Take a Trip with us to Guadeloupe!

When Mariette Monpierre decided to leave a busy life in producing and directing commercials it was a benefit to us all. I find commercials to be fruitful playground for honing the artistic muscle and quick decision-making prowess needed for all involved. Want to know a secret? Black creatives in commercial houses are still a unicorn. Yep. In a large number of production companies there will not be a Black director in sight—we’re not even thought of. And I would take a chance and say there is MUCH more commercial production happening than feature films. Don’t believe me? Click here to read the Ad Age article published just this past summer that agrees!

So not only did Mariette make a big contribution in just being in the room and on set and behind the camera in one of the largest ad agencies in New York, she also said, I have a story tell about the life I’ve lived, the people I’ve loved, the cultures I know and all of their foibles and flavors. She probably would not have said the way I said it. She probably would have said it in French.

Born in Guadeloupe and reared in Paris, Mariette eventually landed in New York and the sum of her experiences are well-represented in her work. Watching the beautiful and intriguing feature film Elza feels like home, and I’ve never lived in Guadeloupe. This delicious family story is filled with mystery, betrayal and vivid imagery. It’s an incredible debut feature by a director and holds the distinction of being the first feature film by a female director shot in Guadeloupe. Elza has garnered many prizes, including being a NY Times Critics Pick. Their write-up sums up the excellent casting of star Stana Roumillac quite well: “Effectively balancing these grimmer themes, Ms. Roumillac gives Elza a youthful, searching energy. Alive to the caress of air and water, her body’s instinctive response to random pleasures — like a beach party or a man’s approving gaze — is as mesmerizing as the island’s dazzling cliffs and butterscotch beaches. Elza’s thicket of copper hair may repel her father, but its springy resilience is emblematic of her untamable determination to change his mind.”

What’s pretty marvelous in my world is that I get to answer questions all the time about where audiences should go to see excellent Black cinema. Well, attending our Indie Fuxion Film Showcase is great introduction! Researching the filmmakers and the distributors of these films should be next. We’d like to thank Kino Lorber for allowing Elza to be a part of our month-long showcase, Nov 15 – Dec 15, 2020. Please click here to RSVP! Happy Streaming!

Trailer from the film Elza by Mariette Monpierre

Moms Make Movies

In case you haven’t noticed, the inaugural Indie Fuxion Film Showcase features women and nonbinary visionaries in the director’s chair. We’ll have the guys participate in future showcases, but for now, I feel nostalgic for my filmmaking roots—when women showed up for me and helped launch my career.

One of the organizations of which I’m a longtime member and former board member is New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT). It’s my homebase for crew resources, inspiration, motivation and meeting forever friends. In NYWIFT we stay true to our mission of putting women to work in the industry and getting women’s stories told. One exciting new area of focus is Moms. And we have Tonya McCornell to thank for it. 

Tonya McCornell is the founder of both The Moms Network for NYWIFT and the MOM Film Fest. Tonya describes herself as a Black single mother who launched a film festival “amid a time of racial turmoil and a global health pandemic.” Yes! She DID that! And as Tonya says, “MOM Film Fest is an initiative dedicated to elevating women tackling two enormous tasks at the same time—making movies and raising kids.”

Truth be told, films throughout the past century have had many moms on crews. Now is the time to acknowledge their unique abilities. We have to celebrate, nurture, cherish and allow them to challenge our views of what we thought we knew when Mama is on set. I know I have a lot to learn. And I welcome the education!

I’m thrilled for audiences to screen Tonya’s short film Trayvia as part of our month-long online showcase. The film a reflection through a female voice on a tough, tough subject. I watch it with a certain eye because working on this film was Tonya’s first time editing—and she rocks it! Join Tonya, a host of talented filmmakers—including a few moms—this Nov 15 – December 15 for Indie Fuxion Film Showcase on GFNTV.com. Please click here to RSVP! We’ll see you there! Happy Streaming!

