IDOM's 2008 48 Hour Film Project's Screening of "Tail"

THE MAKING OF "TAIL" WAS LIKE HAVING A GOOD CUP OF CAPPUCCINO WITH GOOD FRIENDS AT CAFE MOTO JAVA

GOOD TO THE LAST DROP

Last's night screening of "Tail" was very exciting. The first show was a sell out.
Regardless of what anyone else thinks, the experience felt like the summer's
"Blockbuster Hit" of short films. The audience was wild and crazy the way I like it. And the IDOMers were in da house. The audience reaction is the thing I live for. I am a very keen observer and "Tail" felt very well received. Folks really tuned in with a sense of intrigue and wonder. There were times when you could hear a pin drop. My friends were very pulled in especially by the unexpected ending. My hat off to all those who attended and for those who
didn't... be sure to check it out on our website and for the latest and greatest updates.
http://itdonnedonme.com/



We made the front page of San Mateo's Daily Journey
while Barack Obama made the back page. I guess we're moving up in the world, huh?
Never thought I woulda seen the day. Not in a million years. Check out the article
as it sums up things pretty well.

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=95572

Thanks for kicking it with me. Please enjoy a couple of my behind the scenes fantasies of this surreal experience.

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a red head?

Or have short dark sexy hair?

I enjoy being on a competitive film making team. I am very versatile and I have the ability to step up to any other role - camera, sound, lighting, directing, editing, and in some cases acting as the situation called for it. The one role that stays constant is - I am the Official Stylist for It Donned On Me. One of my many jobs is to ALWAYS make sure that everyone looks good on camera as well as help them get into character. It's one of the most fun things to do and the team always count on me to do it. And we always have fun.

Let The Screenings Begin

Well, the making of process of the San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project is over, but the fat lady have not even begun to sing yet. It's been a surreal experience.

San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project Screening Info:

http://www.roxie.com/events/details.cfm?eventid=D6C7D5E2%2DF1F6%2D5CD4%2D1F7054070CB9A500

WHERE: Roxie Cinema http://www.roxie.com

3117 16th Street @ Valencia,San Francisco, CA

WHEN:July 22, 23, 24 & 28

Time: 7:00pm and 9:30 pm each night (note: each screening group will be screened twice per evening)

Tuesday, 7/22 - Screening Group A

Wednesday, 7/23 - Screening Group B

Thursday, 7/24 - Screening Group C

Monday, 7/28 - Screening Group D

COST:$9

This year It Donned On Me Presents:

"Tail" Starring Erin-Kate Whitcomb, Thomas Bruchs,
&
Michael Eyvazov

REMEMBERING LAST YEAR'S JAM

behind the scenes shots
San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project
June 2007

Mike

Genre: Road Movie

Signe, Tony & Dinah (a.k.a. MacDiva & The Donnettes)

hanging out
at Fat City

in San Francisco (2007)

while Tony pulls the surprise genre

"ROAD MOVIE"

the book to live by

Joe Kirsch displays our title

Ideas, Script Writing, Calling Actors

Directing Isabelle

in Urgent Care

Who would have guessed one year ago the IDOM Crew would have become Nationally Acclaimed Award Winning Filmmakers? And then, some 9-10 months later become Internationally Acclaimed Award Winning Filmmakers.

Urgent Care was our first film together as a crew. As a result, we were selected by VISA to produce a 3 minute narrative film along with 29 other teams from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. We took 2nd place and the rest is our story.

Here we wear our badges of honor at the VISA screening
at San Francisco's Theater 39.

And the jam continues this weekend (July 18-20)














SAVE THE DATE!
THE 48 HOUR FILM PROJECT RETURNS TO SAN FRANCISCO!
JULY 18 - 20, 2008

Filmmakers from all over the SF Bay will compete to see who can make the best short film in only 48 hours. The winning film will go up against films from around the world for the title "Best 48 Hour Film of 2008".

Online registration opens Tuesday, May 27th
http://www.48hourfilm.com/sanfrancisco/

Space is limited. Each completed film is guaranteed a big-screen screening in front of a full audience.
Early bird registration fees are $135 (begins 8 weeks before competition and closes 4 weeks before competition).
Regular registration fees are $155.

For more information email sanfrancisco@48hourfilm.com
Sign up for the San Francisco mailing list to learn about upcoming events
http://www.48hourfilm.com/newsletter/?city=sanfrancisco
Please forward this email to friends!

