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tipsycad147 · 3 years ago

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The Magick of Thorns

I’ve been talking a lot about thorn magick this summer within the Lunar Apothecary, in my readings, and within community conversations. The summer of 2016 has been rough. In the United States we are wrestling with ourselves, searching for our center, and coming undone. The work of repairing the world is hard stuff and it takes more than a little bit of vulnerability and grit. There are those who are learning about privilege for the first time and grappling with that heavy knowledge. There are folks who are realizing that they have too long normalized or denied or hidden the pain of the violence they face on the daily. There is a lot of opening up and difficult realizations occurring and there are a million hearts breaking in the process.

To do this work of unraveling, we need to be able to feel vulnerable in ways that allow us to still feel supported.

Thorn magick can play a powerful role during times like these when we are opening up, whether for the first time or all over again for the hundredth. So, what is thorn magick? It is herbal remedies that open us up while establishing a steady and protective boundary so that we can do the work that needs doing. Thorn magick allows for vulnerability and support to exist simultaneously instead of feeling vulnerable and too far exposed. I recommend thorn magick to those who are doing the hard work of creating change in their communities and in their lives; who are recovering from a difficult breakup and looking to be vulnerable in love again; to those who are experiencing difficult emotions that they have long denied but are now finally coming to the surface.

Working with herbs that possess strong thorn energy, such as Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and Rose (Rosa spp.), can be as easy as preparing and ingesting a tea or tincture or the plant. Especially if that tea or tincture is made, in part, from the thorns of the plant. Adding a single thorn to your Rose tincture can powerfully shift the brew to being not only a heart-opener but a heart-protector. Sitting and communing with living thorny plants can be another way of working with thorn magick. If neither or those two options are available, even meditating on an image of a thorny plant (such as placing a picture of a sacred Hawthorn tree on your altar) can do a lot of good.

However, you work with the plant, I encourage you to visualize two things occurring at once. First, see a beautiful and protective shield of thorns encompassing your whole body. The thorns are turned outward from you allowing only that which of benefit to you to get to you. Second, within this protective space, visualize your heart blossoming open like a flower, knowing that it is supported and guarded within the sanctity of your thorn space. I encourage you to move slow with the second part of the meditation - don’t force movement, but allow the unfolding of your heart to occur at an easy and kind pace. It can take time for our hearts to feel safe enough to open up again. That’s ok. Give yourself time. The plants are patient and wise and will stick with you.

While there are many thorny plants in the world, I have profiled Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) and Rose (Rosa spp.) below which are two common and well-loved plants within Traditional Western Herbalism. I’ve listed some of the more prominent medicinal uses of each plant, but have primarily focused on their emotional and magickal gifts. Other thorny plants you might consider working with include Agave (Agave americana), Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Raspberry (Rubus idaeus), Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spp.), a great variety of cacti, and many other plants.

Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)

Hawthorn is one of the first herbs many Traditional Western Herbalists turn to for supporting cardiovascular health. The herb nourishes and feeds the heart working best as a long-term tonic (i.e. multiple months of use if not longer). In other words, Hawthorn is a cardiac tophorestorative which is a restorative tonic for the heart, bringing the hard working muscle back into balance whether from an illness, stress, or the affects of aging. Hawthorn is a powerful but gentle herb meaning that children, seniors, and all between can benefit from its use. Part of Hawthorn’s heart healing gifts is its possession of antioxidants which prevent and reverse damage caused by free radicals as well as reducing oxidative stress on the capillary walls and improving circulatory tone (whether by relaxing or strengthening). The herb should be considered when there is a case of congestive heart failure, angina, irregular heartbeat, hardening of the arteries, enlargement of the heart from excessive exercise or overwork, hypertension, both low and high blood pressure, and too much cholesterol.