Trayvia filmmaker Tonya McCornell

Shield comes to Indie Fuxion and Slays

Danielle Eliska Lyle is Detroit. The embrace of the historical and cultural mecca is what homegrown artists have to wrap around their shoulders whenever they rep their city. And Danielle wears it well. She knew of her love for film from a very early age. She pursued the art form as one of dynamic and demonstrative imagery + story. A self-described “black archivist,” Danielle approaches her craft from all sides as a director, screenwriter, playwright, poet, author, instructor and now a CEO healing our spirits with a new line of herbal teas. Is she a superhero? Black women are often referred to as such. Danielle’s latest film, Shield, introduces audiences to an actual superhero who rescues a beautiful young girl from the perils of foster care. It’s the perfect story for this indie filmmaker who wears her community on her sleeve. And we are here for it!

I have to say, Danielle’s crowdfunding road from concept to principle photography was one of the most professional presentations I’ve seen from an indie partnership. Producer Lauren Sowa of Form & Pressure Films teamed up with Danielle and stayed on mission. Form & Pressure Films tells “stories that inspire and provoke thought, while encouraging diversity and equality on set and on screen.” Yes! More of that! You’ll also see Lauren, who is a talented actor, on screen in the film. And I first met Lauren when she interviewed me for her photography series on women in the industry. See how connected the indie creatives can be? There is no doing this work alone. When we come together, we fly.

Thrilled to bring to audiences everywhere the short film Shield in our Indie Fuxion Film Showcase this Nov 15 - Dec 15 on GFNTV! Please click here and register to stream our showcase for FREE. Happy Streaming!

Time for some Kung Fu Granny Fun!

My talented filmmaker friend Myra Sito Velasquez and I share a smile at the very mention of her film Kung Fu Granny. Myra is such a beautiful soul. Her filmmaking is phenomenal. We’re good friends but she probably doesn’t realize how much I’m in awe of her intrinsically layered storytelling technique that brings the phrase “How did she come up with that?” to mind. Every. Single. Time.

What’s so cool about Kung Fu Granny is that soon after I was introduced to Myra, I saw a film I’d never forget—a serious, reflective and gorgeous short film, Mother’s Blood. I thought about how the poignant, powerful and deep stories from her culture were reminiscent of many of the heartfelt and heart wrenching stories from my culture. Some may watch her early work and feel it would be too much of a stretch for a filmmaker behind the lens of Mother’s Blood and the haunting drama The Lovers to just let their hair down and have some fun. Not to worry! Myra’s film Kung Fu Granny is so fun to watch, that the filmmaker herself can’t help but smile from ear to ear.

I was so thrilled that she was immersed in filming such a concept that I had to be in it! I kid, but actually through a crazy series of circumstances I ended up acting in the film—along with my parents! It was most fun for my father. To him being on Myra’s movie set was one of life’s adventures. And you’ll see on screen he took the role very seriously. We all did. We all wanted to be there for our imaginative director. And when you watch Myra’s incredible cast and their stunt work, you’ll get to know how Myra works. There’s an idea she cannot escape. She thinks about it. She swirls it around in her head over and over….she maps it out. She rips it up and starts over. She sells you on it. When you’re on the receiving end of that passion and commitment, you can’t wait to come to set and play. And for a creative project, that’s gold.

Thank you, Myra, for bringing a smile to my family and a great memory with my late Dad. Because of this experience we have him on film! Because of Kung Fu Granny, the world knows you’re a versatile badass filmmaker and an out-of-the-box screenwriter with whom audiences say, “We can’t wait for more!’ I’m still in awe.

Watch Kung Fu Granny and more incredible work from my talented colleagues in our inaugural Indie Fuxion Film Showcase Nov 15 - Dec 15 on GFNTV! Please click here to RSVP. It’s FREE! Happy Streaming!

The Calming Power of Rain--on Film

It’s what I went to sleep to the night before the 2020 Presidential Election. The recorded sound of rain. Yes, the days have been quite sunny where I am, but only in nature. In the United States we’ve had an anxiety-filled year, which can all be resolved by a landslide victory of one candidate over the other. And even if that happens, hate groups may unleash tyranny onto the streets. To take us out of the 1950s, I allow my mind to drift by listening to rain sounds on my app. And now, with the film showcase I’m curating, we can bring that calming cadence for the senses to audiences everywhere through the experimental short, RAIN UP CLOSE by filmmaker Louise Fleming.

