Stephanie Tavares-Rance

Stephanie Tavares-Rance is one of the founders of the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival, along with her husband, Floyd Rance.

The festival, which takes place in August in the town of Oak Bluffs, is now widely seen as a magnet for the American black elite. She was also the director of public relations and then started her own marketing firm. In the early 2000s she was working in marketing while her husband was a filmmaker. At the time, they lived in Brooklyn, New York and decided to organize a one-time film festival in Barbados, where Floyd Rance was filming a movie. But after 9/11 attacks, they could not hold the festival overseas and instead moved it to Martha's Vineyard, where the two had a number of contacts.

The first film festival was modest, with minimal promotion or marketing, attracting just half a dozen people in a conference room, the couple told The Washington Post. Deciding to persist, she and Rance moved the festival to smaller venues until it attracted significant interest, with over 2,000 attendees participating by 2017.

In August 2017, the couple were awarded with a citation from the State of Massachusetts Governor's Office for their contributions to the economy of Martha's Vineyard.