Light for Haiti

In honor of celebrating Haitian culture, Rara Tou Limen Dance Troup received a standing ovation at the opening of their Fall Season’s first full-length Repertory Concert.

Limye pou Ayiti…Lavi Kontinye!, Light for Haiti…Life Continues, is the choreo-prayer and artistic offering to Haiti – performed by Rara Tou Limen at Laney College Theatre in Oakland, CA.

As the media topics have shifted to other parts of the world, for Haitian people, life will not be the same for those severely affected by the earthquake.

RTL bridges the gap in solidarity as it showcases the stories, struggles and spirit of Haiti, the first free Black Republic in the world. 

Known for performing at festivals, cultural and academic institutions throughout the bay area, including The San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, The Malcolm X Jazz Arts Festival, the deYoung Museum, San Francisco Carnival, UC Berkeley and more, RTL was established in 2004 by Artistic Director Portsha Jefferson.  

“She is the centerpiece,” says Patrice Roland, lead male dancer with Rara Tou Limen Dance Troup.  

According to Roland, RTL offers Bay Area residents and dancers nationwide the opportunity to experience Haitian music, dance and culture through classes, workshops, performances and educational events in the United States and Haiti.  

The season kicked off with the Dance Workshop on Thursday, October 6th at the Malonga Casquelourd Center in Oakland taught by world  renowned visionary choreographer, and educator Jeanguy Saintus, from Haiti.

Saintus goes globally teaching master classes around the world.

With the closing of Haiti’s leading arts institution and cultural hub due to the major earthquake, instructors and dance companies have no where to train and produce quality and meaningful work. 

Saintus is founder of Ayikodans and Artcho Danse, a dance center training program for children and adults in Port-au-Prince. The center provides scholarship programs to those unable to afford tuition.

Invited guest artists from around the world teach there.

“What most of America know about Haiti is its misery. They don’t know that the people are happy when they dance and dream of being onstage. Helping others realize their dreams to be onstage, especially those kids coming from a hard time, is what I am about,” says Jeanguy Saintus.

Haiti born Saintus, honorary guest choreographer for the season’s premier says, “I want to give dance its place. First in Haiti, and then being able to share it with the world. I first place myself where I come from,” says Saintus.

The ever-present history and identity, the collective past and the personal present, the paradoxical state of being that is the condition of the spirit of Haiti reflects the resilience and strength of the culture and remains as a candlelit ritual in the memory of the victims.

The performance began in a darkened theatre with prayer chants echoing throughout as the audience is taken on a meditative journey to the mythical land of the ancestors, invocating stories, mystery, social identity and a quest for the self.

The curtain rises on a dimly lighted stage of blue lights with a large full moon superimposed in the background. Blue lights shine on flowing silk panels of fabric across the stage creating blue waters brought to evoke life. Shifting vertical lights create an ocean of beautiful projections. The ever-changing landscape materializes with magical inevitability.

The lighting is as brilliantly realized as the visual design.

Permeated by fascinating movement and style, dancers stomped out rhythms as a ritualistic village scene arrives.

The embodiment of the village people in magnificent colors fed the drummers as the audience became one with the performance.  

“The piece on the ancestors is so moving and beautiful,” says Gena O’Brien, a bay area dancer from Berkeley.

“There was beautiful technique, not everyone can do that kind of dance with the freedom of movement as seen here tonight,” says Samar Nassar, of Hipline Studio, in Berkeley.

The beautiful dance skirts take at least 6 to 8 yards of fabrics.

Daniel “Brav” Brevil, musical director, from Haiti, brought down the house with traditional Haitian Folkloric rhythms as well as contemporary jazz and reggae beats.

“In the last dance, the Rara piece, the personalities of the musicians and the dancers come out,” says Roland.

These experiences are the heart of Saintus’, Jefferson’s and Brevil’s work.

Saying Goodbye to 2011 - Shakespeare Resonates With Oakland School for the Arts in: Comedy of Errors

 

While some universities have dropped the Shakespeare requirement for English majors, Oakland School for the Arts’ weekend performance got standing ovation on their version of Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors.

Featuring acrobats, aerialists, mistaken identities, slapstick, puns, word play and much more, these middle and high school students under the direction of Terry Bamberger, Theater teacher, received  standing ovations all weekend long from a packed house at the Kinetic Arts Center in Oakland.

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare’s earliest, shortest and farcical comedies. 

In the OSA’s version, the town of Ephesus is suggestive of a 10^th century Italian circus town preparing for their town’s performance. The setting of the comedy involves a history of portrayal in a fashion done with clowns and jesters in 19^th century London productions that resurged in the 21^st century by the Brothers Karamazov, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s 2009 production.

According to Bamberger, it was their first Shakespeare production and it was transformative. “To watch the cast of students go from the first reading after never having done this before, the kids got a crash course in scanning lines, imagery and research as well as a crash course in history that created meaning for them now – within a two month period.” 

With a cast of 28 actors and crew members, the make-up and exquisite costumes created a magic on stage that was impressive. “A lot of the costumes were on loan from American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco,” says Bamberger.

OSA provides students with intensive conservatory style training in the arts while maintaining a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum. “Our students work and study hard and really know how to play hard as well,” says Don Harris, Executive and Artistic Director.

Filled with the dramatic mix of trickery, nimble jugglers deceiving the eye, amazing acrobats and dark working sorcerers, this skilled cast of circus arts and theater student actors’ delivered a five–show run in one weekend. 

“The most fun of all for me were the cool tricks I got to do, says 8^th grader,” Isabella Miller. Miller is a member of the Circus Spire Youth Group.

