Carlton Heard

Carlton Heard is a Director, Writer, Cinematographer, and Editor based in Atlanta, Georgia but grew up in Athens, Ga. His evocative short film 'The Black Hole', which explores Black trauma and frustration with police brutality was released this July 2020. Originally on an athletic path, Carlton played college football at the University of South Carolina - but it wasn't until he picked up a camera after college that he realized exactly what he wanted to do in life. The filmmaker took the ambition and hard work ethic he had formed through the sport of football and applied it to his new passion: cinema. In 2015, with no formal knowledge of film, Carlton worked his way up from a personal trainer to the Assistant Director of Creative Media at Auburn University (Alabama), then to a Producer at a Fortune 500 company, writing, directing, and producing commercials for television. As of 2020, he works as a corporate producer alongside writing and developing his own films. The rising Black filmmaker says: "I love the art of storytelling. What inspires me to produce is the fact that visual storytelling can change a person. I want to create stories that will inspire people to do better, and create stories that will affect them positively.