I’ve known Louise for about two decades. We clicked right away. We would see each other in the same film circles in Manhattan. We celebrated and championed our love of film and the opportunity independent film offers artists as a platform for new ideas that many would consider noncommercial. Millions of people would never see the work Louise and I came out of cozy (and very tiny) apartments—sometimes in the rain—to sit in a dark theatre and watch. And even though millions of eyeballs and stacked box office reports did not validate the existence of the work, Louise, myself and a community of film lovers knew how the work and being a witness to the filmmaker’s journey to produce the work made us feel. Moved. Invigorated. Alive.

Join my friend Louise and I November 15 - December 15, 2020 for GFNTV’s Indie Fuxion Film Showcase. I’m the Artistic Director and our hope is to bring more films like RAIN UP CLOSE to you in the future. Cinema in all of its forms has something for everyone. And with Louise and the other filmmakers whom you’ll get to know through their work, audiences streaming our film showcase will take a trip around the globe—a respite from your troubles. Please click here and register for FREE! Besides, when is the last time you allowed yourself to sit alone .

Thank you, Louise.

Filmmaker Louise Fleming

I Believe In Storks

I remember years ago when a friend’s film made its US debut. It played at a festival in New York and I loved it so much. I asked my friend how the US distribution was coming along. She said terrible. The distributor did not feel they would profit at all with a US release. It’s a children’s tale with subtitles.

That “tale” always stuck with me. My friend’s film back then was from Scandinavia. It was such a beautiful story with fantastic Harry Potter-style imagery. And we’re depriving our young audiences because a gatekeeper feels they won’t read? Come on, Son!

It was to my delight that Mike Franklin of GFNTV asked me as Artistic Director of the inaugural Indie Fuxion Film Showcase if I could bring to the platform international films. I asked, “With subtitles?” He enthusiastically said, “Yes!” I got to work.

The film library of Sheri Hagen is not one any film lover should miss. Sheri is Nigerian-born, but Germany based and I have her film Auf den zweiten Blick burned in my memory. When I asked about streaming the feature she suggested her short Stella and the Storks instead. Ahhh….now I have the opportunity to show a children’s story with subtitles! We need this work. We need as much of these stories that we can get! Thank you, Sheri, for joining our film showcase. I hope future Indie Fuxion showcases will bring the inspiration for my interest in children’s foreign films to your screens someday soon as well. Let’s all revel in child-like wonder and search for the storks. They’re among us and bring so much joy.

Please register for Indie Fuxion, Nov 15 - Dec 15, 2020 by clicking here. And please tell friends! Our online showcase from filmmakers around the globe is FREE! Happy Streaming!

#GFNTV #IndieFilm #IndieFuxion #BlindMice #Film #Filmmaking #WomenInFilm #virtualcinema #Directing #BlackFilmPirate

Production Still from Sheri Hagen’s Stella and the Storks

Filmmaker Sheri Hagen

Black Sci-Fi Is Always Right On Time

I’m pretty sure I don’t have enough words to capture the dopeness that is artist and filmmaker Celia C. Peters. Celia stepped into a genre of filmmaking that I have to admit would take me years to master. She knows “how to sci-fi.” And we are here for it!

Futurist films are becoming the rage. Truth be told: We’ve been saying that for years! It’s time for mainstream cinema to wake up! Technology is advancing so fast in our everyday lives, that storytellers with that cinematic touch of seamlessly blending technological advancements and the supernatural are always one step ahead! I’m in awe of these creatives. And the beauty of Celia is that not only is she consistently brainstorming and producing her own work, she also elevates an army of futurist filmmakers as a programming curator as well.

Celia is such a self-starter—with a lot of style—that I knew asking for her to share advice for the young, fresh-on-the-scene production company Blind Mice was a necessity. And she delivered! Take it away, Celia!

Advice for the founders of Blind Mice, from Celia C. Peters

• Don't limit yourself. If you can imagine or conceive of something, you can make it happen. If you couldn't, you wouldn't be capable of imagining it.

• Do not wait for permission or for an example. Innovators are the ones who do things first. If you look at the film icons you admire, they all were out there on the leading edge, doing something no one else had done. The common narrative is that white men are the ones who blaze trails and forge ahead to do the next big thing. That's a false narrative. ABSOLUTELY false. Innovation and trailblazing is EQUAL OPPORTUNITY.

