Faces of Change

I’m not the hugest fan of Andy Warhol, but I give him credit as an obvious source of inspiration and also that I am a bit bored in my hotel room. But what is my main source of inspiration is the financial, economic and racial winds of change within this country and the global community. These faces also symbolize for me the faces of some on Nov. 5th. Those who are reluctant to change and what would be a wonderful and hopefully healing cultural and racial paradigm shift. How we are all globally related and can so contagiously effect eachother’s experience. But more importantly, sometimes you have to feel the pain before the peace.

Download larger image here.

OUT OF FRAME: Black, White, Whatever

By Olive Demetrius

I came across this great moment in film when this was referred to me by Sabelo another Out Of Frame featured artist. Black White Whatever struck me as a voice that sometimes gets left out of the dialogue on pluralism.

It is beautifully shot and edited. It is a high power shot of goodness for some of our adult ADD sufferers(you know who you are and you already forgot what you came for)

Here is some more about the artists that made it possible

KELLY ZEN-YIE TSAI (Spoken Word Poet, Producer) is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who has featured at over 300 performances worldwide including 3 seasons of “HBO Def Poetry.”  She constantly strives push the boundaries of spoken word poetry and innovate it for the stage, page, and screen.  “Black, White, Whatever” is her third spoken word video and the first produced by her production company, Moving Earth Productions.  Her previous spoken word videos include “By-Standing: The Beginning of An American Lifetime” (Dir. Karen Lin) won special recognition at the Media That Matters & VIBE UrbanWorld Film Festivals, and her second spoken word video “Weapons of Mass Creation” (Dir. Kamilah Forbes) was commissioned by San Francisco not-for-profit Youth Noise’s nationwide Youth Summit Tour.  For more info, www.yellowgurl.com or www.youtube.com/kztsai.

JAZZMEN JOY LEE-JOHNSON (Director) is a film & video artist, animator, multi-medium designer, dancer, musician and activist from Baltimore currently residing in Johannesburg, South Africa.  A graduate from Rhode Island School of Design, her work as a director, editor and producer has been recognized in a range of outlets including her award winning work in the ‘05 Hip-Hop Odyssey International Film Festival & as a Thomas Watson Fellowship winner.  Her work has taken her to Benin, Mail, South Africa, India and Brasil.

ALLI MAXWELL (Producer) is a director/producer working in theater and film. Of her most recent theater works, she has directed multiple productions as a director and company member of At Play Productions, an NYC based theater company & the resident company of The 24 Hour Plays Off-Broadway. At Play and its 40 emerging actors, directors, writers and producers came together through a project created by Kevin Spacey and The 24 Hour Play. Her current film projects include production coordinator for “The Black List,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and has since been bought by and currently airs on HBO. She is also in various stages of production as Producer on projects with spoken word artist Kelly Tsai, people’s poet Kahlil Almustafa and music videos for The Lost Crusaders.

Life and Debt (Full-Length Film)

You might of heard of it. You may have seen it but did you know that this film that director Stephanie Black who directed this lushly edited film. She skillfully weaves the text of Jamaica Kincaid’s ” A Small Place” If you don’t live in a large city or you aren’t connected to an artist community you might not have ever heard about the facts examined in this film.

This film can be compared to any documentary that exposes the far reaching effects of globalization on developing countries. It also brings home the point that through globalization slavery wasn’t abolished it has been outsourced and renamed. It is now cloaked as free trade.

Sabelo Narasimhan

Sabelo is a defunct photography student who spends a lot of time in microeconomics classes and playing tennis these days. A queer immigrant of south Asian decent, Sabelo has spent time on both coasts and can’t decide on which is better. So left both and headed abroad on a 4 week trek east. Using layers and contradiction, reflection and depth, colors and shadows, Sabelo explores the people and places that we move through/around everyday.

One of kind- Little Miss Jocelyn

I discovered Little Miss Jocelyn one night from a good friend of mine. It is the brainchild if Jocelyn Jee Esein. She is the only women of color to have her own sketch comedy show in Britain and really I don’t see her equivalent anywhere else. Correct me if I am wrong. Please.

Her humor is bizarre, profane and oh so delicious.

Wikipdia

Faces

by Olive Demetrius.

This is a small selection of a larger collection of photos involving people from the film U People.

I took these photographs initially because the documentary was an unplanned blessing. We didn’t have stills that really captured the time, place and feeling. We took the time after the fact to bring these people to our home to shoot these photographs. These are dynamic interesting people yet drawing something out of them was more difficult than I expected.

Here are some of the one I like the most.

Tika Milan was a part of U People the movie and was really uncomfortable during this shoot. I felt that I had to draw on the comfort of our long association for the vulnerability of this shot.

C. Sala Hewitt also a subject of U People the film. She is all angles and lips and beautiful eyes in person wrapped around a fierce personality.

“Game Face”
When it is called everyone has one.

“Shapes”
C. Sala Hewitt also a subject of U People the film. She is all angles and lips and beautiful eyes in person wrapped around a fierce personality.

“untitled”
Thanwi Nandini. In the film we focused on her eyes that dominate her face. Her I wanted to give her face a platform to shine from.

“Red Summer”
Named for the smmer of 1919. One of the bloodiest summers of our shared American history. By her name she reminds us of our past while she looks toward our future.

“Anticipate”
It looks like the moments before a kiss.

“Still”
Ayesha Harris was our fabulous femme on set but looks will lead deceive and bring you back to the fact that she is not easily defined. Her face is often joyous and mobile but it is full of depth as well. I tried to capture a small bit here.

“Fallen”
Another side of Ayesha Harris.