Anthony Sturdivant
TEDxColumbiaCollegeChicago
Anthony J. Sturdivant is an award winning screenwriter and producer from the West side of Chicago, Illinois, who is ultimately looking to create and encourage change. He recently started a short film series and organization that focuses on promoting positive messages around the world, while encouraging individuals to think before they shoot. As the President, he created this movement in order to bring awareness to the senseless shootings and stress the importance of thinking before committing an act of violence.
Think Before You Shoot is a non-profit organization that utilizes short films and student outreach programs to visually connect and engage with the youth and communities. Currently, he has written and produced six short films which are available online at www.TB4YS.com.
My two home cities – Chicago and Detroit – have some of the highest rates of gun violence in the country. Both are the butts of countless jokes in films and late night television, and are continuously stereotyped as extremely violent, and unsafe areas; Detroit has even been commented as looking like a third world country at times. It doesn’t make it any better that the national conversation is nearly centered on gun control and gun violence, with Chicago as one of the areas that is covered heavily; in just the first ten days of 2016, Chicago had one of it’s bloodiest weekends, with 120 shootings.
Sturdivant, and his work with Think Before You Shoot (TB4YS), is an opportunity to help control the seemingly constant flow of violence in Chicago. Communicating through the medium of video, each film that is part of the namesake series is less than 10 minutes long, with five currently available for viewing, and the sixth in production at the time of writing. While the series is available publicly on the website, Sturdivant makes himself available for seminars with students, with a two-hour interactive option, as well as a longer 12-week creative writing program. These programs provide young students that may be at risk with gang intervention and other safe situations, and gives them a safe outlet to express themselves and their frustrations.
- Olivia Moore