WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT
A N N A JON ES DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER, “CHAIRMAN JONES – AN IMPROBABLE LEADER”
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ames Henry Jones climbed out of the tractor seat, and a 15-year-old Anna Ruth Jones climbed up behind the wheel. The memory remains vivid: Her father’s silent stare followed by four short-but-powerful words: “Go ahead, move it.” Anna returned to rural Northampton County, in 2007 after both of her parents had passed to collect a few anecdotes for their grandchildren. What she discovered was the untold story of her father’s involvement in the 1969 school desegregation crisis. “There’s a saying that when an old person dies, a library burns to the ground,” Anna says. “I thought, I better talk to these people who lived this story and who witnessed the story.” In 2015, after seven strenuous years of research, interviews, fundraising and editing, Anna released “Chairman Jones – An Improbable Leader.” The 60-minute historical documentary shares her father’s story – a sharecropper with a middle school education becomes the first Black man elected as North Carolina board of education chairman. As the plot unfolds, another question comes to mind: How did a former IBM employee with zero prior filmmaking experience create an award-winning documentary? Anna first fell in love with the Bull City while attending North Carolina Central University – it was known as North Carolina College at the time – where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business. Like her father, Anna dedicated herself to becoming a lifelong learner – a journey that included studies at Cornell University, UNC Chapel Hill and the American Institute for Managing Diversity in Atlanta. Following a corporate career in business management, Anna retired in Durham where she felt inspired by Black culture and history and supported by a community invested in storytelling. Anna enrolled in classes at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, attended the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and networked with local filmmakers. “Chairman Jones” has been shown at 13 film festivals across the state, nation and world. In 2016, the documentary was celebrated by a sold-out audience at the Durham Arts Council, who named Anna a recipient of its 2017-2018 Emerging Artist Program grant. Anna has since served as a member of the Durham Arts Council, Southern Documentary Fund, Duke Chapel National Advisory Board, Rotary Club of Durham and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. – by Marie Muir
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