ACM 2019 Annual Conference

Ifanyi Bell is an award-winning visual storyteller and producer from Portland, Oregon. As an undergraduate at graduate of Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, and thought his early interest was in dramatic narrative, Ifanyi was significantly influenced by the school’s well-established narrative, non-fiction film program. After graduating, Ifanyi began his professional career in Boston, MA as an intern for Local Productions producing some of the earliest web-based video content produced for public media back in 2003. After leaving WGBH, Ifanyi initiated what would become a decade-long career serving a variety of PBS/NPR
stations across the country, helping to develop journalistic online video storytelling platforms and produce television and radio programs.
In 2014, he left public media and became the founder and co-creative director of Brushfire Creative Partners, a socially sustainable creative marketing agency dedicated to supporting and developing equity in the creative and social marketplaces that have become inextricably linked in the modern cultural and creative economy. It wasn’t until 2016 that Ifanyi Joined Open Signal where he conceived of his current initiative supporting an equity-based filmmaking Fellowship centered around developing the experience and expertise of local African-American creatives in the Portland.
In addition to his professional pursuits Ifanyi is an accomplished photographer, cyclist and father. (not necessarily in that order) He currently is based out of his hometown of Portland, Oregon.