The Blog

Men In Love – The Shadow & Act Digital Filmmaker Showcase

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Posted By On Wednesday, 12-21-2011 @ 11:52 pm Under News & Mentioned , , , , , , , , , , , , With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Men In Love – The Shadow & Act Digital Filmmaker ShowcasePermalink

The Shadow & Act film blog is hosting a digital film competition and my short, Men In Love is one of the participants.

I’m like every other filmmaker I know… we don’t really dig these types of things… But I thought it would be a fitting last hurrah for the project and they’ve lined up some interesting shorts.

Go take a look.

And while we’re here I’d also like to publicly thank the entire cast and crew for their work on this film.

It started as a reprieve from the writing I was doing on The American People (I wanted to make something vastly different in story and tone from that project) and I’m grateful for all their prodigious help realizing the film.

Particularly I’d like to thank: Duane Cooper, Benton Greene, Bianca LaVerne Jones, Adepero Oduye, Janice Ahn, Blair Doroshwalther, Darius Clark Monroe, Daniel Patterson, Justin Staley and Nicky Woo.

Go HERE to VOTE and watch the other films.

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The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Posted By On Wednesday, 12-21-2011 @ 06:47 pm Under Film & Mentioned , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , With No Comments Permanent Link to The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975Permalink

The Black Power Mixtape examines the evolution of the Black Power Movement in the black community and Diaspora from 1967 to 1975. The film combines music, startling 16mm footage (lying undiscovered in the cellar of Swedish Television for 30 years), and contemporary audio interviews from leading African-American artists, activists, musicians and scholars.

Recently saw this and loved it.

It’s steaming on Netflix, go watch it now. I’m so glad the swedes captured this and the director, Göran Hugo Olsson shared it with the world.

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Paradox of Choice

Posted By On Wednesday, 12-21-2011 @ 06:28 pm Under Ethos & Mentioned , With No Comments Permanent Link to Paradox of ChoicePermalink

I wanted to wish you and yours a happy holidays. I’ll probably still post one or two things before the new year but in case I miss you I wanted to say enjoy!

And not to squash the buying spirit or anything but before you go out to make your holiday purchases take a look at the video above. Barry Schwartz has some really clear and persuasive ideas about what living in a world of too much “choice” can do to you.

And if you’re too busy to watch it here’s the takeaway:

“too much choice undermines happiness”.

I think he’s right.

Hey… Happy Holidays!

Keith Of The Day

Posted By On Thursday, 12-15-2011 @ 02:42 pm Under Life & Mentioned , With No Comments Permanent Link to Keith Of The DayPermalink

This is the cutest thing ever— So one of my followers on twitter only posts tweets about people named Keith! She started following me and then she recently selected me as the KotD!

How cute is that?

Thanks a bunch for the honor @KeithTweets

‘Off The Page’ – Work-In-Progress Reading of “The American People”

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Posted By On Tuesday, 12-13-2011 @ 12:47 am Under News & Mentioned , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , With 1 Comment Permanent Link to ‘Off The Page’ – Work-In-Progress Reading of “The American People”Permalink

I’ve taken a few days to catch up on sleep so sorry for the delay in posting some pics and a few thoughts from the reading held about a week ago at the 52nd Street Project.

The Sundance Institute asked me to write up a blog post about it (which they’ll post soon on their blog) but I’m going to include it here below as my wrap-up of the event.

Despite the unyielding stress to get the script ready for it I’m so glad they encouraged me to do it now. It was hard, trust me. But I’m happy with what I learned about the script from hearing it with an audience and also thrilled with the work the actors did on the night.

The script is close!!

I’ll continue to write but the real next step is going to producers and talent (for financing) and then on to pre-production.

Stay tuned!

The audience

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We Miss You

Posted By On Monday, 12-12-2011 @ 12:23 pm Under Aesthetics & Mentioned , With No Comments Permanent Link to We Miss YouPermalink

This is an eerie little ad for… um… actually, you should just watch it.

[source]

25 to LIFE

Posted By On Friday, 12-9-2011 @ 11:36 am Under Film & Mentioned , , , , , , , , , , With No Comments Permanent Link to 25 to LIFEPermalink

This feature length documentary is directed by NYU classmate and friend Mike Brown. I’ve watched Mike and his producing partner, Yvonne M. Shirley work on this documentary tirelessly and it should really be seen by many, especially young people.

