Home Communication & Film People Anwar Jamison

ANWAR JAMISON

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF TEACHING, COMMUNICATION STUDIES

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Email
ajamison@memphis.edu
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Office
ACB 245E
Office Hours
Available upon request
Anwar Jamison

About

Dr. Anwar Jamison teaches courses that focus on various aspects of narrative and documentary filmmaking. As a filmmaker, he combines his film and heritage studies backgrounds to create entertaining and enlightening content.
In 2012, he established the Digital Media & Film program at Arkansas State University Mid-South in West Memphis, Arkansas, for which he served as Lead Faculty for 11 years. He has written and directed five feature films.  His lone documentary, A Bitter Pill to Swallow, tackles the epidemic of prescription pill abuse as a street drug and its effect on the users, their families and the community.

In 2019, he traveled to Accra, Ghana to shoot the romantic comedy Coming to Africa during the country's Year of Return celebration. The film won three awards at the Las Vegas Black Film Festival, the Audience Choice award at The Indie Memphis Film Festival, and was nominated for fourteen Ghana Movie Awards. In 2022, Jamison returned to Ghana to film the sequel, Coming to Africa: Welcome to Ghana, which premiered at The African Film Festival in Dallas and received the award for Best Costume Design. The film was also named Best Comedy Feature at The International Black Diversity Festival in Toronto and was nominated for Best Feature Film at the Newark International Film Festival and the Charlotte Black Film Festival

Education

  • PhD, Heritage Studies, Arkansas State University, 2024
  • MA, Heritage Studies, Arkansas State University, 2021
  • MA, Film & Video Production, University of Memphis, 2009
  • MA, English, University of Memphis, 2002
  • BS, English Writing, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 1999

Productions (selected):

  • (2023) Coming to Africa: Welcome to Ghana (narrative feature), Executive Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
  • (2020) Coming to Africa (narrative feature), Executive Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
  • (2017) A Bitter Pill to Swallow (documentary feature), Executive Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
  • (2015) 5 Steps to a Conversation (narrative feature), Executive Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
  • (2009) Funeral Arrangements (narrative feature), Executive Producer, Director, Writer, Editor