• Don't let fear hold you back. Acknowledge the fear (it's totally naturally and human), but put it aside and proceed as if it's not there. If you stumble or fall, get up and figure out how to make it work so you achieve what you've set out to do. THAT'S what greatness is about. And most times you WON'T stumble!

• Don't sweat the small stuff/pick your battles. Focus on what is positive/constructive/forward-moving. Have boundaries for sure and don't allow disrespect or toxicity to live in your zone, but recognize that not every insult requires a response. Ask yourself, 'What's the best use of my energy in this situation?'

CONGRATULATIONS, LADIES! I am very proud of you for establishing and launching a company. I look forward to seeing you soar! Best, Celia

Thank YOU, Celia! We’re honored to have you streaming your exciting short film Mission during our Indie Fuxion Film Showcase!

Please check out Celia and other filmmakers who as Artistic Director I’ve asked to help me launch this global film showcase FREE to your screens and mobile devices everywhere. Join us on GFNTV, November 15 - December 15, 2020. Click here to Register. Happy Streaming!

#FilmmakerFridays #FemaleFilmmakerFriday #GFNTV #IndieFilm #IndieFuxion #BlindMice #Film #Filmmaking #WomenInFilm #virtualcinema #Directing #BlackFilmPirate

Mission by filmmaker Celia C. Peters

You Never Know

My NYC Film Family is an extended one of talented people whom I truly admire. One of my film sisters, Peilin Kuo, will grace our #IndieFuxion Film Showcase with two of her many films that are burned in my memory. Her first film I even used in my teaching materials for years with my journalism students. There is always more to do with a camera than point and shoot!

Peilin’s artistry is genuine, haunting, unique and engaging. She’s a storyteller who challenges herself and the audience to the full limits of where cinematography and visual effects can take us. We always enter into a new world. Which is why the first film I asked her to share with our audience—a little more simple in its visual style—captures the immigrant experience in a way that enlightens all of us to the fact that there are millions of immigrant stories left to tell. So unique. So poignant. That’s what her film A.K.A. 08494#### means to me. With the second film we’re featuring, Prescott Place, she stepped into a genre and never let go. I’m always in awe of her talent. My exclamations of “Go, Peilin!” are always my immediate reaction and they never get old.

Join us November 15 - December 15 on GFNTV to screen Peilin’s work and other sisters-in-film in our Indie Fuxion Film Showcase. Let us enlighten, entertain and surprise you! Click here to RSVP! See you there!

Womanity on Screen!

As Artistic Director of the inaugural Indie Fuxion Film Showcase, I’m having a blast celebrating the storytellers I get to connect with every day. I can’t keep them to myself. Click here for our month-long online event—the perfect way to introduce you to these fantastic artists from all parts of the globe!

Three films in the showcase are from The Womanity Project by director Aurélie Harp and producer Lydia Darly. Lydia is the talented artist and co-founder of the Nova Frontier Film Festival and Lab with my friend Billy Gerard Frank. I met Aurélie through Lydia. Lydia and Aurélie are from Paris and can also call themselves proud New Yorkers. And, in Aurelie’s family there’s a St. Louis connection—St. Louis is my hometown, when I’m not in NYC. See how it all ties together?

No matter where we come from, through film, we understand each other. And Aurélie and Lydia come from an acting background, like me! And yes, the three of us are all women, but The Womanity Project taps into what we all desire: That feminine power that affects us all, no matter what gender. Click here to explore their site. And join us Nov 15 - Dec 15 at #IndieFuxion to watch the films!

#GFNTV #IndieFilm #IndieFuxion #BlindMice #Film #Filmmaking #WomenInFilm #virtualcinema #Directing #BlackFilmPirate

A Word of Advice

This production still is a scene from my film, TITLE VII, and it stars Beata Harju as “Cathy” and Ariel Estrada as “Sam.” Ariel was amazing as the freaky, slimy IT guy. Trust that when a colleague looks at you like this and whispers in your ear during your first hour on the job—such is the scene here with Cathy—it’s definitely not love at first sight. It’s a sign to RUN!

