BOULDER, Colo. — A PhD student at CU Boulder is making a name for herself as a documentarian.
Nandi Pointer's work explores the Black experience overseas. She hopes her documentary on Black expatriates showcases a different perspective of living while Black.
Pointer said she's always been passionate about the media.
"But I also was really intrigued by the media’s ability to shape perception, ideology, construct how we feel about different groups in society," Pointer shared. "And also, its ability to illuminate issues, topics you might not know about. That is where I think my interest in documentary filmmaking comes from."
She said she felt denied a place in the media world while growing up to working her way through college.
"You might have the talent, ability, drive and passion, but systems in place might keep you from living out that dream, and that’s just a hard reality that people of color have to face," she said. "I wanted to be an on-air reporter. I was told in journalism school, 'You’re a natural,' and I would try and it was like no doors were opening in that arena."
These days, she's taking up space on a screen in her media studies class at CU Boulder. It's a small screen for now, but her goals are bigger.
"Telling stories of underrepresented or marginalized communities was always important to me," Pointer said.
She said her travels abroad inspired the film's initial direction, which she said started with encouragement from her brother.
"He got me to go overseas and that changed my whole life and point of view on being an American in interesting ways," Pointer said. "It was a freedom I never experienced in life being in America. And so I thought this is something I want to share, not only with Black people but with the world and kind of showing a different representation of Black men."
She remembers being in Saudi Arabia at the time George Floyd was murdered in the summer of 2020. She said seeing America’s response to the tragedy while on the other side of the world solidified the focus of her documentary.
"There’s a different experience with these violent ruptures that take place in America, when you have some distance, when you’re not in the country experiencing that violence, it hits you different," Pointer explained. "In a way, you’re almost protected almost. You don’t have to go out and function in society and be your normal self with this kind of weight that’s simmering in society that might attack me and my person based on my color."
Pointer looked for a home in America where she could develop her passion project. Her search brought her to two media studies professors at CU Boulder who she believed would believe in her.
"I thought these professors look like they’re doing good work, and my work they might resonate with because I always want to be in a place where I feel supported and heard, mentored and inspired, and that’s not easy to come by," Pointer said. "For people to believe in your work, to see something in you that maybe you don’t see in yourself."
So far, she has 12 minutes of her documentary finished — and there's still work to be done before the 2026 deadline she gave herself.
"It’s definitely a work in progress," Pointer said. "I want people to watch 'Black Expats' and first see how cool it is to live overseas and be an expat, it’s really fun. Then I want them to expand their understanding of the representation of Black men and what Black men can be and think about what kind of borders they had around them."
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