The college prep arts school is a charter from Oakland Unified School District and was the dream child of California Governor Jerry Brown.

Starting at the Alice Arts Center Building in downtown Oakland in 2002, by January, 2009 it moved to the newly remodeled historical Fox Oakland Theater.

The first senior graduation class of 2006, graduated with 100 percent of the class being accepted at four-year colleges. Students were accepted at a wide variety of academic and artistic institutions to include, Le Cardon Bleu California Culinary Academy, Columbia University, Stanford University, Spelman College, Howard University, Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, California College of the Arts, UCLA, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State, our own CSUEB and many more.

Known as one of the most supported schools in Oakland by parents, teachers and the community, the school has done international productions in New York, England, and all over the globe.

 

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In charge of advertising and publicity, Andrea Fullington and Terese Merrell, parents of middle school students participating in the performance worked diligently to attract advertising for the performance from a variety of sources, including KQED and KCBS.

“The students are amazing and represent the culture of visual arts in Oakland,” says Rosie Fogelman, mother of Primo Stockton, 7^th grade, who played the First Merchant in the production.

A Diasporic Reflection on Land and Water

Photo by
Dinah deSpenza

Influenced by Shamanism, Jazz, the Graphic School of NY, Dada and Gutenberg's moveable type, multi-disciplinary media artist and CSUEB alumna, Rozita Fogelman makes waves at Oakland’s FLOAT Gallery this fall.

Using the elements of earth, land, and water, Fogelman, maps water histories with art as she presents – a visual history of water, land and people at the FLOAT Gallery.

FLOAT, an urban art spa is the only floatation center art gallery in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“In Hebrew, ומים אדמה ,דם ,אדם  adam, dam, adama and maiem; translated as human, blood, land and water – all share the same root. My series, Body, Land and Water is my attempt to create a space addressing the need to reconnect the link between art, language, people, land and water. I want to create a connection between the past collective ideas and the archetypal symbols and our current culture, a grounding place where one can reconnect with the original concept and structure of balance,” says Fogelman.

Grace Munakata, Professor of Pictorial Art at CSUEB says, “Rozita believes the distractions of our multi-tasking culture need balance, and hopes to create a quiet, interactive space where viewers can respond to the artwork in a meditative manner, perhaps reminding us of our actual connection and dependence on elements of earth and water, and of our collective consciousness as a society.”

“Such a feast for the eyes.  Her work is beautiful, says Jan Martinez, Administrative Support Coordinator, CSUEB Art Department.

 “Absolutely stunning, I love it,” says Raquel Arcia, Graduate Coordinate of CSUEB Multimedia Department.

Having pioneered a unique Interdisciplinary Master program between the Multimedia, Communications and Art Studio practice, Fogelman earned her M.A. in Multimedia Disciplinary Media Arts in spring of 2011.

Originally from Tbilisi, Georgia, the Russian born artist sees visual communication as her first language out of five.

Her life long diasporic journey between her dislocated identities was the driving force of her fascination to express through art.

As a feminist, her life long dedication to create art professionally came from a need for free speech and expression.

“In Russia, my family suffered from violent outbreaks of anti-Semitism. I witnessed many of the events of Jews being attacked. In 1969, when I was 5 years old, the Russian KGB arrested my father, sentencing him for five-years in a Siberia jail. The agony of the trip to visit him in a jail in 1971 will remain with me forever. After the rumors spread about my father being sent away, I fell victim to assault and was abused by the neighborhood children. My early childhood was plagued with fear, betrayal and insecurity,” says Fogelman.

According to Samuel Beckett, one of the most influential writers of the 20^th century, “The fundamental tension between human frailty and the expressive instinct of human culture has never kept humans from seeking refuge in art and turning to it to try to comprehend tragedy.” 

In 1975, her family left Russia immigrating to Israel, and settled down in the mountains of Jerusalem, Mevaseret Zion.

In Jerusalem she studied Hebrew for the first time, and got close to the multi-cultural dynamic under an intense religious backdrop.

Land and water represented a source of regeneration of the physical body for Fogelman.

“A year after my family graduated from the Hebrew Ulpan in Mevaseret Zion, we moved to the city of Bat-Yam, located on the Mediterranean Sea on the central coastal strip, just south of Tel Aviv Jaffa.

“Living by the Mediterranean Sea was healing and transforming. It was a dream come true for me,” says Fogelman.

Fogelman’s new exhibit, “Transient Spaces,” explores symbiotic dualities – change and stability.

“She is also interested in the inherent change in the appearance of the work while it is literally wet, and after each layer dries.  The work must be done on a flat surface allowing for heavy textures reminiscent of rain drenched earth worked over rhythmically with tools. 

Although she is selective about the colors she uses, their hues/contrast shift significantly when dry, a metaphor for spiritual changes and the impact of weather and time on land,” says Professor Munakata.

“Your paintings make me think, feel, and look harder at what I thought was there,” says Rosanne Harris, Academic Policies/Curriculum Coordinator at CSUEB.

Transient Spaces” opened September 11^th and runs through October 29^th.

Origins of the Banjo - The Black Legacy - 7/18/11

Guy de Chalus, banjo teacher at the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music’s summer camp brings storytelling to instill the value of the instrument for cultural preservation and education.

In African traditions, he is called a Griot – the storyteller.

One of 50 known people studying the history of the banjo in the United States, de Chalus embraces its African origins and the old time style of playing.

 “As far as I know there are perhaps one or two others on the west coast that play old time style banjo besides me. I haven't seen them in these parts, I'm it,” says de Chalus.

de Chalus purchased his first banjo for $50 from a man trying to get rid of it because he was moving out of town. After connecting with a teacher, he eventually linked with other banjoist and scholars who felt the need to discuss the African origin and the Black legacy of the banjo.