Hawthorn shares a common characteristic found in many TWH heart herbs - it possesses beautiful flowers and protective thorns. Hawthorn helps the heart to open to new possibilities, especially after a period of heartbreak and distress such as after the loss of a loved one whether through death or a break-up. The herb protects our emotional vulnerability with its thorns. In fact, we are able to feel more vulnerable in a way that is healing and restorative when we feel protected by plant allies such as Hawthorn. Add a thorn from the plant to your tincture or glycerite preparations for extra protective energies. I have used Hawthorn many times in my practice for those recovering from heartbreak and have seen beautiful transformations occur with this plant’s amazing healing gifts. I love the language used by Judith Berger to describe Hawthorn: “As guardian of the hinge, hawthorn wisely discerns the right timing for the wounded heart to open” (Herbal Rituals, 134). Combine with Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) to help the Wounded Warrior, Wounded Healer type recover after a long period of giving and overwork where they has exhausted their mental, physical, and emotional resources. Hawthorn is also a good herb for those who feel wild and overstimulated in their grief and heartbreak. It calms, it soothes, and it protects, which is what we need more than ever when we feel raw. My favorite way to use Hawthorn as a daily tonic is as a glycerite that combines the leaf, flower, and berry.

Within an astroherbology context, Hawthorn is most often connected with the planet Mars due to its thorns. Other planetary correspondences include the Sun, because of Hawthorn's affect on the heart and overall vitality of the body, and Saturn since Hawthorn is hedgeherb and boundary-marker with strong connections to the otherworld.

The brokenhearted and grieving have a special place in the Hawthorn circle, for Hawthorn opens the heart after a period of despair. It is an ally for those who feel the grief of the world most readily, even if a personal tragedy is not currently present in their life. They recognize the tragedy of living on a planet that we pollute without regard to our shared sacredness and amongst endless wars and conflicts. Feeling wild in grief is a sign that Hawthorn may be needed and for some their journey with Hawthorn will be significant but relatively brief as they are able to move on with their lives with a newly opened heart. Those who need Hawthorn in the long-run tend towardsrestlessness and irritability, they are easily overstimulated and can sometimes lean (or fully reside) in the domain of the Type A personality. Often they are categorized as having attention disorders as children, whether or not this is warranted. They are children who appear to be more like changelings than a fully humyn child. Sometimes they are punished for the everyday acts of being an energetic child and disdained for their enthusiasm - they close up their heart to protect it from the hostility of a world that would prefer they sit quietly at a desk for hours following directions. Hawthorn re-opens the heart and helps folks connect with their resiliency, their capacity to forgive those who have harmed them, and to remain protected as they begin to express themselves and all their energy with pride and focus. The herb will bring calm to what has felt like a tumultuous existence, helping folks to find the tools they need to express themselves honestly and beautifully.

Rose (Rosa spp.)

Rose is an ancient plant with fossils have been found across Europe, North America, and Asia dating back from as early as the Miocene period (7 - 26 million years ago). The flower has been used medicinally for thousand of years, with Dioscorides recording Rose as a cooling and contracting medicine. The three varieties of Rose most often used for medicine-making is Rosa gallica (also known as as Provins or Apothecaries rose), Rosa damascena (or Rosa x damascena to denote its hybridity, also known as damask rose), and Rosa centifolia (also known as Provence Rose). More modern uses within TWH includes Rosa canina and Rosa rugosa.

Roses strengthen the heart. 18th century herbalist J. Quincy wrote that Rose “raises the spirits and gives sudden strength and cheerfulness” and categorized Rose as primarily a cardiac and cephalic (relating to the head). The herb assists with memory and promotes clarity of mind, heart, and spirit by connecting all three. Rose nourishes the body and is sweet medicine which calms the nervous system. Within Ayurveda, Rose is considered a rasayana (rejuvenative tonic) and medhya (brain tonic and nervine) for all of the doshas or body types.

As a plant of Venus, Rose is a classic aphrodisiac. Rose is an opener - it opens the heart and body to sensual experience. Like many aphrodisiacs, Rose has nervine and nourishing qualities which help to relax and soothe the body so that it may become ready and desirous of intimacy. Venusian magick, though, reveals desire on more than the physical level. It reveals the desire to engage mystery where there has only been the acknowledgement of the mundane.

