YA’KE SMITH is a widely acclaimed filmmaker and Associate Professor of Film at the University of Texas at Austin. His films have screened and won awards at over 100 national and international film festivals, and been broadcast on HBO, Showtime, PBS and BET. The Director’s Guild of America, the Student Academy Awards and the City of Buffalo, NY, which proclaimed February 23, 2013 as Ya’Ke Smith Day, have honored him. Ya’Ke has been featured on NPR, CNN, HLN, Ebony Online, Indiewire, Filmmaker Magazine and Shadow & Act. (Narrative Shorts)