Ashley James holds Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees in Filmmaking and has national television credits. Currently he is the station manager of KTOP/Channel 10, Oakland, CA. He is the co-founder (with Kathryn Golden) of Searchlight Films. Former newspaper journalist, The Hartford Times, (Gannett News Service) Hartford, CT; instructor of graduate studies in Department of Cinema, San Francisco State University. Recent documentaries

include: Director, Kitka and Davka in Concert-Old and New World Jewish Music (PBS); Producer/Director Gordon Parks—The Man and His Music a 90-minute television special featuring Issac Hayes, Danny Glover and the Oakland (CA) Symphony Orchestra; Director/Cinematographer, Bomba - Dancing the Drum, (PBS), a one-hour portrait of the legendary Cepeda Family of Puerto Rico; Producer/Director Home and Almost Free, a one-hour film about ex-convicts in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Other films include: Director of Photography for the 2012 Academy Award nomination for Best Short Documentary, The Barber from Birmingham; Producer/Director, We Love You Like A Rock - The Dixie Hummingbirds, the feature-length film about the legendary gospel quartet; And Still We Dance, a one hour portrait of the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival and the premiere program for KQED’s From San Francisco series; Producer/DP for Zenju’s Path & Moments of Illumination for the Buddhist Broadcasting Network (Netherlands); Producer/Director American Treasure, and Tchuba Means Rain, two ethnographic films about the Cape Verdean-American community of New England. Other Director of Photography credits include: Blacks & Jews by Snitow Kaufman Productions; Street Soldiers by Avon Kirkland; Crumb, a portrait of cartoonist Robert Crumb; Isadora Duncan - Movement From The Soul; I Can’t Believe You’re Forty, Charlie Brown; The Color Of Honor; Booker; Ethnic Notions; Cut Loose; and Ancestors In America, among many other programs for international broadcast, and cable television.

Mr. James’ awards include the Prix Bartok Award for the best music film at the Bilan du Film Ethnographique (France); the American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker award; three CINE Golden Eagles; two Telly statues and three Pegasus awards for excellence in television programming; screenings at the Kennedy Center; six National Endowment for the Arts production grants; grants from the PBS Latino Public Broadcasting Consortium, National Black Programming Consortium, Ford Foundation and National Initiative to Preserve American Dance (NIPAD); the Newark Museum, Paul Robeson Award for best feature documentary of the decade, the San Francisco Black Film Festival and Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame,

James has been a panelist and consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities (American Studies program), Pennsylvania and Illinois Humanities Councils, the Independent Television Service, and the KQED/Channel 9 Independent Initiative Advisory Board. James also served as three-term president and 15-year board member of the Film Arts Foundation and is a past governor at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Northern California chapter.