The multi-talented Camille Billops found many different ways to express her artistic ability throughout her career. From poetry to printmaking, sculpture to jewelry making, and book illustration to filmmaking, she was never afraid to use a new medium to display her visions.

After studying sculpture on the west coast, Billops moved to New York and received her M.F.A. from the City College of New York in 1973. In 1975 she founded the Hatch-Billops Collection with her husband, filmmaker James Hatch. The Hatch-Billops Collection is an archive of African American cultural history that includes oral histories, slides, books, photographs, and other historical materials.

Billops began her career in filmmaking in the early 1980s with Suzanne, Suzanne (1982) and then directed five more including Finding Christa (1991), which won the Grand Jury Prize for documentaries at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and aired on PBS as part of the P.O.V. television series. Finding Christa, like many of her other films, is a highly autobiographical documentary. Other films by Camille Billops include Older Women and Love (1987), The KKK Boutique Ain't Just Rednecks (1994), Take Your Bags (1998), and A String of Pearls (2002).

Billops' husband, James Hatch, was born on October 25, 1928 in Oelwein, Iowa. After earning a B.A. in English and Speech in 1949 from the University of Northern Iowa, Hatch taught high school English and Drama. In continuing his studies at the University of Iowa, he received a M.A. and PhD in Theatre and Speech in 1955 and 1958, respectively. Hatch also had two children with his first wife, Evelyn Marcussen during this time.

In 1958, Hatch accepted a position as assistant professor of Theatre Arts at UCLA and continued there until 1962 when he began a three-year tenure as a Fulbright lecturer at the High Cinema Institute of Cairo, Egypt. He went on to teach English at the City College of New York beginning in 1965.

In addition to his teaching career, James Hatch began directing and producing films in the late 1950s. His early films include This Is Worth Remembering and Autumn (1957), Tallest Baby (1958), Fly Blackbird (1960), The Sole Survivor (1960), Modern Arabic Women (1964), Three Days of Suez (1964), Paper Pulp from Sugar Cane (1965), Denmark 43 (1972), and Oelwein Centennial (1973). Hatch also collaborated with Billops on Suzanne, Suzanne, Older Women and Love, Finding Christa, The KKK Boutique Ain't Just Rednecks, and A String of Pearls.

Hatch was also a noted historian of African American theatre and wrote several books on the subject, including The Black Image on the American Stage: A Bibliography, Drama Book Specialist (1970), Black Playwrights, 1823-1977 (1977) with Omanii Abdullah, Roots of African American Drama, 1858-1938 1990) with Leo Hamalian, Sorrow Is the Only Faithful One: the Life of Owen Dodson (1993), Black Theatre USA: Plays by African Americans, 1847 to Today (1996) with Ted Shine, Inside the Minstrel Mask (1996) with Annemarie Bean and Brooks McNamara, Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940 (1996) with Leo Hamalian, and History of African American Theatre, 1564-2000 (2002) with Errol G. Hill. James Hatch and Camille Billops collaborated on Artist and Influence (1981-2001) and The Stone House, A Blues Legend (2000) with S. Noguere.

Camille Billops died on June 1, 2019 in New York City, followed by James Hatch on February 14, 2020.