25 TO LIFE is a work-in-progress feature documentary about a young man who kept his HIV status a secret for over twenty-five years, since he was two years old. Now he seeks redemption from his promiscuous past, and embarks on a new phase of life with his wife who is HIV negative. 25 TO LIFE is brutally honest, comprehensive film that takes a critical lens to our main character, his family, their decisions, the impact of those decisions on surrounding lives. 25 TO LIFE shows how one man’s AIDS diagnosis can affect an entire family and community.

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Up On The Mountain

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Posted By On Thursday, 12-8-2011 @ 07:57 am Under Film & Mentioned , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Up On The MountainPermalink

This is starting to feel like one of those years… or rather one of those moments.

You know how if feels when you’ve had your head buried down, you’ve been working away at something or maybe several somethings and you look up and realize the work itself has transported you… and you didn’t even realize you were moving?

It’s that time of year when Sundance makes it’s announcements and I’m surprised by how many of the creators I’m connected to.

This edition of the festival is also the year I’ve told myself I’m going to attend for the first time…

I’m pretty excited.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (Dir. Terence Nance)

Here are a few of the films I hope to see:

  • Beasts of the Southern Wild (Dir. Benh Zeitlin & Writer Lucy Alibar) – Labs Fellows
  • Hello I Must Be Going (Dir. Todd Louiso & Writer Sarah Koskoff) – Labs Fellows
  • My Brother the Devil (Dir. Sally El Hosaini) – Labs Fellow
  • Sleepwalk With Me (Dir. Mike Birbiglia) – Labs Fellow
  • An Oversimplification of Her Beauty (Dir. Terence Nance) – Fellow BK filmmaker
  • That’s What She Said (Dir. Carrie Preston) – performed in Festen together.
  • Middle Of Nowhere (Dir. Ava DuVernay) – AFFRM founder
  • Red Hook Summer (Dir. Spike Lee) – my NYU professor and my old boss
  • OK Breathe Auralee (Dir. Brooke Swaney) – NYU Grad Alum

    • Hollywood’s Racism Against White People

    Posted By On Tuesday, 11-29-2011 @ 02:20 am Under Acting & Mentioned , , With No Comments Permanent Link to Hollywood’s Racism Against White PeoplePermalink

    Up late writing.

    I have less than a week to go before my reading. Looking for stuff on the internets to distract from the butterflies.

    This is funny. It’s subversive in a couple of ways, well done Ms. Skinner.

    Oh, and I found this on Ta-Nahisi Coates’s blog – go read the comments – I love how some folk had no idea who Tyler Perry was…

    -this is who he is in case you also don’t know-

    Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity

    Posted By On Sunday, 11-27-2011 @ 10:44 pm Under Ethos & Mentioned , , , With No Comments Permanent Link to Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativityPermalink

    This vid isn’t new, I actually posted it a while back on another incarnation of my site, but it’s good.

    Watch it.

    Here’s the blurb from TED:

    Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses — and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person “being” a genius, all of us “have” a genius. It’s a funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk.

    You’re invited – American People Reading

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    Posted By On Wednesday, 11-23-2011 @ 11:46 pm Under News & Mentioned , , , , With 2 Comments Permanent Link to You’re invited – American People ReadingPermalink

    I’d like to invite you to a work-in-progress reading of my debut feature writing/directing effort, “The American People”.

    The Sundance Institute along with the Writers Guild of America, West are sponsoring the reading with a dessert reception following.

    Monday, December 5th at 7:30 pm
    The 52nd Street Project
    789 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY

    RSVP required – email: sundancersvp@sundance.org – (seating is first come, first served)

    My Love Affair with Steve McQueen part 2

    Posted By On Saturday, 11-19-2011 @ 12:41 am Under Directing & Mentioned , , , , , , , , , , , , , With No Comments Permanent Link to My Love Affair with Steve McQueen part 2Permalink

    I have nothing to add — just watched this vid, please.

    The Hollywood Reporter also produced another good one last year with actors. I’ll post that one and the rest of this year’s director series after the jump below.

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