Zachary Cunningham is a director, writer and poet from the east side of Detroit. Beginning with his original piece #Detroit, Zachary hit the ground running creatively while teaching himself the craft of filmmaking. His passion for poetry inspired the jazz-infused art pieces Bess Part’s I and II. As his skills developed, he began exploring documentary filmmaking, which led to his mini documentary “The Strength To Persevere,” which chronicled his father’s upbringing as an orphan. The documentary went on to place as a finalist in the 1st Annual Worldwide FilmConvert Cinematography Competition.
He soon began scripting his first two narrative short films “The Crack” and “Regret(s)” in late 2012. A premiere for both films was held at the Millennium Center in Southfield on Feb. 28, 2014. Zachary was featured in publications BLAC Magazine and Ambassador Magazine to discuss both films. Zachary has also taken the role of cinematographer on various short form projects including the romantic comedy "The Price of Being Wanda" directed by Pierrot Joseph and "TORMENTO" by Greg Dockery (an official selection of the Cinetopia Film Festival). He has recently completed production for his third short film titled “You Better Run.” The film was premiered at Trinity International Film Festival in 2017, where Zachary took home the award of "Best Emerging Filmmaker". Currently, Zachary creates short documentaries for the City of Detroit's website TheNeighborhoods.org.
His next directorial effort “Little Church” (Assistant Director Don Snipes) is set to premiere at the 12th annual Trinity International Film Festival on August 9th, 2018 at 8PM.