There is a tremendous amount of African American participation in banjo up through the early period of jazz.

According to “The Old–Time Herald,” banjoist, Tony Thomas, founder of “Then and Now,” a forum for old-time music players, scholars, and thinkers concerned for the history that pervade the banjo and its music says, “We needed a place to express the explosion of African American banjoists including African American Heritage Elder Etta Baker, Taj Mahal, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Guy Davis, Otis Taylor, Sule Greg Wilson, Don Vappie, Dr. Joan, and Rex Ellis, all known in the old-time, blues, classic, and jazz banjo communities.

de Chalus talks to his students about people like folklorist, Mike Seeger, (brother of Pete Seeger) being one of the few enlightened experts who dug deeper into the roots and discovered through stories that African Americans were involved with the banjo.

“The Earliest banjo (of sorts) was found in what is today known as Surinam, the former Dutch Guiana.

The banjo in the American colonies go back as early as the 17th century. An instrument transplanted by Africans to the Caribbean during the slave trade, it was brought to the United States and transformed through the relationship between blacks and whites in the South from a gourd-bodied, gut-stringed instrument to a wooden-pot, steel-strung, fretted instrument,” says de Chalus.

“The banjo is different from the guitar, I like that it’s more high pitched, says Rachel Stovall, a student at OPC.

“I like learning and knowing about the roots of where it came from and that it is native to America. It is history,” says Carolina Gonzalez Navarro, student at OPC.

             “I agree with Carolina and I love informing people that it is a native instrument and of it’s origins in Africa. When you tell people you’re learning the banjo, at first they assume you came from a farm or something, then after explaining the history they become intrigued, and that makes me feel happy,” says Vinkya Hunter, a student at OPC.

According to de Chalus, musicians create ways to express complex ideas simply. When he teaches his students a song, it comes with a story.

“In a story told to Mike Seeger by Josh Thomas, an African American musician that Seeger met during his fieldwork gathering, "Roustabout," is a tune from Thomas that researchers believe to have alternated names. He called it "Roustabout" from one of the words used in the opening part of the tune.” says de Chalus.

“We’re doing “Bum Ditty” to the second string, sixteen times. I don’t know of any other kids playing that song,” says de Chalus.

Bum Ditty is one of many ways to understand Clawhammer technique and how it works. “It creates a rhythm that can be summed up by saying "Bum Ditty."

Eye Implant - Millimeter-scale Computing System

On February 22, 2011 in San Francisco, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference, researchers from University of Michigan presented a millimeter-scale computing system. It is the first in a new class of millimeter-scale ubiquitous computing. It is revolutionary and directly points to of Bell’s Law and Moore’s law – pervasive computing.

It is almost invisible having a microprocessor, pressure sensor, memory, thin-film battery, solar cell and wireless radio with an antenna that can transmit data to an external reader device just over one cubic millimeter in size.

It is significant in that it is a prototype for implantable continuous eye pressure tracking monitor, (readings are taken every 15 minutes) targeted for medical applications with the focus on glaucoma patients. The other innovative applications for building are to track pollution, weapons, and structural integrity, making any object smart and traceable.

The system uses ultra-low power consumption while in extreme sleep mode and stores up to one week of data. Each day it requires exposure to 10 hours of indoor light or 1 ½ hours of sunlight to keep the battery charged. It consumes an average of 5.3 nanowatts.

"This is the first true millimeter-scale complete computing system," said Dennis Sylvester, also a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan.

Key Qualities

Unique Architecture

Small in scale

Contains compact radio with wireless sensor networks

Better, faster

Instrumentation And The Body - Hi Tech Spirituality

To producers such as Derrick May, the transference of spirit from the body to the machine is often a central preoccupation; essentially an expression of technological spirituality.

Research Questions:

• How can we combine technology and imersive environments to create art as history and culture in performance that re-examine the relationship between human bodies, sound vibrations and the soul?

• What is the future of music evolution?

• Are the noises of the industrial age considered music?

• What is the future of techno music as education? How does it enhance learning?

• What are low tech tools?

• What is Techno Music?

• What are some choices of instruments or tools that can be used in music as instrumentation and performance art?

• What is call and response?

• What types of new forms of communication can be formed by integrating both primal forms and contemporary forms of call and response?

• What possibilities exist in the old and new forms in relation to the brain, the body and machines and the world?

• What types of new forms of communication can be formed with primal forms of call and response?

• What types of new forms of communication can be formed with contemporary forms of call and response?

The rise of music that is totally without social commitment also increases the separation between composer and public, and represents still another form of departure from tradition. The cynicism with which this particular departure seems to have been made is perfectly symbolized in John Cage's account of a public lecture he had given: "Later, during the question period, I gave one of six previously prepared answers regardless of the question asked. This was a reflection of my engagement in Zen." While Mr. Cage's famous silent piece [i.e. 4′33″], or his Landscapes for a dozen radio receivers may be of little interest as music, they are of enormous importance historically as representing the complete abdication of the artist's power.

