Molly Secours, filmmaker, writer, activist, speaker

Nashville’s Molly Secours is a rich tableau of life itself. She has stood tall for change at the side of people like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She has provided commentary for publications ranging from the Huffington Post to The Tennessean to The City Paper. She has been a presenter at UN international events and covered world conferences as a journalist. She has survived stage-four cancer.

A native of Massena, NY, Molly grew up just across the St. Lawrence River from Canada. She identifies as a French-Canadian Yankee and recalls only knowing of one Black person in her hometown. Molly has lived in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver, but Nashville claimed her in 1994.

Molly is known for much, but she currently is enjoying acclaim for her recent book, White Privilege Pop Quiz: Reflecting on Whiteness (available at Parnassus Books). Bold by nature, she dares to engage us at the most personal level in this book. Molly draws her reader – politely, but firmly – into self-examination, to a view of race, racism, and privilege from the perspective that matters most – within oneself. Readers are often left wanting to continue the conversation with the writer herself.

Molly knits her gift as a filmmaker with her passion for justice, producing more than 60 films and videos about disparities in education, criminal justice, and health care. Her documentary, Faces of Tenncare, which traced the fates of 200,000 people who lost their health coverage, drew the praise of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

In her latest film, Molly nurtures her romance with baseball in a documentary calledScouting for Diamonds: The Invisible Heroes of Baseball. It explores the long relationship between the game and Scouting, and features the likes of Wade Boggs, Willy Mays, George Brett, and scores of other legends. Actor/comedian Bill Murray narrates, and along with his brother, Brian Doyle Murray, co-produced the film.

Molly is mom to a King Charles Cavalier named Jolene.