Rose is especially useful for those who have lost their spark of desire. They might have trouble sleeping, restless and exhausted, but not enough energy to go out into the world. The desire to create and experience is low along with their vitality. What they think they should be doing dominates their thoughts more than what they want to be doing. Sometimes they are not even sure they know what they want to be doing. There can be a disconnect in relationships and not necessarily a feeling of isolation, but of distance. Rose folks often experience sudden overwhelming feelings of despair and being lost without a light in the murk. Sometimes, unresolved anger simmers deep below the surface - Rose teaches us how to use both our thorns and petals to set up boundaries and supportive spaces to express how we really feel. Rose reconnects to wildness, fierceness, and determined desire. To dream and want and feel and growl and move and connect with each other. One thing that I have seen again and again that is particularly powerful about Rose, is its ability connects us back to the secret excitement of mystery. So much of our unresolved and stagnant pain arises from a false notion that we know it all or at least know that our pain is permanent, what caused it is unchanging, and that this is all that will ever be. Rose reminds us that we, in fact, know very little, acceptance of which opens the path of possibility faster than a heart that has forgotten the importance of mystery will ever achieve.

Whether or not you use thorn magick and medicine in your practice, I hope that you have a space that you feel protected and held so that you are able to be vulnerable, soft, and open to the wisdom of your heart.

http://www.wortsandcunning.com/blog/the-magick-of-thorns

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william7395hal-blog · 4 years ago

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Activity Gyms

Nothing is more compensating than watching your kid grow up and acquire new abilities. Movement exercise centers are intended to offer unrivaled solace during floor time. Furthermore, they help in visual and psychological turn of events. Here is a comprehensive purchasing manual for help you settle on a shrewd speculation choice.

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highvoltagearea · 4 years ago

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Artist Uses Lego Bricks to Make Lifelike Sculptures of Animals

Making a career out of building with Lego bricks sounds like a dream job—just ask any kid (or many adults, for that matter). But it’s the real deal for Sean Kenney, who turned his childhood hobby into a full-time career. For more than 15 years the New York City-based artist has been creating masterpieces using Lego bricks as his medium of choice. His creations—from towering skyscrapers to portraiture—have been featured at museums and zoos around the world, inspiring people of all ages.

His latest project, “Nature Connects: Art with Lego Bricks” is one of his most ambitious endeavors yet. Currently on tour at a number of zoos, botanical gardens and arboretums across the United States, including the San Antonio Zoo; the Denver Zoo; Flamingo Gardens in Davie, Florida; and the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville, the traveling exhibition, which launched in 2012, showcases a collection of life-size and larger-than-life replicas of plants and animals.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly(Flickr user Carol VanHook)

Like most kids, Kenney spent his free time playing with Legos. As he got older, he honed his artistic skills as a cartoonist, studying visual arts at Rutgers University. Upon graduation he worked as a graphic designer, often incorporating Lego bricks into his work. Living in New York City, he drew much of his inspiration from the bustling city surrounding him, creating renditions of the Empire State Building and Greenwich Village among other familiar sights. It wasn’t until a botanical garden in Iowa approached him about making replicas of some of its flowers and plants that he made the natural world his subject. His work began touring to other institutions across the Midwest and proved so popular that zoos began commissioning him to make reproductions of some of their animals.

“Over the years I’ve been continually growing this body of work, and I keep on building,” Kenney says. “I literally just made three flamingos that are now on display at the Denver Zoo.”

Snow leopard(Flickr user Linda De Volder)

Add that feathery flamboyance to a growing assortment of more than 150 animals, including lions, polar bears, buffalo, snow leopards, peacocks, butterflies and ducks, and you have a menagerie of Lego sculptures that look surprisingly similar to the real critters. But getting them to appear lifelike is no easy task.

“One of the biggest challenges is trying to get the softness of [an animal’s]features and the expressiveness of the face right while using what is otherwise a very blocky, low-resolution medium,” he says. “To me, that’s one of the most fun things to overcome. When you’ve done it, you’ve really done it. You step back and are proud of it.”

Kenney recalls a woman at one of his shows turning to see his sculpture of a snow leopard crouched down like it’s on the prowl. She actually jumped back, thinking it was alive. “Knowing that I got the face right means I did it right,” says the artist, “and that’s why the challenge is worth it.”