Thanks!
Elena Cruz
San Francisco Producer

The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and a team make a movie�write, shoot, edit and score it�in just 48 hours. On Friday night, you get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete and screened at a local theater the following week. This year the 48HFP will visit over 70 cities around the world.

San Francisco 48 Hour Film Project - ONE MORE TIME

CAMERA ROLLING, SPEED, ACTION...


Life Takes Sleep

LIFE TAKES SLEEP

And more sleep!
And even more sleep!
Anyone awake?



THIS IS WHAT A REEL CREW LOOKS LIKE

ANYONE AWAKE HERE? Let's do a sound check...


CAMERA ROLLING SPEED ACTION!

IT'S TIME TO JAM, Y'ALL! WAKE UP!

Zimbabwe Update

There is great concern at this time for Zimbabwe.
The People of Zimbabwe need our blessings
at this time.  I have not heard from any of my
beloved extended family that live there
for a couple of months.  The following link was
forwarded to me by a Zimbabwean living
here in the U.S.

Watch Robert Mugabe attacking Julian Manyon

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1488655367/bctid1640107138

For more information check out CNN on line:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/jul/04/election.zimbabwe

Planetary Liberation Episode 1

This first Episode explains how it all began for me. A visit to Ntengwe for Community Development in Binga, Zimbabwe. Ntengwe is a not for profit organization which targets youth, orphans, and vulnerable children, and women infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. Founded by my Sisteren Elizabeth Markham.

Elizabeth spent many years growing up in Africa. Many of her ideas and goals were conceived here in the Bay Area. Her dream is to empower the children of the Tonga and Shona Tribes of Zimbabwe.

This first episode introduces the children and their music from the CD, “Tuli Bamuchaala – We are The Orphans”.

The creative process began with participatory research of over 500 children and the formation of a 200 voice children's choir. They composed their own songs featured on the CD.

Planetary Liberation Episode 2

The host of Echoes of Africa and I continues our radio interview on Ntengwe for Community Development in Zimbabwe. The episode features more photos of the elephants and nature scenes of Zimbabwe, as well as scenes from everyday life of the people. Ntengwe youth meet at their home office for meetings. This is where I stayed during the time of my 2004 visit to Binga, Zimbabwe. Also shown are photos from the opening ceremony for their new "Drop-In Center" which opened it's doors during 2006. The "Drop-In Center" was designed and donated by the Japanese Embassy. I saw the final blue print (2004)at while I was there, before it was actually built. The center provides a place for the children to come and have breakfast before school, in the mornings and do homework after school and have more meals.(when there's food in Binga) Some of the children are seen clad in new clothing and tennis shoes donated from Europe for the ceremony in honor of the opening of the Ntengwe Drop-In Center. At a service at the East Bay Church of Religious Science in Oakland, CA, I managed to capture footage taken during a service that empowers children and communities.

Planetary Liberation Episode 3

Ntengwe's children of Binga continue to sing their hearts out to the world in an attempt to share their feelings as we journey beyond the middle passage (the journey on slave ships from Africa to America) to present time...living and performing and remembering the dreams of those ancestors that survived the passage. We are all living the ancestors' dreams...as Composer, Jacquline Hairston and other well known musicians and performers share theirs.


Planetary Liberation No. 4

Featuring the music of Dominion Accapella, under the direction of Valerie Brown; and the KTO Project, a Zimbabwean/American band founded by Kelly Takumba Orphan (former student of the University of Zimbabwe). More scenes of my Beloved Binga Rural Community and Lake Kariba

Planetary Liberation No. 5

Zimbabwe's Oliver Mtukudzi and his band, The Black Spirits made an appearance in Oakland, CA in 2006. There was a golden opportunity to speak with him and some of his band members.


ZimbabweOnTheWestCoast 6

Featured Zimbabwean artist Thomas Maphumo speaks on the children of Zimbabwe.
Thomas Maphumo is in exile. He and his band, the "Blacks Unlimited",
along with a local African American Jazz Trumpeter, Khalil Shaheed
creates great "Afro Jazz Infusion".

TALES FROM THE POND! Defining Moments

Submission Uploaded and Confirmed by Vuze!!! or is it? Finally! Whew! We can all rest now.



Hat's off to MacDiva & the Donnetts - Dinah, Sig & Tony

More Defining Moments

Just some memories of our girl SUSANNAH.

For complete details visit: http://macdonettes.blogspot.com
or http://unrendered.blogspot.com

Or, check out http://www.vuze.com/channel/open_cut_film_competition
download the vuze player and enjoy the ride.

