Lance Warren

Lance Warren is a documentary filmmaker based in Richmond, Virginia. Together with his wife, Hannah Ayers, he co-directs the production company Field Studio, working at the intersection of history and social justice. Lance's most recent film, "An Outrage," co-directed with Hannah Ayers, uncovers the history and legacy of lynching in the American South. It premiered at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in March 2017. The premiere coincided with announcement of a partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance project to acquire the film for use with nearly 500,000 teachers-and their millions of students-across the United States. Lance's first film, "That World is Gone: Race and Displacement in a Southern Town," also co-directed with Hannah Ayers, won the Audience Award for Best Short Documentary at the 2010 Virginia Film Festival. "An Outrage" followed its Smithsonian premiere with awards at two film festivals and a national tour of universities and museums extending to 70 stops in 27 states through 2018. In May 2017, Lance and Hannah were selected to join the inaugural class of Visiting Artists sponsored by the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation to create video stories about health equity. In June 2017, the duo received a grant from the nation's largest humanities council, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, to produce "The Hail-Storm: John Dabney in Virginia," a hidden history of a once-legendary, now nearly-forgotten African American chef and bartender. Lance studied history and politics at Syracuse University and Brandeis University, focusing on civil rights and social justice in the twentieth century United States. From 2010-2016 he supported the work of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, producing online courses, video series, and virtual field trips for history teachers across the country.