Mallards (by Sean Kenney)

To pull off this feat, Kenney collaborates with a group of artists who work together in teams of two or three to create each sculpture. Most pieces start out as rough sketches on paper, which are then transferred onto graph paper or computer models to plan out the basic shape and size of the animal. Kenney likens these to “Pixar characters.”

“We gather source photography and other information online,” he says. “Sometimes we watch YouTube videoes to see the subject in action.”

The artists then use these blueprints as a point of reference as they click together Lego bricks to build a prototype. Once Kenney has a prototype he likes, the team begins building the final piece. From start to finish, a single sculpture can take thousands of bricks and many months of labor to complete. The largest sculptures can take up to nine months to construct. Builders glue each and every brick together as if they’re building a brick wall. A lion, for example, took 474 construction hours and 48,248 bricks to build.

“There’s still a lot of stuff that we do the old-fashioned way, like when we’re adding facial features or we need creatures to interact with each other and show emotion,” Kenney says. “We’ll grab all the funny-shaped Lego pieces like circles, triangles and slopes, and bricks that look like wheels and windows and coffee cups. The real fun is trying to figure out how I’m going to make [an animal’s]eyes look real by using circles and arches.”

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Kenney is quick to point out that he only uses bricks that are available to the general public. “None of my sculptures are made with special Lego bricks,” he says. “I use the same ones that children play with.”

As Kenney has perfected his ability to capture the essence of different species, he’s expanded his reach to focus on animals that are either extinct, like the Dodo bird, or endangered. A piece called “Deforestation” features an incredibly rare Formosan clouded leopard found in the mountains of Taiwan. The species’ habitat is being threatened and it was believed to be extinct until the leopard was spotted by several witnesses in 2018.

Polar bears (Flickr user Linda De Volder)

“We placed the leopard so that it’s looking back at an excavator that’s destroying its habitat,” he says. “We first designed this for a local audience in Taipei but realized there’s a global story there. It’s since been on display in the United States and Europe.” It’s slated to be on display at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in the fall.

Kenney’s pieces are proving popular with audiences not only because they continue the conversation about conservation, but also for their sheer craftsmanship. Hope Roth, who is the vice president of marketing at the San Antonio Zoo, which has a newly opened drive-through zoo that’s been a draw during the Covid-19 pandemic, says that “Nature Connects” has helped “elevate the experience” the zoo offers. The exhibit features 30-plus sculptures, which will be on display through the end of the year.

Jumping Koi (Sean Kenney)

“Every summer we try to bring in an exhibition that’s going to give more value to our guests, and his pieces do this,” Roth says. “His work is amazing and so impactful when you see it in person. We placed the majority of the sculptures where they’re visible when driving through the zoo. You can really see the artistry.”

While the Denver Zoo, Flamingo Gardens and North Carolina Arboretum don’t offer drive-through options, Kenney’s Lego creations are outdoors and interspersed throughout the sites’ grounds. All three locations, as well as the San Antonio Zoo, are following strict safety measures during Covid-19, encouraging guests to keep enough distance between one other and mandating that visitors where face coverings.

Fox Chasing a Rabbit (Sean Kenney)

While Covid-19 may have put a damper on traveling, it hasn’t stopped Kenney from creating new Lego sculptures. For 2021, he’s dreaming up a “colorful, punchy and playful” exhibition called “Nature POP” that gives the natural world a new spin.

“Imagine a lawn full of giant bunny rabbits in polka dots and stripes, or a neon-blue woodpecker on a lava-lamp tree trunk,” he says. “All built with hundreds of thousands of Lego bricks. It’s going to look amazing!

Source Link

source https://highvoltagearea.com/artist-uses-lego-bricks-to-make-lifelike-sculptures-of-animals/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=artist-uses-lego-bricks-to-make-lifelike-sculptures-of-animals

#highvoltagearea #HVA

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fangirlsdailylife-blog · 7 years ago

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#DiamondEdgeinJakarta , Placed Me on the Edge of Joyful Tears

- Saturday, September 23rd 2017 -

That day is definitely going to be one of the most memorable days in 2017. I finally accomplished one of my life goals, to see Seventeen live.