Open Cut - Ready Set Go Susannah!

This is how it started.

direct link <www.OpenCut.org>

Begin forwarded message:

From: Torrey Loomis <tloomis@silverado.cc>

Date: May 14, 2008 6:00:28 PM PDT

To: kirsch_california@mac.com

Subject: Invitation to participate in OpenCut - World's First Open Source Film Competition

I wanted to extend an invitation to you to participate in OpenCut - the world's first open source film competition.

We are providing an entire set of 35mm film quality assets shot on the RED ONE Digital Cinema camera--including all video, audio, as well as storyboards and scripts. OpenCut will provide the material, and entrants will provide the editorial.

We are kicking off OpenCut with a short subject called "Susannah" which was directed by Evan Nicholas and executive produced by Joe Carnahan of "Smokin' Aces" and "NARC."

Entrants to the competition register at http://www.OpenCut.org and then send a blank hard drive to OpenCut. Our film personnel will transfer 170 Gb of RED ONE material along with supporting media to the hard drive.

At a set date, all hard drives are shipped back to the contestants. They have 30 days to complete their cut including all color correction, audio fixes, and anything that would need to be accomplished for a completed project.

At the end of the competition, all finished entries are uploaded to VUZE which is generously hosting files in HD for all entrants.

Judging will take place through July 6th and a winner is announced on July 7th.

The winner of OpenCut will receive a prize package from Silverado Systems including a brand new AJA IO HD. Further, the winning editor will be listed as the official "editor-of-record" at IMDB and the winning short will be submitted to film festivals around the country throughout 2008. We will also be finishing the winning entry on SCRATCH in native 4k resolution.

You can find out more information here:

http://www.opencut.org/

We'd love to have as many students register as possible before departing for the summer. The competition is open to students, amateurs, and professionals--and you can participate as an individual or in a group. Further, the competition is open internationally.

Please let me know if you would like more information.

Torrey

-----------------------------------------------

Torrey Loomis

Project Director - OpenCut

Susannah the Movie

June 15, 2008


Tony, Dinah & Sig - Game plan meeting for 30-45 minutes before entering the editing suite.

Entering edit suite: Approximately 12 noon

Tony - finds more audio

Sig & Dinah - does foley for broom, gunshot, car running, gun cock, ambient noise

Dinah - works on music

Selected Music:
Beginning music by Houdini Roadshow - Riding With The Devil
Ending music by Outsider - Holiday

Today we almost finished the body of the piece. We finally finished our story and found the music that truly makes the piece jump.

End Time: 8pm

To Do on 6/22/08

1. work on titles
2. credits
3. color correction

File from Bin
Card
A27, take c08 take #27(?) needs to be Pro Res in H size (high quality)
Note: When using compression don't resubmit everything on the list each time one is added

MY FIRST ACTION FLICK EVER

SUSANNAH the Movie
May 30, 2008
7-9:30 pm

Tony & Sig input from pocket drive to Sig's 750

May 31, 2008
1pm -

Sig picked me up from Milbrae Bart station. Tony arrived at 2pm.

Sequence 7 - Export Test using compressor 3:30 - 3:35
30 sec piece
burn DVD 3:40

Possible Audio

Initially, I suggested we start looking for a sound similiar to the Funky Meters' Cissy Strut, a band I grew up dancing to in New Orleans' hot spots back in the day when "Chevelle's" were known to be one of those hip cars that a lot of guys drove. Eventually, the Funky Meters got very big and over the years took on their family name, Neville Brothers. Wish I could have gotten them to do our music...wishful thinking, huh. Or a sound simular to Rufus Thomas' "Funky Chicken". I just know we need music that POPPING. The best I thought I could come up with at this time is a young female composer from San Leandro, CA named Morgan who plays a pretty mean harmonica and told me she could pull something off in Apple's GarageBand. Still waiting to hear from Morgan...where are you Morgan? Sig suggested we check out the Good Morning Viet Nam Sound Track.

Sig and I reviewed the script over wine...Merlot...
1 hr + 5 hrs = 6 hrs

June 1, 2008

10:30 am to 4:30 pm -

Pro Resing Cards 1-14 The rest of them ready to edit - 5 hours

Dinah, Tony & Sig - Our Production Team is now called MacDiva & the Donnetts


This Logo was designed by Tony Nguyen a.k.a Mr. Photoshop

June 8, 2008

2pm – Dinah putting first rough cut onto timeline based on the script we were given.



