Rita Coburn Whack

Rita Coburn Whack logged decades as an Emmy-winning television producer before breaking into the world of independent film with the documentary "Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise." Whack was born on June 13, 1958 in Harvey, IL, a small suburb of Chicago. A precocious child, Whack developed an interest in writing at Thornridge High School before attending Illinois State University to study television production. She continued her studies in television production and creative writing at Columbia College in Chicago, before obtaining a B.A. in Communications from Northwestern University in 1980. She soon found herself working in production for a number of local Chicago stations. Whack received two Television Emmy Awards for programs she produced: one for the documentary "African Roots, African Soil: African Americans In Agriculture" (WBBM-TV, 1995), for the CBS affiliate WBBM-TV, and one for "Remembering 47th Street" (WTTM-TV, 2000), a documentary for Chicago's PBS station, WTTM-TV. In 2016, Whack made her directorial debut, "Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise," about the life and influence of the legendary poet, at that year's Sundance Film Festival. Co-directed by Bob Hercules, the film played to rave reviews, and established Whack as a major new player in the documentary sphere.