Truth be told, there was a backstory behind this. Flashback to 2016, during their Asia Pacific Fanmeeting Tour. Well, my country was on the list. But the date was just not so compatible with my schedule because during that time I had to undergo a series of freshmen orientation program. August 20th 2016 was the first day of the orientation program so it was a logical reason to not attend their fanmeeting. Disappointed? Yes. Mad? Most definitely. But I made a promise to myself.

‘If the next year they will hold a world tour, I’m definitely going.’

I could say that I am pretty determined, and lucky, that I could actually prove my words.

And with that, here is the story of my amazing Saturday Night with the boys, and my family, the Rose Quartz and Serenity.

It’s happening! It’s finally happening! My long wait has come to an end. The crowd cheers as the opening VCR is played on the screen. The VCR is so bright and colorful it satisfies my eyes. Shortly after VCR ended...

‘JAKARTA! MAKE SOME NOISE!’

I know that voice. I know it too well. It was no other than Seventeen’s very own Happy Virus, Dokyeom. As he said so, the members are starting to appear one by one. I was in the edge of crying because THEY.ARE.SO.HANDSOME.IN.REAL.LIFE. For real!

And with that, the concert is opened with one of their hit songs... Pretty U.

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Pretty U is one of my favorite songs. It’s just so sweet and light. Along with the cute and romantic meaning of the song, that’s my type of bubbly music. Not forgetting about the boys as well. They look so cute in those colorful suits. Cuteness just went up to a whole new level.

Once the first song was finished, Beautiful is up next.

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Okay. Let me be honest. This is even bubblier(?) than Pretty U. And I swear, I saw Dino and The8 doing the backpack dance when Dokyeom was singing his first line. Everyone was just so sweet. Throwing hearts here and there. Waving to us with a smile painted on their faces. It’s so refreshing to see them do their thing like that. There’s also a snippet of JeongHao moment during the performance. Basically, this performance is fluffy explosion everywhere.

Once Beautiful is over, they move on to the last song of the session, Adore U

Adore U was a good ol’ classic. It just brings out their natural stage appeal. Along with the fun bickers by the members during the performance, it’s another type of stage that lifts up the audience’s mood. The highlight part is definitely Dokyeom’s ‘Baby you are my angel~’. For a moment, the whole audience and Seventeen became one when that line was sung. Overall, the opening sequence is amazing! What a way to start a day, or a concert in this case.

Next... They introduced themselves in Bahasa Indonesia. Indonesia 101, in terms of K-Pop Concerts, the most common way to greet the audience is by saying ‘Apa kabar? Nama saya ...’ which translates as ‘How are you? My name is ...’ . Seventeen did a really good job at that. I would like to point out that Jeonghan, has the cutest voice when he was greeting the audiences in Bahas Indonesia.

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Again, Dokyeom is the one with the most energy in here. Oh, scratch that. Hoshi is probably the one with the most energy during their introduction. Hoshi used his iconic 10:10 introduction. In which the the audience replied as expected! The rest? As an Indonesia, I’m pretty impressed with their introductions. Pronunciation wise, they are pretty good for beginners. If they ever planned for another concert here, I hope they could improve their skill more.

Introduction took quite some time, perhaps 10 minutes or so. Once they finished, the stage continues with ‘Still Lonely’ and Performance Team’s ‘Swimming Fool’. Again, the last song to close the second song session is the hit song, ‘Very Nice’. With that, the first part of the concert was over.

Second part starts with the screen displaying a few photos of Seventeen during their childhood. I gotta say, Joshua, Jun, Vernon, and Mingyu has the best childhood photos. Jeonghan looks really plain back then. Well, now, he’s slaying, at the very least. So I guess that’s quite an upgrade for him. After the VCR ended, we were greeted with Seventeen in uniforms of black and white. Probably a High School Uniform and they are performing Mansae.

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I would like to state that I love how they wrote ‘Jakarta Mansae’ on the blackboard. And Jeonghan sounded so clear when they were performing this song.

Mansae ends. Boom Boom starts.

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You may notice by now that my fancams usually starts with Jeonghan singing. It’s just because I love him so much. :3 Also, Hoshi in sleeveless tops are the death of me.

After Boom Boom ended, the members returned to their respective places to prepare for the next stage. Well, everyone but two, S.Coups and Wonwoo.