Photos of Pamela Z
by Valerie Oliverio
& Courtesy of Ars Electronica

Stick Pounding is the rhythmic language of the Gullah people. In slavery days they developed a ceremony called "ring shout" in which participants danced in a ritual fashion in a circle amidst the rhythmical pounding of sticks and then, at the culminating moment, experienced possession by the Holy Spirit while shouting expressions of praise and thanksgiving.
-Melanie DeMore
Watch 5minute documentary on Stick Pounding -
http://itdonnedonme.com/videos/stick_and_pound.mp4

"In the meantime, it has awakened in me a sort of curiosity about artists' choices of instruments or tools. I find that I am fascinated with artists who work with relatively low-tech tools, and I am also drawn to work by artists who have developed very technically complex tools for making their work. Some of the most exciting work I've seen lately combines very different types of tools. Acoustic instruments with electronic ones, mechanical devices with digital devices, machines with flesh and blood instruments. And it is interesting that, in a field that historically has seemed very male-dominated, many of the artists doing this are women." -Pamela Z




The initial take on techno arose from the melding of European electronic music by artists such as Kraftwerk with African American music including funk, electro, Chicago house and electric jazz. Added to this is the influence of futuristic and fictional themes that are relevant to life in American late capitalist society—particularly the book The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler. Pioneering producer Juan Atkins cites Toffler's phrase "techno rebels" as inspiring him to use the word techno to describe the musical style he helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the aesthetic referred to as afrofuturism.

SELF-DISTRIBUTION: IT’S WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MOVIE MAKING

“Innovation happens when people with vision are forced to build something to realize their goals, because it doesn’t already exist.” – Jeff Gomez

The future of independent moviemaking is bright. As it stands at an undefined but utterly crucial precipice: Funding has vanished and distribution has become manic. The old and big structures are tumbling down. It is a very exciting time, and there are no rules. People haven’t figured it all out yet because “small & independent” happened so fast. The only certainty is that new paths are being forged all the time.

The major studio system is being replaced by several hundred thousand micro-studios that will serve audiences better than the majors could, because a micro-studio film industry is one based on passion. In this new landscape of things to come, there are those innovators primed to lead the charge of this new indie revolution. The industry is being fortified with fresh ideas and is safely being guided through the foggy landscape so that it emerges on the other side in better shape. It is becoming clearer that the future dictates what it means to be a moviemaker as production and distribution values force more and more creative solutions.

BIG v.s. SMALL

Seth Godin says “Big” used to matter. Big meant economies of scale. (You never hear about “economies of tiny” do you?) Hollywood and Fortune 500 used to be the place people went to make a fortune. The reason being, value was added in ways that big organizations were good at. Value was added with efficient manufacturing, widespread distribution and very large R&D staffs. Value came from hundreds of operators standing by and from nine-figure TV ad budgets. Value also came from a huge sales force.

GET BIG FAST was the motto for startups, because big companies and big film productions can go public and get more access to capital and use the capital to get even bigger. Big accounting firms were the place to go to get audited if you were a big company, because a big accounting firm could be trusted. Big law firms were the place to find the right lawyer because big law firms were a one-stop shop.

And then small happened.

Enron (big) got audited by Andersen (big) and failed (big.) The World Trade Center was a target. TV advertising is collapsing fast. The writers strike in Hollywood took out a lot of the normal night time TV programming and was replaced with Reality Shows. American Airlines (big) got slammed dunked by Jet Blue (think small). BoingBoing (four people) grew a readership a hundred times faster than the New Yorker (hundreds of people.) In 2006, Craigslist (18 employees) was the fourth most visited site according to some measures.
Seth says the following about small:
• Small is the new big because small gives you the flexibility to change the business model when your competition changes theirs.
• Small also means you can tell the truth on your blog.
• Small means that you can answer email from your audiences and customers.
• Small means that you will outsource the boring, low-impact stuff like manufacturing and shipping and billing and packing to others, while you keep the power because you invent the remarkable and tell stories to people who want to hear them.
• A small law firm or accounting firm or ad agency is succeeding because they’re good, not because they’re big. So smart small companies are happy to hire them.
• A small restaurant has an owner who greets you by name.
• A small venture fund doesn’t have to fund big bad ideas in order to get capital doing work. They can make small investments in tiny companies with good (big) ideas.
• Small is the new big only when the person running the small thinks big. Don’t wait, get small to think big.

The Format Is A Container – Self-Distribution

If you wait around for that great “one” you don’t get better. Short (small) films allow you to learn more and get better. You work things out over time. For example, “do I want to light this way or that way.”

It is important to build a relationship with people to engage with you and your company/team. Think of self-distribution of your own movies.

One of the easiest ways to get fans is to put your film in as many formats as possible. At the least make five different formats to include a give away DVD. You can start by putting it in your blog as an RSS attachment. You lose if you make it hard to get. It needs to convince people to come back. This tells a story or your idea as a story. Selecting topics that are not totally explored makes people come back to see how things get resolved. Give them a reason to come back.

There are increasingly more new ways to distribute your media. First consider who your audience is. With the various Internet distribution outlets, including YouTube, it is incredibly easy to find an audience for your work. The key is to let people choose how they want to experience a film, when and on which platform.

Access to inexpensive, yet high quality filmmaking has never been better. As an independent producer, the question to ask yourself is: How best can I make it easier for people to download my work and look at. Then, build up an audience from one of the many communities around the world that are connected by common interest (that you can eventually make money off) by producing good content and letting people download it. Consider viral marketing; i.e., people passing on videos to their friends (at least ten people). If you can do a video show that fans think is so good that you get a natural viral audience that’s done organically, you end up with a small scale production with a large scale audience and get fans and evangelists to spread the word in getting your production to the right people and audience that likes what you’re doing with minimal resources by getting it in the right spot.

You can release your mini-masterpiece via TubeMogul.com, which spits them to all the important video sites including YouTube, MySpace, Vimeo, Viddler, blips and a few others. They usually want to buy a DVD from you. This is a great way to build an audience because your giving it away is getting it exposed to more people.