Sig worked 2 hrs adding audio, and 2 hrs later Tony completed transitions and checked latest communication from Silverado. Sig & I put in experimental sound track. It was a lot of fun and we were very happy with our rough cut. This is not "punk work" folks, editing footage from the Red Camera is like playing around with a BIG smoking gun. We have been working our you know what off while smelling the roses and remembering that it's not as much about the destination as it is the journey.

Keeping It Real!
Dinah a.k.a MacDiva

THE ENVELOPE PLEASE!

AND, THE AWARD FOR BEST... GOES TO...


ONE MO GIN... (translation...one more time)

LOOK OUT WORLD...

Although we'd love to post the film but the organizers of the Doc Challenge are currently seeking distribution for the films entered in this year's competition and have asked us to hold off posting them online for a little while.




While Retreat didn't manage to make it into the finalists for the National Film Challenge it did win a special judge's award - "Best Acting By A Horse"! Congratulations to Junior, the star of Retreat and now a nationally acclaimed, award-winning equestrian thespian!
"Retreat" has it's own site now at http://itdonnedonme.com/retreat/. For your viewing pleasure!

While 'Retreat' was our official team entry, IDOM member Joe Kirsch decided to give it a shot on his own. With the help of fellow IDOM'er Kirk Moore he produced his own excellent entry - Once Upon A Time....

In October, 2007, Visa released an official press release about the winners of the "Life Takes" competition - according to it the films should be up on 48.tv soon, and we're currently still waiting on clearance to post our film publicly. In the meantime you can see some photos and a writeup of the awards screening and party on Tony's blog...







These two IDOM films screened as part of the Avalon Micro Film Festival in East Hampton, New York (December 1st, 2007) at the Guild Hall. Produced by "Doggie Style" star Jeff Crispi, the festival highlighted a wide variety of short independent films including several 48 Hour Film Projects. More information on the festival is available at Avalon Studios and there is a short write-up in the East Hampton Star.

MacDiva & The Master Stick Pounder

What happens when a Diva meets a Master Stick Pounder at the laundrymat?



Here's the SECRET!
You tell her you are an independent filmmaker and you want her to be in your Award Winning Documentary, call in your dynamite team of independents, (It Donned On Me) and the next thing you know, she'll show up with a ton of sticks...




Then you set up a shoot on location with your brilliant and creative team.








Factor in some real dancers:


And...don't forget to have fun while making your movie!



GRAB SOME STICKS AND START POUNDING. And then tell the crew that you just know that you know that you know that you are all winners (even if no one tells you that you are) ...and then the rest is history!

And then you start acting and looking like winners!




All the way to Toronto to the Canadian International Film Festival

Springing Forward

Spring is definitely in the air and I am springing forward this year with new ideas, inspiration from the past presents itself and springs us forward to new concepts and ideas creating openings, blooms, and blossoms. I just completed a project with IDOM (It Donned On Me) for the International Documentary Competion. “Stick & Pound” is a finalist! Of over 100 films eligible for judging, we made the top 14. I will be flying out to Toronto for the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival on April 26th, where our film will be screened. Things heat up as Stick & Pound is being considered for yet another award, the P.O.V. PBS’ premiere showcase for independent, non-fiction film.

The film features Melanie DeMore, Singer, Composer, Songwriter, and Master Stick Pounder.

What is Stick Pounding? Creating rhythmic sounds with sticks of course.



Its origins are from the Gullah tradition. What is Gullah?

The Gullah people are the different African tribes brought to the Georgia Sea Islands during slavery. These different tribes created an entire culture and language for the purpose of communicating with each other. Out of this culture, comes stick pounding. When the drums were taken away, stick pounding became the rhythmic language of the Gullah people.

As an Oakland, CA resident, Melanie DeMore performs with "The Linda Tillery Cultural Heritage Choir. She also teaches stick pounding in the bay area. Her energy is HUGE, the Director of the Oakland Children's Choir, and the voice coach of several young bay area popular singers that have gone on to big careers. Some of her students were "American Idol" contestants and popular Bay Area R&B singers.

I'd seen her Christmas Eve show at Yoshi's where she performed with Linda Tillery & The Cultural Heritage Choir. The show was sold out. Fate had me run into her at the laundry mat on Park Blvd in Oakland a few days later. Where I introduced myself, told her I'm a filmmaker and the rest is history.

