Chris Ivey

IAS Open Programme: Creating Joy Project

Independent Artist

Chris Ivey is an award-winning commercial director who is best known internationally for his documentary series East of Liberty. The series has chronicled race, class and gentrification issues in Pittsburgh, for over a decade. The East of Liberty series is a historical document and the only interactive documentation project in recent Pittsburgh history. The series continues as a short film series in partnership with language software company Duolingo, which is headquartered in the neighborhood Ivey's work is focused. Chris鈥檚 work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered: Going There in Pittsburgh segment about the unaddressed impacts of urban renewal and gentrification on the city鈥檚 Black community.

Besides new work, The Promised Land Will Be Green, created in collaboration with Tara Fay Green premiered at the Carnegie Museum of Art in 2020, Chris is currently at work on Youth Rising, a film that interweaves the experiences of youth in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New Orleans and Philadelphia with additional related footage of youth in Cape Town and Johannesburg. This installment in his East of Liberty series of the series presents the voices of young people on topics including teen pregnancy, gangs, and the prospects for their futures.