Pre-Promotion & Niche Marketing

Think about your product in terms of final audience by asking yourself who wants to see it and what about mine that would make others watch it and share it with their friends and how I can make it so that it satisfies more people.

Communicating your passion to a community of those who have the same passion as a reflection of themselves; or what they’d like to see in the world, that people will tell friends and would make their friends want to see it. Find people interested in your video and related blogs and discussion forums.

I do think theaters will need to have the ability to digitally download, but that just gives a fantastic array of new opportunities to show more films. But I don’t think one thing will completely replace another. I think there is room for many of these options to happen simultaneously. Bay Area Moviemaker, Tiffany Shlain, 39

Every independent moviemaker should prepare a self-distribution strategy. The journey however differs for each moviemaker and his or her particular project. It is not only a way to get your movie in front of an audience, but also a way to control your own destiny.
Independent moviemakers can thrive by using the best equipment you can afford without having to go into debt. If that is a cell phone, that’s okay; you just need to start something.

The Micro-Studio

The future takes us into an entirely different landscape of being a micro-studio, where you and your team produce, distribute publicize and monetize work, taking the proceeds to provide budgets for future projects (and pay yourselves if and when you get lucky eventually).
As stated in an article put out by MovieMaker Magazine (Issue 81 Volume 16, 2009, Ten Tips For Successfully Distribution) it is important to believe in your film because you will be investing a tremendous amount of time and energy of your life from the time you write the script to finally distributing the film. If you really don’t believe in it, don’t do it.
Making five-minute movies and producing them for submission in local film projects/festivals are a good way to get good fast while getting the type of exposure and distribution through the film festival circuit. More people click on to a five minute video than longer ones. This makes it easy for viewers to watch independent productions.

Produce something that makes a reference (a way to make money). Selling other products that relate to your video or finding those who can pay you to make their video and look at ways to sell your videos through Amazon without investing money or your time up front. And consider a source that can make your DVD’s and distribute them. Be creative by posting links to any companies or sites you find which might be helpful.

PRESS

Get attention from the Press. It can be hard to get attention if you have no stars, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Write to the editors of magazines, newspapers and Websites and tell them about your film. Also, ask friends and friends of friends working in media for opportunities for interviews. Its possible there’s something newsworthy-or review-worthy.
The movie SCALP (2009) was shot in Ghost Lake, NJ, which is supposed to be haunted. (Google it and you will see.) Paul Chau (www.scalpthemovie.com) suggests you find something cool about your film. “That adds something intangible to the film and a great angle for press coverage.”

Sometimes a particular genre may not be festival-friendly and not a likely path to get your film attention. Paul Chau held his own distributor screenings (one in NY and one in L.A.) even though he knew it was unlikely that many distributors if any would attend. But his goal was to create awareness for his film so people would request screeners.

As it turned out, in New York, Dan Guando from The Weinstein Company did come and watch the entire film (SCALP). After the screening, he congratulated me on a job well done and asked for a screener to send to his L.A. team. Eventually it did pass, but it was reassuring to see their interest and Dan was a great guy (and contact).

Knowing your audience before you make your film and understanding what you really want from self-distribution is very important. For instance, my personal experience has shown me that you should know your audience before you make your film. As an educator and a member of the bay area’s It Donned On Me, (a competitive filmmaking team) I am learning that the best audiences for documentaries are educators and historians. Upon completion of Stick & Pound (2008) and A Place Like This (2009) submitted to the International Documentary Challenge (www.Itdonnedonme.com) art/music educators around the nation and the world became followers as soon as the movies became available online.

The goal is to create awareness for the film and understanding what you really want from self-distribution. Get reviews from critics and create a resume piece for future films. You can make money via a DVD release, even if you self-distribute so make sure you have lots of extras to load onto that DVD. Think audition footage, deleted scenes, behind the scenes, behind the scenes bloopers, director commentary, etc.

FILM FESTIVAL ON YOUR COUCH

At the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2009 IFC Films appeared at a press conference with moviemaker Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs) and South by Southwest Film Festival producer Janet Pierson to make a radical announcement: When the Austin-based SXSW rolled around in March, IFC would premier Swanberg’s latest feature, Alexander the Last - in addition, the four other recent acquisitions at the event on demand simultaneously. In doing so, IFC found a tentative solution to elusive audiences: Catch them at home.

The company had for many years utilized a video-on-demand (VOD) strategy in which cable subscribers can watch almost all of IFC’s current theatrical releases on television. Small movies suddenly show up in 50 million homes with the click of a button. A very good approach. However, with the growing indie fare, the company has carved out more space in its VOD grid to accommodate additional titles, namely those movies that would likely never see an audience beyond their festival runs.

IFC added a new on demand channel called Festival Direct in 2008; it is an outlet for films that might not be viable theatrical prospects, but would likely appeal to art house-minded audiences at home.

Although the initial Festival Direct lineup enabled certain specialty films to wind up in countless living rooms, another year passed before IFC found a way to take audiences further, by offering a peek into the content of a film festival program as it takes place and allowing “moviemakers” television screenings to continue months after their festival premieres.
As walls between the creator and the fan comes down, new business models are being developed daily. The unlimited shelf space of the Internet is helping to build a long tail for filmmakers work and it’s never been easier to build an audience and keep it. It’s still a lot of work, but it’s been radically democratized.

References:
MovieMaker Magazine, Issue 81, Volume 16, Future of Movie Making 2009 – New Product and Technology Review:

Festival On Demand, p. 26; Eric Kohn

The Real Deal On Internet Distribution, p.42; Mark Sells

Indie Innovators, p.46; Andrew Gnerre


Agent of Change: Small Is The New Big, 2005-06, Seth Godin’s Blog

Sur Mesure: Journeys in Transpersonal Haberdashery

THE HATISTA BEHIND THE HATISTA



It's been a while since I reported on It Donned on Me's Journey into the 48 hour film abyss. I've been very busy studying MultiMedia at Cal State East Bay this past school year, while still creating short films with the Crew.