In March I interviewed her and set up a shoot where she was choreographing stick pounding at a rehearsal with a well known Dance Company in San Francisco during International Women's Week.

I was so honored to set up the shoot and indeed it was a tremendous success for myself as well as the crew.

Guess what? Of 170 entries in the international documentary film challenge, the film made the 14-finalist list.

I am so proud of the crew It Donned On Me. The screening will take place on April 26th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In Toronto several broadcasters and distributors will screen the films. To include history channels, and etc.

I am so excited about this. The other finalists are from Amsterdam, Sydney, Australia, Brooklyn, NYC, and Seattle, just to name a few of the places.

Since June of 2007 we’ve been Nationally Acclaimed Award Winning Filmmakers. Thanks to the creation of “Stick & Pound”, we are Internationally Acclaimed Award Winning Filmmakers.

As I continue to plant more seeds...just watch me bloom! The best is yet to come.


Profound Peace & Blessings,
Dinah

Happy 2008 Hollerations!

The Diva is back in the House continuing on the journey to REPRESENT the binary stars of the solar system. This year stronger and at warp speed. Named for 2 American stars...Dinah Washington & Dinah Shore. I, Dinah, Daughter of Isis, Daughter of Yemanya, Daughter of Ochun, Daughter of Ruby Mae, Grand Daughter of Olivia Michelle, Great Grand Daughter of Eliza Michelle, youngest sister of Stanley and Connie...Mother of Hasani. I walk the path of light, beauty, and balance. I am a woman of power, of passion and compassion. According to the Myan calendar I am a World Bridger . I am a bridge between cultures, with new ideas and new ways of looking at life through film based on the traditional, the nontraditional as well as the multidimensional ways of viewing and creating people's stories as seen through the lens. I REPRESENT new and innovative ways of seeing the
good intention and the feeling nature of the true, the fun, and the REAL. I am creative. I am innovative. I am a Multi Media Goddess. This is the path I have chosen to walk. Most of all I am EVERYWOMAN. I make pictures come to life on film about discovery without the usual preconceived ideas!

Last year I delved a little deeper into my self discovery as a filmmaker. I went into 2007 not know exactly where I was going. Just couldn't explain it to anyone, especially myself. There are no words for it. I was constantly being asked what was all this filming stuff, what was a 3 minute movie going to do? All the editing all night long, not sleeping during 48 hour film projects, what was going to get me. Often times my answer was "how the heck do I know...sh*t". I'll just have to know when I get there, just as you'll know when you get there. This is what I do. Can You Dig It? Delivering six short independent films online and at least five collaboratives with my crew of independent filmmakers known as It Donned On Me, creating films made in 48 hours...to include being selected by Visa to make a 3 minute narrative film with the IDOM crew, and competing in the (NFC) National Film Challenge, I know for sure that you don't always HAVE to know where you're going in order to get to where you need to be. This is HOW the Sky Becomes the Limit. As a result, in 2007, along with the IDOMers (having the same kind of passion) I became a Nationally Acclaimed Award Winning Filmmaker and it ain't over yet. Just doing what I love and doing it with people of like mindedness. This type of energy is propelling me to soar at higher elevations like the eagle.

One soaring eagle in particular, Melvin Van Peables took flight when he made an 11 minute movie back in the late 60s. Most people don't know about this. Mainstream America laughed and thought he was a big joke. Not the French, they gave him hope because they recognized he was much smarter than all that. They loved his 11 minute movie and actually paid him money and treated him with dignity and respect while all along he had nothing...(that includes food too, y'all). They even asked him to represent them in the U.S. as their French Deligate. (This blew Hollywood and the rest of America away.) Most of us who know of him only know of his feature film in the 70s, "Sweet Sweet Back Badass Song", an avantegarde freaky film which became mainstream. (And his films of more recent times.) But it was that controversal outrageous film that polarized people, thereby creating a new genre known then as Blacksploitation and Soul Cinema.


A Course in Miracles says...
Where do all these differences come from? Certainly they seem to be in the world outside. Yet it is surely the mind that judges what the eyes behold. It is in the sorting out and categorizing activities of the mind that errors in perception enter. And it is here correction must be made. The mind classifies what the body's eyes bring to it according to its preconceived values, judging where each sense datum fits best. What basis could be faultier than this? Unrecognized by itself, it has itself asked to be given what will fit into these categories. And having done so, it concludes that the categories must be true. On this the judgement of all differences rests, because it is on this that judgements of the world depend. Can this confused and senseless "reasoning" be depended on for anything? The body's eyes will continue to see differences. But the mind that has let itself be healed will no longer aknowledge them. --ACIM Manual for Teachers

While I have always admired those peeps who know how to set specific goals down to the "T" and manifest exactly as they planned, I must say that I admire MYSELF for following my own bliss...the unknown...when you do, it's true what they say, stuff just starts showing up.

