Orlando Bagwell

Orlando Bagwell is Director of Freedom of Expression at the Ford Foundation in the Education, Creativity and Free Expression Program and is responsible for the Foundation’s global program in these fields.

In 2004, Orlando Bagwell joined the Ford Foundation as the new Media Production Program Officer in the Media, Arts and Culture unit. Orlando has a distinguished career of over 25 years as an independent filmmaker and producer. His long list of achievements includes 4 Emmy Awards and numerous Emmy nominations, 3 George Peabody Awards, and the 1994 New York Film Festival Grand Prize, among many others. He was one of the lead producers/directors of Blackside, Inc., and its award-winning series, "Eyes on the Prize,” and was Executive Vice President in charge of production for this pre-eminent film company from 1991-94. Since 1989 he has been President/Filmmaker of Roja Productions, Inc.

As Executive Producer/Filmmaker at WGBH Educational Foundation during 1995-2000, he supervised all aspects of the multi-part historical documentary series "Africans in America" for PBS national Broadcast and the attendant national educational and community outreach programs; he has produced and represented a number of documentary television series and single programs for national PBS distribution. Orlando has also curated visual exhibits for the national Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., and the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in film and a Masters degree in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University.