A shout of gratitude to all those who showed up and voted for this film, and all those who viewed it online. After putting the word out to the artists in Paris, France to New Orleans and the Bay Area, and all those places in the tweens (between) I've received many calls and emails from people who saw the movie and thought it was da bomb and are still laughing!

Another very special shout out to the people of Oakland who showed up and showed out. Brenda Usher-Carpino won for us the Audience Choice Award at the Roxie Theater Screening in San Francisco and also the Best Actress Award for the San Francisco 48 Hour Awards Screening. I knew from the get go that this multi talented improv acting Diva would throw down hard... and she did! It started a couple of months before when I ran into Brenda and Angela Wellman http://www.opcmusic.org/ on Piedmont Avenue sipping coffee early one Saturday morning at Gaylord's Coffee House during a very serendipious rondevous. We ended up hanging out for a couple of hours as I listened with open ears to stories about Brenda. This beauty hails from San Antonio, Texas and has lived for many years in the Bay Area in Oakland, CA. She's a writer and a scholar graduating from University of California, Berkeley, with a Doctorate from Stanford University and recently returned to school at Mills College in Oakland working towards her MFA in Creative Writing. Although the list of the Diva is too long for my blog entry, I just knew like I knew like I knew that she would be the show stopper she was. I even told her in advance that once the audience recognized her, they would be all over her like white on rice. So who channeled the Hatista?!?! Figure it out for your self...

Gordon Parks, Photographer

This summer I've been studying Digital Photography with Scott Hopkins, at Cal State University, East Bay. This week we're learning about black and white photography. I love black and white photography because of it's very emotional and poetic nature. I love how it exhibits such great examples of texture. For me it is poetry in motion and the perfect example of a narrative told without spoken words. This week we're looking at some of the great photographers and writing papers on one of our favorites. Being an independent filmmaker and studying digital photography, the first great photographer to come to mind is the infamous Gordon Parks, the only photographer that Malcolm X allowed to photograph him and the Nation of Islam.




November 30, 1912- March 7, 2006
Gordon Parks was a groundbreaking american photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist, and film director. He is best remembered for his photo essays for Life Magazine and as the director of the 1971 film Shaft.

http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/2006/gordon_parks/

The son of a tenant farmer, Parks grew up in poverty. After dropping out of high school, he held a series of odd jobs, including pianist and waiter. In 1938 he bought a camera and initially made a name for himself as a portrait and fashion photographer. At the age of 25, Parks was struck by photographs of migrant workers in a magazine and bought his first camera, a Voigtländer Brilliant, for $12.50 at a pawnshop. The photo clerks who developed Parks' first roll of film, applauded his work and prompted him to get a fashion assignment at Frank Murphy's women's clothing store in St. Paul. Parks double exposed every frame except one, but that shot caught the eye of Marva Louis, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis' elegant wife. She encouraged Parks to move to Chicago, where he began a portrait business for society women. After moving to Chicago, he began chronicling life on the city's impoverished South Side. These photographs led to a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship, and in 1942 he became a photographer at the Farm Security Administration (FSA). While with the FSA, he took perhaps his best-known photograph, American Gothic, which featured an African American cleaning woman holding a mop and broom while standing in front of an American flag. Parks had been inspired to create the picture after encountering repeated racism in restaurants and shops, following his arrival in Washington, D.C.. In 1948 Parks became a staff photographer for Life magazine, the first African American to hold that position. He remained with the magazine until 1972 and became known for his portrayals of ghetto life, black nationalists, and the civil rights movement.

Also know for doing photo-essay about a child from a Brazilian slum was expanded into a television documentary (1962) and a book with poetry (1978), both titled Flavio.

Parks also was noted for his intimate portraits of such public figures as Ingrid Bergman, Barbra Streisand, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Muhammad Ali. Parks' first work of fiction was The Learning Tree (1963), a coming-of-age novel about a black adolescent in Kansas in the 1920s. He also wrote forthright autobiographies—A Choice of Weapons (1966), To Smile in Autumn (1979), and Voices in the Mirror (1990). He combined poetry and photography in A Poet and His Camera (1968), Whispers of Intimate Things (1971), In Love (1971), Moments Without Proper Names (1975), and Glimpses Toward Infinity (1996). Other works included Born Black (1971), a collection of essays, the novel Shannon (1981), and Arias in Silence (1994).In 1968 Parks became the first African American to direct a major motion picture with his film adaptation of The Learning Tree. He also produced the movie and wrote the screenplay and musical score. He next directed Shaft (1971), which centered on a black detective. A major success, it helped give rise to the genre of African American action films known as “blaxploitation.” A sequel, Shaft's Big Score, appeared in 1972. Parks later directed the comedy The Super Cops (1974) and the drama Leadbelly (1976) as well as several television films.

Japanese Big Head Painting

Jacques Davis - Murdim Project

This past year my blogging slowed down a bit due to school projects. As some of you may know, I've been a student in Multimedia at Cal State East Bay. As I've been busy enjoying the journey, one of the most challenging things for me has been to work for a grade. Educational institutions require student to make "A's" and/or "B's", for me as an artist as well as a human being, I work from my heart and soul.

During the spring I took a class called "Currents of New Media" which explores the history of new media art which has only been in existence the past 20-30 years if that long. This is a piece I wrote on a new media artist who's work inspires my heart and soul to keep on creating. I also wrote my first short Wikipedia article on the artist. So if you check Murdim Project or Jacques Davis...I'm the author.


