About Alison Mills Newman
Alison Mills Newman is an ordained minister with a degree in Theology and CEO and Pastor of Keep The Faith Film Ministries which meets weekly in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also a groundbreaking creative artist. She started her professional acting career at the age of 12 years old and was the first African American teenager on a television series. She was a co-star on the CBS show “The Leslie Uggams Show,” in the “Sugar Hill,” weekly and several television series including: “The Love Boat”, “Mr Novak”, and the “John Forsythe Show,” “Rap-Up,”with John Wayne and Valerie Harper. In her 20 ’s, Alison was a signed recording artist to A&M records and performed with the Weather Report, Taj Mahal, Ornette Coleman, and in 1985 released the single “Apartheid Must Die,” with Inculcation records. And has performed on Broadway.Alison is known for being an original cast member role of Carol Deering on NBC's pioneering television series "Julia" starring Diahann Carol, and co-producing “Virgin Again,” with her late husband Franciso Tascano Newman. She has also been the subject of and included in several scholarly journals, books, and news articles.
Her literary and independent film projects also include:
“Francisco" (1974) published by Reed, Cannon, and Johnson, which was on the New York Times recommended list and given a review by Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison who praised- "Alison Mills has done the rare thing written with beauty power and purity about a woman."
“Maggie 3” (2007) a fiction novel
“Virgin Again,” (2000) film which won Honorable Mention at the International Philadelphia Fim Festival and was shown on the Black Family Network and shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
“The Tree Widow” (2013) film shown on A.I. B TV and won Best Director of a Short Award at the International Philadelphia Film Festival.
The Tree Widow 2 (2021)
Most importantly, she is known by the Lord and the souls she's reached for dedicating her life to Christ the moment she was saved at the age of 25. Currently, she is the Chaplin for the Atlanta Police Department and organizes the "Woman Thou Art Loved" conference, serves as a mentor for young women and amarriage counsellor. Her work for the Lord is what is most important to her because she believes that "Only What You Do For Christ Will Last."When she’s not shooting a film, writing a book or preaching, You can find her painting, at one of her grandchildren's basketball games or riding her beach cruiser.
Projects: Films, Books and Music
Tree Widow 3: Clarity
This is the third film in the Tree Widow series, where Sarah has been living amongst the trees having lost her home and job for her faith in God and yet witnesses to a lost soul as angels appear and assist her.
The Tree Widow Short
Alison produced, directed, and wrote this award-winning independent film short. This short won Silver Award for Best Directing at the International Philadelphia Film Festival. This film shares the story of Sarah, a widow who opens her home up to broken women with different issues, and presents the word of God to them in love. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 to abstain from fornication and walk in the Spirit, and not the flesh.
Maggie 3
After a 20 year break from writing, this is Alison's 2nd novel about a teenage female African American spring poet from an upper-middle-class family who finds great success, however, due to self-destructive choices. She finds redemption not only in the love of God but in the gift of the love of a man.
Virgin Again
Virgin Again, a film envisioned and directed by the late Francisco Toscano Newman, a visionary filmmaker before his time. Alison was an executive producer, writer, and actress in this film that depicts the story of the woman caught in adultery, and her encounter with a black modern Jesus.
Apartheid Must Die
The song Apartheid written recorded in 1985 and produced by the late Bernie Hamilton. Inspired by her passion for the anti-apartheid cause Alison lended her voice to the movement declaring "Apartheid Must Die!"
Francisco
"Francisco" is Alison's first novel, published by Reed, Cannon and Johnson (1974). This acclaimed novel is about her early disillusionment with Hollywood acting experience in the 1960s as a pioneering young performer, and a love relationship with an independent filmmaker -Francisco-who was ahead of his time and would later become her husband.This book was taught at Columbia University, discussed in the Duke University Press. The New York Times, July 1974, likens Alison Mills to Nikki Giovanni as classic writers in the genre. Francisco has inspired many authors, professors and scholarly articles, including Harriet Mullen Not Struck Dumb. This book is compared to Ntzozke Shange work, Victims and Heroes Racial Violence in African American Literary Criticism by Jerry Bryant. Patrik Henry Bass discusses Francisco in his review in Essence Magazine.
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