As we close out our #BlackFilmmakersInFocus series in honor of #BlackHistoryMonth, we’re proud to spotlight #NashFilm55 filmmaker Contessa Gayles, director of SONGS FROM THE HOLE. Contessa Gayles is an award-winning director, writer, DP, editor, and Emmy-nominated producer who brings intimacy and artistry to stories of identity, community, coming-of-age, liberation, and radical imagination. Her formally innovative and critically acclaimed feature documentary-visual album SONGS FROM THE HOLE is now streaming on Netflix. For the film, Gayles is nominated for two NAACP Image Awards—Outstanding Directing in a Feature Documentary and Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Motion Picture). NashFilm also presented Gayles’ documentary THE DEBUTANTES as part of the NashFilm Education Screening Program serving Metro Nashville Public School students in 2025. The film follows the first group of Black debutantes in Canton, Ohio, in a decade as they revive a traditional rite of passage while charting ...