The women of color that Effie Brown remembers from the movies of her youth were prostitutes, drug addicts and impoverished single mothers. The lack of positive on-screen role models in Brown’s Jersey City childhood drives her work with her 7-year-old film production company, Duly Noted, Inc. “I am most passionate about doing films about marginal groups,” she says. “I’m sort of over the movie about the white guy getting the girl.” With producing credits including Jamie Babbitt’s But I’m a Cheerleader and Patricia Cardosa’s Real Women Have Curves, Brown is certainly living out her mission. And her efforts have not gone unrecognized; she was honored with the Motorola Producer Award at the 2003 Independent Spirit Awards. –LL

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