Camille Josephine Billops (August 12, 1933 – June 1, 2019)[1] was an African-American sculptor, filmmaker, archivist, printmaker, and educator.

[2] They worked "in service" for a Beverly Hills family, enabling them to provide her with a private secondary education at a Catholic school.

Billops graduated in 1960 from Los Angeles State College, where she majored in education for physically handicapped children.

[6][9] Her other film credits include Older Women and Love in 1987, The KKK Boutique Ain’t Just Rednecks (1994), Take Your Bags (1998) and A String of Pearls (2002).

[4] Responding to the lack of publications on African American art and culture, Billops and Hatch began collecting thousands of books and other printed materials, more than 1,200 interviews, and scripts of nearly 1,000 plays.

[12][13] Once housed in a 120-foot-long (37 m) loft in Lower Manhattan, the Collection is now largely located at the Camille Billops and James V. Hatch archives at the Stuart A.

Billops collaborated with photographer James Van Der Zee and poet, scholar, and playwright Owen Dodson on The Harlem Book of the Dead, which was published in 1978 with an introduction by Toni Morrison.

[17] In the early 1980s, Billops and Hatch purchased a 4,000-square foot loft in SoHo, Manhattan and expanded it to include a studio, office and library open to students of City College of New York.

I stopped begging a long time ago when I discovered I could sell art without having to kiss booty.”[2] In 1955, Billops met Stanford, a lieutenant stationed at the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo.

She had been disinterested in motherhood, but Billops felt obligated to honor the traditional role of wife and mother at the time.

[2] In 1959, Billops was introduced to James V. Hatch, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles by her sister, Josie.

[2] In 1960, Billops made the decision to give her daughter, Christa, up for adoption, in order to throw herself fully into her art.

[2] In an interview conducted by Ameena Meer, Camille claims that her transition from art to film was influenced by her husband.

Amena Meer's first sight[18] of Camille was her wearing an outfit that had beads clicking in her braids, feathers, a man's hat on, and black-rimmed eyes.