
N.L. AKILI BUCHANAN
Akili Buchanan is an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker, network television news producer, print journalist, commentator, lecturer and educator with over 20 years’ experience in media and telecommunications. Akili taught film, television production and Social Studies at the university and secondary school levels for the past 27 years. In 2022, Akili left teaching to re-dedicate himself full-time to his many artistic energies, forming HuemanWorks LLC, as its Executive Director.
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Akili began his professional career in 1977 as a general assignment reporter for the Star Ledger, New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper. Three years later he moved to television, joining ABC News as Producer for World News Tonight, World News This Morning, This Week with David Brinkley, and The Weekend Report. Among the many stories he covered for ABC News were the 1984 Republican Convention in Dallas, Hurricane Diana, and the artificial heart implant operation of Bill Schroeder.
In 1985, Akili joined NBC News as producer for the prime-time news magazines American Almanac and 1986, hosted by Roger Mudd and Connie Chung. Among his productions were "Rock of Ages," an expository look at the rise of Christian Rock on the secular music scene, and "Deadly Cure," a profile of condemned murderer, Alvin Ford, and his dramatic US Supreme Court case concerning the rights of the insane on Florida's Death Row.
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In 1987, Akili moved from behind the camera and became a correspondent for Monitor Reports, a nationally syndicated documentary program produced by Christian Science Monitor Television in Boston. Among the stories he covered were two documentary reports from Zimbabwe, Southern Africa, where he interviewed President Robert Mugabe and former Rhodesian president Ian Smith on the social, political, and economic implications of black majority rule. Akili received a Gold Plaque Award from the Chicago International Film Festival for "Zimbabwe: A Racial Revolution." He also received a CINE Golden Eagle Award for another Monitor Reports documentary, "Supercomputers."
In 1988, Akili went to San Francisco to report, produce, and direct documentaries and news specials for KQED Public Television. His work there garnered numerous national and international awards, including three Emmy nominations. His documentary "Rap City Rhapsody," a cinematic exploration of the roots and meaning of rap music and Hip Hop culture, won an Emmy for Best Direction in 1991. "Rap City Rhapsody" also won the Silver Diploma from the Prix Futura Berlin, CINE's Golden Eagle, the Prized Piece from the National Black Programming Consortium, and the Silver Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "Rap City Rhapsody" received
critical acclaim from numerous national and international publications, including the L.A Times, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly, The Source magazine, and TV Guide. Akili was also the subject of a special profile segment on the nationally syndicated Black Entertainment Television (BET).
In 1991, Akili served as Senior Producer for Declarations, a three-hour public affairs series created and developed by Claypoint Productions for the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Declarations was broadcast on PBS in the fall of 1992.
In 1993, Akili returned to ABC News as a producer for Turning Point, the prime-time documentary program hosted by Diane Sawyer, Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters.
In 1996, Akili was named Distinguished Visitor at New School University in New York, teaching and lecturing on film and television for its communications department. He also taught Film, Television Production and Social Studies for the Montclair, Trenton, and Newark school districts in New Jersey. His Film/Television courses covered a wide range of subject matter within the discipline: The history of filmmaking and television broadcasting; The impact of Television upon American society; The Production Code of 1930; Understanding Subtext; The Hollywood Screenplay; The Hollywood 10; The Quiz Show Scandal; Edward R. Murrow and the McCarthy Period; The Black Image in American Cinema; Understanding Visual Propaganda; Decoding the Commercial Message, and The Documentary.
Akili served as media consultant to various news organizations and has lectured on media, politics, music and popular culture at universities, film festivals and conferences both here and abroad. He served as juror in several national and international film festivals, including the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, The San Francisco Film Festival, The Golden Chest in Bulgaria, the Prix Futura in Berlin and the Newark Black Film Festival. Akili was a regular social and political commentator for WBLS Radio’s weekly podcast, Openline in New York, and featured in Netflix’s
critically acclaimed documentary series, “Who Killed Malcolm X?”
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Akili Buchanan is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.