Our award-winning TITLE VII is one of a number a films screening online for free at our inaugural #IndieFuxion Film Showcase on GFNTV, Nov 15 - Dec 15, 2020. During our showcase we have films from around the world with universal themes, a lot like TITLE VII, where cinema provides the visual language with which all can relate! We’re excited to introduce audiences to the work of veteran indie filmmakers as well as offer an opportunity to see the work of a new production company on the scene: Blind Mice.

Because I’m the Artistic Director of the film showcase, and I love mentoring, I asked my filmmaking peers to offer words of advice to the young ones just starting out. My friend Ela Thier—an amazing talent and teacher—said the following: “Blind Mice is likely to succeed because you're a team. Artists succeed in clusters. No individual artist ever, ever, succeeded working on their own. Having each other and doing this together is what got you inspired, what got you to take action, what will keep you going, what will make the work enjoyable through highs and through lows, and what will ultimately lead you to your goals. Thank you for doing that!”

Thank YOU, Ela, for your brilliance and wisdom.

Please RSVP here for our Showcase! Let’s go, #IndieFilm!

#GFNTV #IndieFuxion #BlindMice #Film #Filmmaking #WomenInFilm #virtualcinema #Directing #BlackFilmPirate

We're Putting on a Show!

Please share and RT far and wide and RSVP at this link. Our month-long #IndieFuxion is free and open to all around the globe. Please save the dates: Nov 15 - Dec 15, 2020. Enjoy! #GFNTV #IndieFilm #IndieFuxion #BlindMice #Film #Filmmaking #WomenInFilm

Cover Art: Artist and Photographer Delphine Diallo of Womanity Project's "I would like for people to talk about the feminine & masculine energy more than Gender”

Who Are Blind Mice?

Very new to the production scene in New York City—even during a pandemic—are Blind Mice. They describe themselves as creative, reliable, unconventional and on a mission “to destroy and reconstruct the standards set by the industry.” I know them as my recently graduated students who took every assignment in our packed TV and Film curriculum and rocked it! I’m so proud of these young creatives. And, now that I’ve been asked to be the artistic director of a new online showcase on Global Fuxion Television Network, I get to introduce them to the world!

RSVP by clicking here for the Indie Fuxion Film Showcase on GFNTV.com, Nov. 15 - Dec. 15 , 2020 and meet #BlindMice! Stay tuned to our #GFNTV #IndieFuxion hashtags and see the advice our veterans in the Showcase generously share with our Blind Mice leading up to our big event! Ahhhh…to be young again…and carrying tripods, light kits, unaffordable camera lenses, boundless enthusiasm and a sprinkle of grit. True grit. Get to know Blind Mice by clicking here and see you at Indie Fuxion! #GFNTV #IndieFilm #IndieFuxion #BlindMice #Film #Filmmaking #WomenInFilm #virtualcinema #Directing

Boss Moves

Thrilled to chat with kweliTV CEO DeShuna Moore Spencer on Friday, October 16 at 3pm. It’s National Boss’s Day and DeShuna and I will have a Boss chat!

She’s been running a top streaming app that many have affectionately called “the Black Netflix” and from what I can tell as a filmmaker on the channel, DeShuna has the poise and the grit that it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. On the filmmaking side, it took a heck of a lot of stamina to film TITLE VII—a feature about Black female CEO’s worst day at the office. Did you hear that we filmed in eight days? Why not share war stories? Want to join us? Maybe offer some tips?

Our 72-minute feature, TITLE VII, may be seen on kweliTV during a 7-day free trial at this link. Our hope is you’ll also click around the channel and enjoy an entire library of global content from filmmakers and subjects of the African Diaspora. As a filmmaker of more than 20 years I am honored to screen my films on this channel. DeShuna’s a champion of independent film. Please read more about her here. And, I may be biased, but TITLE VII is a very special story for so many reasons. You may find out more about it here.

Until then, enjoy our chat at whereby.com/kweliTV at 3pm on National Boss’s Day 2020. As we like to say with #TITLEVIIFilm, the story of your worst day on the job can’t be worse than ours! Come share!

Watch TITLE VII then Stop By and Chat!

Friends, please join me Friday, October 16, 2020 at 3pmEST on National Boss's Day, when I talk to my friend and BOSS of #kweliTV DeShuna Moore Spencer. If you haven't seen the film I directed, TITLE VII (it's a doozey!), watch it during your free 7-day trial on kweli.TV and tune in to chat with us at www.whereby.com/kweliTV for the behind-the-scenes fun!