This year I am flying higher and going deeper into portals and assemblege points as I shine the light on a new and different language in the art of film.

Production of new short films are forever ongoing for me. You'll be seeing improvements and more features on this blog and Itdonnedonme.com as I continue to grow on my own and as I team up with my fellow crew members right before your very eyes. I believe that language is an important element in film. And 2008 will be a great year to watch me craft a new language on film, language that is visual and not just verbal; language that you DO understand especially if you don't speak it. Sometimes words get in the way. Sometimes we don't even need words to get a point across. As a healing transmitter, it is my intention to show new and different ways of communicating with the world through the language of film.

I'd like to end with 2 profound quotes:

Avoid logic and go around common sense. --MELVIN VAN PEABLES

The body's eyes will continue to see differences. But the mind that has let itself be healed will no longer acknowledge them. - A COURSE IN MIRACLES

Thanks for being a part of my journey and the best to all of you.



It's a wrap Double 07...Whad Up 2008!

Out
D2

P.S. For your viewing pleasure I made a short piece as a "Birthday Tribute" to my mentor Evan Donn. Here you get a glance of me with my It Donned On Me Crew Members, the faces behind our Award Winning Movies made for the 48 Film Projects and the National Film Challenge.

ZimbabweOnTheWestCoast6

Featured Zimbabwean artist Thomas Maphumo speaks on the children of Zimbabwe. Thomas Maphumo is in exile. He and his band, the "Blacks Unlimited", along with a local African American Jazz Trumpeter, Khalil Shaheed creates great "Afro Jazz Infusion". I cannot get the rhythms out of my head.
ZimbabweOnTheWestCoast 6

ZimbabweOnTheWestCoast5

Zimbabwe's Oliver Mtukudzi and his band, The Black Spirits made an appearance in Oakland, CA in 2006. I had a golden opportunity to speak with him and some of his band members. Here's what they had to say.

Episode 4

Featuring the music of Dominion Accapella, under the direction of Valerie Brown; and the KTO Project, a Zimbabwean/American band founded by Kelly Takumba Orphan (former student of the University of Zimbabwe).

More scenes of my Beloved Binga Rural Community and Lake Kariba and Ntengwe's own.
PlanetaryLiberation No. 4

Episode 3

Ntengwe's children of Binga continue to sing their hearts out to the world in an attempt to share their feelings as we journey beyond the middle passage (the journey on slave ships from Africa to America) to present time...living and performing and remembering the dreams of those ancestors that survived the passage. We are all living the ancestors' dreams...as Composer, Jacquline Hairston and other well known musicians and performers share theirs.


Planetary Liberation No. 3

PlanetaryLiberation No.2

The host of Echoes of Africa and I continue our radio interview on Ntengwe for Community Development in Zimbabwe. The episode features more photos of the elephants and nature scenes of Zimbabwe, as well as scenes from everyday life of the people. Ntengwe youth meet at their home office for meetings. This is where I stayed during the time of my 2004 visit to Binga, Zimbabwe. Also shown are photos from the opening ceremony for their new "Drop-In Center" which opened it's doors during 2006. The "Drop-In Center" was designed and donated by the Japanese Embassy. I saw the final blue print (2004)at while I was there, before it was actually built. The center provides a place for the children to come and have breakfast before school, in the mornings and do homework after school and have more meals.(when there's food in Binga) Some of the children are seen clad in new clothing and tennis shoes donated from Europe for the ceremony in honor of the opening of the Ntengwe Drop-In Center.

At a service at the East Bay Church of Religious Science in Oakland, CA, I managed to capture footage taken during a service that empowers children and communities.

ZimbabweOnTheWestCoast6

Zimbabwe on the West Coast

Featured Zimbabwean artist Thomas Maphumo speaks on the children of Zimbabwe. Thomas Maphumo is in exile. He and his band, the "Blacks Unlimited", along with a local African American Jazz Trumpeter, Khalil Shaheed creates great "Afro Jazz Infusion". I cannot get the rhythms out of my head.
ZimbabweOnTheWestCoast 6