Untitled Margaret Brown Project

Margaret Brown’s documentary work examines the American South, from her seminal film on Townes Van Zandt “Be Here to Love Me,” to the story of the BP oil spill’s lasting impact “The Great Invisible,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW in 2014. Her film “The Order of Myths,” which examined Brown’s native Mobile, Alabama and its still segregated Mardi Gras celebration, won numerous awards including a Peabody and the Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award. Her most recent film “Descendant” won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at Sundance in 2022 and was acquired by the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions.

“Descendant” won the DOC NYC Award for Best Director, the Critics Choice Documentary Award for Best Historical Documentary, and was named to the Oscars shortlist for Best Documentary Feature. The film also received nominations for outstanding direction, best documentary feature, and outstanding original score from Cinema Eye Honors, the Producers’ Guild of America, and the NAACP Awards. It explores the story of the only known slave ship that’s ever been discovered on North American soil, the specter of its crimes both past and present, and the steadfast resilience of Africatown’s descendants in the face of a century of denied history. Brown has also done short form work for The New York Times, Field of Vision, and episodic work for Netflix, including an episode of the acclaimed series “Dirty Money.”

Diane is an Academy Award-winning, Emmy nominated producer and the co-founder of Fishbowl Films. Navalny won both the U.S. Documentary Audience Award and the Festival Favorite Award at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded a BAFTA, PGA, DuPont, and the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Her credits include: Manhunt, The Final Year, If I Leave Here Tomorrow, Belushi, Whirlybird, On the Divide, Stutz, the Emmy nominated King Coal and Tina, and the Peabody Award winning Inventing Tomorrow. She has produced docu-series such as Five Came Back, Trial by Media, Equal, and The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping. Her latest film, the Emmy winning Blink, launched at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival, was released theatrically by Disney Studios and premiered on National Geographic, Disney+ & Hulu. Diane was a Sundance Documentary Creative Producing Fellow and is a member of the PGA, the DPA, the Television Academy, and AMPAS.