February 27th, 2009, 11:37am – created February 14, 2009

Artist: Jacques Davis - murdim

Rhizome Terms: Social classes, Video

Artist Terms: individuality, strength, togetherness

With the rise of new technology, large moving images are starting to cover the walls of our cities and even our living rooms. Some examples are: “The Thing” (1991) founded by German sculptor Wolfgang Staehle, an electronic bulletin board system that functioned as a forum for artists and cultural theorists. The Ars Electronica Center at Linz, Austria, exterior view. However, what most of us in the United States are used to seeing that resembles these pieces are New York Times Square’s large ads. When viewers look closer and pay more attention, one realizes these are only huge blow-ups of a regular movie.

One of the most recent displays of new media art to hit the scene last year and this year is the murdim Project, (Global Village, Marathon, Mobilisation, Paris Plage). Reminisce of the Neo-Dada art movement, also known as Fluxus, in particular the artist Nam June Paik, the murdim Project is about "contenant et le contenu". In the world of moving images, it represents the container and what’s inside.

The murdim Project consists of several 20-minute organic waterfall like totem pole murals echoing the sounds of the crowded streets of Paris. They range between 2 and 7 meters high of moving images that are always the same and yet always different. It allows viewers to see at the same time thousands of people all together, and one by one as they come closer.
http://www.murdim.com/earth.html
The images have a meaning when you see them from afar but not necessarily the same meaning seen close up and personal. It also allows you to think of images in terms of not being part of a “movie”. For instance, like every day life in Paris, with similarities to Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera, the Artist of the murdim Project captures everyday scenes from daily life in a city. Only these images are not part of a typical “movie” in that you do not have to sit to look at. These are in fact images that go far beyond the usual A3, 16 x 9 and other 1080 sizes. Or, even to think of images that go further than kaleidoscopic computer graphics.

Jacques Davis, the artist behind murdim Project uses crowds and nature as his subjects. Living and working in Paris, France, Davis worked for 35 years as a photographer doing mostly large slide shows, later with video, and video walls. Be it swimming pools, demonstrations, political meetings, markets, and other gatherings as his subjects for the camera, crowds are the main focus. To view the crowds from afar as a totem, the viewer sees the strength, will and force of a crowd while at the same time one can see close-ups of thousands of very individually unique people.

Davis uses 10 to 20 HDV cameras on each totem. Totems are stitched together and broadcast on LCD screens, with each camera aiming at a different part of the scene the same way one would shoot in panoramic photography. Davis states that “It’s time consuming and pixel consuming, my movies are huge”.

In a recent correspondence via email from Jacques Davis, he states the following:

“You take a computer, Illustrator, Photoshop, you get 32 millions color graphics that you animate with After Effects or Flash, you buy 2000 LCD screens and you cover the front of CSU East Bay. You've just invented video wall murals technique; and your name is Nam June Paik ...2.”

Research Sources:
www.Rhizome.org
www.murdim.com
Multimedia Artist Jacques Davis info@murdim.com
New Media Art by Mark Tribe/Reena Jana pages 22 and 24
Wikepedia

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah in...a place like this...

Funny how sometimes we realize how our dreams become experiences that come full circle. Who would of thought that an act of kindness on the part of Angela Wellman, almost 20 years ago would lead to the making of a short documentary film on her creation as the Founder and Director of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music. I always say, "you don't always have to know where you're going in order to get to where you need to be". When you put a lot of good energy into what you love, the Universe will conspire to manifest your highest ideals.

It was 199?, I was standing in a very long line at "Concepts Cultural Gallery" in downtown Oakland with my young son thinking that my name was on a guest list to see the "Sun Ra Archestra", featuring Sun Ra himself. The lines were long, the show was a sell out and anticipation was in the air. All the real hip patrons of jazz were there for the show of all shows.

Out of what appeared to be nowhere two women were standing before me offered to usher my son, Hasani and I in to a front row table right smack in front of the stage while others waited in the longest line hoping to get in. Some of the local bay area great musicians performing with the Archestra were, Cash Killian, India Cook, Kamau Seitu... to name a few. The Archestra performed and after a few songs into the show, one of the women, who got me in, Angela Wellman, picked up her horn and went on stage. I had no idea who this person was, but she blew the roof off the mutha. I was like WOW! It's not every day you come across a musician who spots a single mother and her child and manages to get you front row seats. It was my son's very first jazz concert. After that time, we'd spot her around Oakland all the time at the grocery store or the Berkeley Flea Market and different festivals. My son always referred to her as "the Lady with the Horn".


After years of experiencing Angela's music around the Bay Area, our paths started crossing quite frequently over the past two years. I'd heard she started the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music and I started attending some of her Sunday afternoon concerts and Monday night jam sessions. At other times, I would see her at Peet's Coffee & Tea on Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland.

Let's talk about Divine timing. After we received the "Music" genre with the theme of "Hope", I immediately tried to contact her. I just had a feeling again, just like I did with "Stick & Pound", that we (It Donned On Me) could pull off something absolutely fabulous...and we did.

In the past it was fairly easy to contact Angela Wellman. We'd spoken on the phone and emailed a few times. But this time it was not the easiest thing. So I called a few of musicians
friends to see if they could contact her directly, but no one could. So I just went to the Conservatory. It was closed. I was anxious before my meeting with the crew later that evening and just decided to stick a note on the door. My cell phone rang within the hour, right after I'd ordered my cup of tea at Peet's. It was the Horn Diva herself. The trombonist hails from Kansas City, has performed with McCoy Tyner big band, Joe Williams, Al Gray, Slide Hampton and many more. http://www.angelawellman.com/about.htm
I was so delighted. I explained the process to her and she was in agreement with having a documentary done if we pulled the music genre.

