Errol Webber

Music by Prudence, a documentary short subject film co-produced by Patrick Wright, chair of MICA's video and film arts department, won an Oscar for on March 7, 2010.

Errol Webber Jr. '08 (Film & Video B.F.A.) was one of the film's cinematographers. He shot the film less than two weeks after his graduation from the MICA, making him the youngest cinematographer ever to shoot an Oscar-winning (or -nominated) film. The film follows the lives of eight physically disabled young Zimbabweans who play in the Afro-fusion band, Liyana.

He has since turned the documentary short into a full-length film, iThemba, which takes an in-depth look at Prudence and her classmates-turned-bandmates at Zimbabwe's King George VI School. It was honored with a screening at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and won numerous accolades and awards at festivals across Europe and Africa.

Over the past decade, he has earned a reputation as a refined cinematographer adept at capturing polished, hyper-real visuals. Webber, now 25, has been the producer, director, or cinematographer on 10 other documentaries in the U.S., Zimbabwe, Zambia, Liberia, and other African countries.

As an editor, he is known for his perfectly timed cuts, his deliberately jarring introductions of subject material, and his acute sensitivity to music. As a result of his experience and creative sensibility as an editor, Webber is cognizant of the need to capture material for the edit.

Webber's talent for film lies not in his ability to bring his world to the viewer, but the urgency with which he immerses the viewer into his world. He's known for his arresting imagery, rebellious compositions, and his sense of zen and simplicity, mixing his flavor of elegance into chaos.