liquid blackness presents AmplifyTWO
AmplifyTWO, a screening & conversation with films by GSU students and alum: Zameh Omonuwa, Donovan Stanley, and Taylor Dudley
Moderated by film and visual culture scholar Dr. Michele Prettyman
With special guest Melinda Weekes-Laidlow of Beautiful Ventures
Streaming Thursday August 20 @ 7pm on liquid blackness Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquidblackness/live
See below for details and to view films.
Moderator Dr. Michele Prettyman
Michele Prettyman, Ph.D. is a scholar of African American cinema, visual and popular culture, a screenwriter and media consultant, and a professor in Fordham University’s Department of Communication and Media Studies. She earned bachelor degrees in Radio/TV/Film and Afro-American Studies from the University of Maryland College Park and later received her master’s in Film, Video and Digital Imaging and a doctorate in Communication/Moving Image Studies from Georgia State University. Before entering academia, Michele began her career in documentary film/TV production working for National Geographic’s Explorer series and PBS specials. Over the years, Michele has taught courses in film studies and film history, African American cinema, global cinema, digital storytelling, race, gender and media, and screenwriting. She has become an important voice in the field of digital storytelling and received grants to train students in storytelling and social justice. Michele has published recent work in a range of academic publications including the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, The Lemonade Reader anthology and for a number of online journals. In 2019 she co-edited and contributed to a “Close Up” series in Black Camera journal focusing on the “New York Scene” of black independent filmmakers which includes Kathleen Collins and Bill Gunn among others. Michele curates panels and events for film festivals and was named Artistic Director of the Tubman Museum’s inaugural film festival in 2019. She has also worked with the Macon and CollegeTown film festivals. She is a cofounder of Daughters of Eve Media, a producer of film events, panel discussions and related content that has enjoyed a multiyear programming partnership with the pioneering American Black Film Festival (ABFF).
AmplifyTwo Selections
Hood.
Dir. Zameh Omonuwa
Artist Statement: Hood. is an experimental short film that follows a White teen as they transfer consciousness with a Black teen, and dives into the Black teen’s trauma, fears, hope, and wonder. This film shows that the lives of the Black community in the United States are affected by institutionalized racism compared to a White person who has the privilege of not needing to acknowledge their race to exist in the United States. Hood. consists of found footage and audio that builds a narrative using three different situations that can become dangerous for a Black people and children: playing with toys, driving, and gathering in groups.
An influence for this film is the tragedy of the murder of Tamir E. Rice, a young Black boy. Tamir Rice was killed for playing with a toy gun in a public park, which is widely marketed towards children of any skin color. The audio from the radio transmission by the police officer that killed Tamir is used in the film, juxtaposed to a Nerf advertisement. Other audios were the inspiration for the film's skeleton, creating dialogue that added weight to the chosen visuals. The main audio that created such a dominant force in the film is a snippet from the 1975 interview/documentary, Rosedale: The Way It Is, where a group of Black children are called racial slurs and told to leave a predominantly White neighborhood. The emotional statements from the young Black girls in the audio bring the experiences of trauma, anger, fear, and forgiveness to the film at young ages that I could not have recreated. The song, “Strange Fruit, sung by Billie Holiday, creates a somber tone that incites social discussion of Black death and the display of Black bodies afterward. In the film, I chose to not show the bodies of murdered Black people, in its place, showing the faces of murderers and bystanders that kept their silence in the face of great injustice. I wanted to use this film as a way to express my own sadness, despair, hope, and unrelenting anger as the characters stare into the eyes of the audience in the pursuit of utilizing my film as a tool for social justice. My work reflects an engagement with the intersections of form, social justice, and moving image arts through the juxtaposition of visual and intent, the use of protest audio and clips, and an overarching narrative that presses the wound of the Black community created by the United States.
Credits: Director, Editor, Sound Designer: Zameh Omonuwa. All footage either in public domain or used in fair use.
Link to watch Hood.
Zameh Omonuwa is a recent 2020 Alumni of the GSU School of Film, and continues her work in film production to uplift voices of marginalized communities. She resides in Atlanta, GA where she also maintains a website in pursuit of intersectional and inclusive film education. #filmforall
Together + Naima
by Donovan Stanley and Taylor Dudley Rose
TOGETHER (Dir. Taylor Dudley Rose & Donovan Stanley)
Together, written and directed by Taylor Dudley Rose and shot by cinematographer Donovan Stanley, is a visually tasteful film about the unseen harmony of human connection. This film shows a side of America largely forgotten during these divisive times. TOGETHER was made to not only highlight our “togetherness” as people, but to serve as a reminder that people of color are more than just statistics, that we are humans living and connecting with the communities around us from intimate moments to community experiences, we are all one people doing our best to make it work, together .
Link to watchTogether
Credits: Story/Premise by Donovan Stanley; Co-Directed/DP’d by Donovan Stanley & Taylor Dudley Poem by Taylor Dudley; Edited by Taylor Dudley
NAIMA (Dir. Taylor Dudley Rose & Donovan Stanley)
Naima shows a chance encounter between a homeless man and a prostitute and their brief night of genuine connection. The film seeks to discuss the temporality of black love and its ability to emerge in spite of circumstances.
Link to watch Naima
Credits: Actors Malcolm Mondesir and Karo Durojaiy; Co-Directed/DP’d by Donovan Stanley & Taylor Dudley ; Story by Donovan Stanley ; Poem by Taylor Dudley; Editing by Taylor Dudley
With Special Guest…
Melinda Weekes-Laidlow is a social change architect, master facilitator, ordained minister, and social entrepreneur. She is the Founder/CEO of Beautiful Ventures, a creative social enterprise that influences popular culture, disrupts anti-blackness and elevates perceptions of Black humanity. Melinda is also President of Weekes In Advance Enterprises , an organizational development firm offering consulting, facilitation, coaching, and professional development services in arts and culture, social innovation, racial equity, and collaborative leadership spaces. Previously, she was the Managing Director at Race Forward: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation and Senior Consultant at the Interaction Institute for Social Change. One of her great loves is teaching. As Graduate Professor of Management at Marlboro College, Melinda teaches at the intersections of racial justice, design thinking and collaborative leadership. In 2015, leading social impact fund Echoing Green named Melinda its first-ever Social Entrepreneur in Residence.
A curated conversation series centered in films and writings, Amplify showcases emerging radical cinematic aesthetics which advocate, protest, reflect, heal, empower, affirm, uplift and cultivate community. Responding to our students’ voices and works, Amplify seeks to foster artistic and critical dialog around systemic anti-Blackness as a site for the articulation of liberatory demands.
Amplify: media arts for collective strength, is an expression of the collective work of Prof. Susan-Sojourna Collier, Prof. Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz, Dr. Jade Petermon, Dr. Alessandra Raengo, Karin Smoot, and Matt Rowles (COTA Tech)
Amplify visual concept designed by artist Liv Fallon