Germantown-born film director, screenwriter and educator Rel J. Dowdell, whose work has earned awards and critical praise, was recently honored in the neighborhood where he grew up as part of an exhibit recognizing the achievements of Black Americans during the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Dowdell, who is director of film studies and an assistant professor of English and film at Hampton University, a historically Black college in Virginia, was part of “Black Philly Top 250,” an exhibit at October Gallery Museum that honors the most celebrated African Americans in Philadelphia history.

“I was definitely surprised and humbly honored beyond measure when I found out about being included,” Dowdell told the Local last week. “The preeminent October Gallery is one of the oldest continually operating African-American art galleries in the country.”

The exhibit, which was displayed in October Gallery’s “The Room of Philadelphia Black Genius” through August, highlighted the contributions of figures as historic as Octavius Catto and as current as, well, Rel Dowdell.

The filmmaker offered words of praise to October Gallery, located at 6353 Greene St., which has its own place in Philadelphia history.

“Surviving and thriving for over four decades in an industry historically dominated by Eurocentric institutions makes it a rare, historic blueprint for an African American-owned art space,” Dowdell said. “As for the honor, often times in life we feel like our hard work, perseverance and talent that we are blessed to possess is not recognized. “

Dowdell graduated from Central High School and earned a degree in English with high honors from Fisk University, where he served as student government president. He also earned a master’s degree in film and screenwriting from Boston University, where he won the top prize in filmmaking at the school’s Redstone Film Festival in 1995.

Dowdell’s first feature film, “Train Ride,” received substantial critical acclaim. Produced with independent financing, the film was acquired and distributed by Sony Pictures in 2005 and was ranked as one of the best American films that year by veteran film critic Gerald Peary of the Boston Phoenix. The film also won “Best Feature” honors at the American Theatre of Harlem Film Festival in 2005.

Dowdell’s next effort as writer and director was a drama entitled “Changing the Game,” shot in Philadelphia in the summer of 2010 and theatrically released in 2012. The film was cited by FilmFresh.com as “one of the top three African American films of 2012.”

Dowdell’s third film was a documentary, “Where’s Daddy,” shot in Philadelphia in the winter of 2017 and released in 2018. The film examines perspectives on the child support system and the specific effect and consequences to Black families, with emphasis on the experience of fathers as participants in the system in which Dowdell solely interviewed all of the subjects. The film garnered a 100% critics’ rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

The filmmaker said, “You have to make sure that all of your characters, even the supporting characters, are three-dimensional. No role in your film, even for one scene, is a throwaway. Treat your supporting actors with as much detail as your lead actor, and put as much love into those characters that are on the screen for one scene as you do for the actor who’s on the screen for the entire movie. Then you know your film will be something special.”

Dowdell’s most recent feature film, “Dr. Ira De A. Reid: Haverford College’s Unsung Scholar/Activist,” is a documentary about the history-making educator Dr. Ira DeAugustine Reid, one of the first African Americans to receive tenure at a prestigious, predominantly white institution.

“I am most proud that my dear and beloved mother was able to see all of my honors in person while she was alive,” Dowdell said. “To me, that is the apex of success for any conscientious child in making your mother proud.

“I have been asked what message I would send to young African Americans who may feel the deck is stacked against them,” he continued. “I would tell them that with prayer and God’s grace, pray for an open door somewhere. Also importantly, know who your true friends are. Many of those who you think are closest to you don’t really want to see you do well in life. It’s a tough lesson to learn but a valuable and mandatory one.”

As for the future, Dowdell wants to create a project that he describes as mainstream in a unique way, something so “visceral and visionary that people will never believe that an African American wrote and directed it,” he said. “It will be done!”

For more information, email reldowdellfilms@gmail.com. The Black Philly Top 250 exhibit can be seen at the official October Gallery Black Philadelphia 250 website. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.