See you soon! And please share! #TITLEVIIFilm #NatlBossDay #FireTheBoss

Celebrate National Boss's Day with TITLE VII!

Since nothing’s is going on in the news these days, we’re excited to screen our feature film, TITLE VII, with audiences on National Boss’s Day on one of our favorite streaming networks, kweliTV! More details to come, but for now, please SAVE THE DATE: Friday, October 16. Until then, please #WearAMask!

When Ella Sings on Sunday

My Mom and I wrote a children's book this summer. We're still yet to be published, but we had the honor of a public reading of our manuscript on Wednesday, July 29 via invitation of Church of St. Michael & St. George! Six year-old Ella made an impression. We hope to bring our story to your bookshelves and public libraries soon! In the meantime, we’ll get started on the sequel….

TITLE VII works overtime on #EmployeeAppreciationDay

And if you have come to know our rollercoaster ride of a feature film where we meet a CEO whose worst day on the job is about to change her life forever, then you know we’re talking about more than just the 1964 Civil Rights Act put into law.

TITLE VII is a 72-minute drama that keeps you on your toes as we follow the unethical and unconventional work culture helmed by CEO Hillary Kelsey (Chicava Honeychild). Hillary is a Black female boss whose rule is to never hire Black employees. One day she slips, and Darryl Montgomery (Fidel Vicioso) joins the firm. During this eight-hour grind, the employees of Sanger International engage in sex, lies and deadly threats that will either leave you breathless or coming back for more. We’ll take both!

Is it a drama? A dark comedy? A thriller? The conversation has led past audiences to dark places, except when outbursts of laughter come at another employee’s expense.

Our story is fiction. But millions of 9 to 5-ers wake up dreading the day ahead. That’s the beauty of art. Let us show you how much worse it can be!

During this year’s #EmployeeAppreciationDay on Friday, March 6, 2020, join us for a 24-hour FREE screening of our provocative story—if only to feel better about yourself! Click here and sign up for a day on the job you will never forget. Share this company-wide, but only if your colleagues are of drinking age. Our film is for mature audiences only. And we’ll give you plenty to talk about at the bar. See you on March 6!

Free 24-hour screening of TITLE VII right at your fingertips by clicking here

New Year, New Price!

Happy 2020!

New Year, new price! Watch TITLE VII on Vimeo for a reduced fee and longer rental period!

Thank you, Friends and Fam for the love through pre-production, production, post, award nominations and wins!

Please click here and enjoy! And please leave a comment and share!

Happy New Year!

The Evolution of The Revolution - From Film to FinTech

When I was pictured here circa 15 years ago with my talented dear friend Ruth Sergel I was on set for my short film, Harlem Sistas Double Dutch, and immersed in the world of shiny new “minidv” digital cameras. Our small crew captured beautiful and vibrant actors bringing forth the most important element on set: Story. Sometimes the story evolves from the storyteller. My journey is one from performer (in my much, much younger years) to producer to director to author to all of the above who now incorporates the world of fintech as part of my visionary plot.

I’m sure I came to this pretty naturally. I’m a filmmaker who likes to be pretty hands on with the equipment and I’ve always had to raise money to finance my dreams. Finance + technology.

When cryptocurrency was introduced as a peer-to-peer phenomenon democratizing the economy, I took note. We participate in an exchange of goods and services and place a value on it where all could benefit? Non-government issued currency in the digital form could fuel tech products and innovation? As a result, many more of us have a chance to be crypto millionaires? (Read about the millionaires I’ve met by clicking here)

We’re witnessing a revolution and remember what Gil Scott-Heron said: “The Revolution will not be televised.” In this new frontier those who are the gatekeepers will not stand in the way of the forcefield that is global communities—en masse—bonding together over open-sourced code, living our best lives. Yes, as Scott-Heron summed up, “The Revolution will be no rerun, Brothers. The Revolution will be…Live.” Let’s get livin’!

September

It’s September. And in a few days a new school year begins. A Fall into a fresh start. A final farewell to my 40s. Let’s see how this goes!