Would you believe that later that evening in a round table discussion of our esteemed team, I presented a pretty good layout of who Angela Wellman was and how the Conservatory had been a dream of hers, I introduced her into "the mix" and from there it was on.

From there I scheduled a shoot for noon the next day and the rest is "HerStory".

For more information on Oakland Public Conservatory of Music visit:
http://www.opcmusic.org/

QUILTING WITH JOY

In honor of Black History Month I've decided to honor and pay homage to Ms. JOY.

Joy E. Johnson, Quilt Maker and Storyteller, has been making quilting most of her life. Ms. Joy teaches quilting, conducts workshops and lectures on the Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad. After experiencing a railroad trip by way of her quilts through storytelling, I realized there is so much to be learned from the two art forms. The work itself is a canvas of narrative stories all patched together to perfection. Each patch can represent entire chapters in history of the African and African American experience. I see her work as the construction of individual windows of a world the ancestors experienced in the form of stories to be passed on to generations still to come. Spending an evening with her was a delightful treat. I was amazed at her craftsmanship, no, more like blown away. Her quilts very colorful, creative and educational. Her quilts have been exhibited at the De Young Museum of San Francisco, CA, the Alameda County Fair, Pleasanton CA and various other venues throughout the Bay Area. She is a member of the Association of African American Quilters Guild in Oakland, CA.

Ms Joy loves all things quilting and updates her skill base by attending Quilt Conventions and taking classes. She has an extensive library of books devoted to quilting and assures that she can make anyone a quilter and recommends quilting as a form of meditation. She attributes quilting handwork with getting our foremothers through the storms of their lives.

Check out Ms. Joy

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE!

TwirlyBoy Walks Away With 2 Awards at the San Jose 48 Hour Film Festival

"Most Gratuitous Merchandising Ploy Award"

"Community Player Award" for Evan Donn"

Here's what the judges had to say:

Kudos 2 Evan for being a team player to IDOM and a community player to San Jose.

CONGRATULATIONS IDOM! In honor of our 2 awards.

The Nominees for the best ....

From: sanjose48hfp@gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 8:32 PM
To: 48 Hour Film Project Participants
Subject: San Jose 48HFP Awards Ceremony Nominations Announced!


...hello Players and Team. The judges have deliberated. Then they've reconsidered, and then they arm-wrestled to resolve some of the finer points of the craft. At last we have their results. The nominations for awards in each of our major categories are being announced here, and the final winner will be announced on Sunday night at the Highlights Night and Awards Ceremony.

The Event
So first of all, let me tell you that the event will be held at the Media Center in Palo Alto. Here are the complete details:

San Jose 48 Hour Film Project presents...

Highlights Night and Awards Ceremony
Sunday, Sept 7, 7:00pm-9:30pm
Media Center
900 San Antonio Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303
Admission: $5

At the event, we will show many of the films from this year's crop, a couple of surprise special features, and we'll present the awards along with comments from the judges. This is a great night to "close the loop" on this year's event. See the films one more time, hear what the judges and the audience thought of them, and socialize with the other filmmakers and teams. It will be a grand night.

Nominations
Nominees are listed in alphabetical order, and you should be aware that your film may be up for a special award or another honor that is not listed in the nominations. There are still some surprises to come.

Best Film:
The Animals
Bodbrane, Wizard of Spas
The Best Thing
High Stakes Hooky
Lost and Found

Best Acting:
The Animals - Mark McGrath
Firecracker - Abigail Wray Bennett
Firecracker - Jordan Dobbs Rosa
Attrition - James Davis
Marble Bag - Tom Cokenias

Best Direction:
The Animals
Bodbrane, Wizard of Spas
Lost and Found
Nobody Gets Me
Twirly Boy

Best Music/Score:
The Animals
Firecracker
High Stakes Hooky
Nobody Gets Me
Twirly Boy

Best Cinematography:
The Animals
Attrition
Dia De Los Dead
Firecracker
Twirly Boy

Additional awards do not have nominees, but take a look at these and see if you think your team may have qualified for one of them. Awards will be given for special achievement in several areas. These include:

Most Gratuitous Merchandising Ploy
Best Team Splash Sequence
Best Credits/Titles
Best Marketing Collateral
Community Player Award

All right. There's a lot more to say and we all know that the art is to say just enough. I've probably already gone beyond that limit today.

---v

Sporting the GREEN SCREEN behind the scenes of TwirlyBoy

Green screen technology is the basis of the effects seen in everything from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to our local, national and international weather forecast. The idea is simple. If you shoot a video with a single coloured backdrop (blue or green is often used) you can make that colour transparent - replacing it with any other video clip, graphic or still image.



Use any single colour, flat object as a screen.

Last school year, Hollywood Blake (as he likes to refer to himself), a young 8th grade student of mine showed interest in filmmaking and was very interested in the concept of green screens. I posted these shots of the green screen especially for you, Hollywood Blake.

With green screen, it's simple to superimpose anything or anyone into any shot. You can transport yourself anywhere, as we did with the character played by our crew member, Tom Flowers.































Since this was a 48 hour project and we didn't have the time or funds to get these shots in Beijing, China, we shot Tom in front of a green screen.

Check out Tom Flowers' character having a telephone conversation from Beijing.

'TwirlyBoy' Standard Definition - 56Mb MP4

'TwirlyBoy' High Definition (720p) - 225Mb MP4