded A Concerto Is a Conversation as executive producer. Co-directed by Emmy-winning composer Kris Bowers and Emmy-winning filmmaker Ben Proudfoot, the 13-minute short-subject documentary follows Bowers as he tracks his family's lineage through his 91-year-old grandfather Horace Bowers from Jim…