They are holding the ‘Going Seventeen’ camera and doing little talk sessions with us. S.Coups is quite known with his sweet talks. Basically S.Coups is just babying us Carats to the point where Wonwoo said ‘If you guys could scream loudly, S.Coups hyung will do aegyo’. Oh yeah we screamed alright. Who doesn’t want to see the leader’s aegyo anyways. Once they finished their talk, it marks as the end for the first quarter as well.

After the talks, S.Coups and Wonwoo introduced the next stage. I was expecting a unit performance. And guess what? Yep. We’re going to watch the units in action. First up for the session, Vocal Team.

Click Here (So apparently tumblr doesn’t allow adding more than 5 videos. What a bummer.)

They performed two songs. We Gonna Make It Shine, the new version, and Don’t Listen Secretly.

I have a question. Do Vocal Team sound like angels or angels sounded like Vocal Team? That’s a conspiracy circle that I will always wonder at.

No, for real. They sounded so clear and so good! I took special attention to my biases since I know that they didn’t have much lines compared to the other three. When I was listening... Wow, my ears has never been this blessed. You know the difference in quality between a live broadcast on a music show and actually hearing them live. Like they’re singing in front of you. Their voices are crystal clear. Dokyeom, this guy, never fails to amaze me with his vocals. Seungkwan, can’t say any other thing about his vocal range as well. Woozi, his sweet soft voice is enough for me to squeal on him. Jeonghan, his part snatched my life. Literally. IT WAS THAT GOOD AND IT SUITED HIS VOICE WELL. Joshua, his voice is soft, but not the Woozi kind of soft. It’s soothing enough to sing you a lullaby. I swear I could got diabetes from watching this unit just because how sweet and tender their voices are.

I would like to talk about their performance of Don’t Listen Secretly. It was the second song, right after We Gonna Make It Shine. The stage went dark for a few moments and then when it lights up again, there’s a small setting in the lower back stage that sort of resembles an old Victorian-styled office room. Dokyeom, Joshua, and Seungkwan were sitting in an old-fashioned chair while the remaining two stayed standing. And when the music plays, it got me off guard. The song was remixed in some sort of angsty horror manner and it clicked me. They were doing the Don’t Listen Secretly stage with a vampire concept. These lonely vampires just want some love. XDD

Vocal Team brought the crowd into one with their vocals. Now it’s time for the next unit to lift up the mood again. The visual, I mean, Hip-Hop Team is up next!

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They performed two songs. 언행일치 and Check In. To be honest, I haven’t laid my ear on the first song. So I got a little confused with the it. I was expecting for either 기대 or Fronting. But oh well, I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed the other songs. The once mellow atmosphere that the Vocal Team set was turned into something hot like Show Me The Money.

What can I say about them? They’re called visuals for a reason. Wonwoo, Jeon Wonwoo, especially him. To me, he was the member that looks BEST when I see the live. Like, he has this stage presence that could captivate the whole audience hearts. He’s what I call, the bias wrecker.

Second song, Check In. See, I was actually glad that this song was performed. Because of that one line, that one specific line, that goes ‘Yeah I check in Jakarta City~’. And yes, that part was the most lit one in my case, or rather, in the audiences case. Because they’re singing that line in the very same place. The crowd goes wild when they got to that part. It was lit. I could feel the tension and the burning atmosphere. Feels like I’m watching Unpretty Rap Star or something.

Last unit is up! And the air just got even hotter.

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Performance Team, the multi-talented unit. Rap? Check. Vocals? Check. Dance? They are called for that. They got on stage in full whites and started performing their signature song, OMG, as their first song. What’s interesting is this performance of OMG had a mix of rock music in it. Who knew that EDM would sound so majestic when you add a pinch of Rock into it? Now I’m wishing I had the clean version of this remix...

Following the next song, which is by far my favorite song from the unit, Highlight.

GODDAMN WHY ARE THEY SO HOT? They were literally covered with burning aura, no kidding. Like, Even when I’m not that close to the stage, and their aura just spreads everywhere like wildfire. It was hot in the concert hall thanks to this unit. And boy, they even added a dance break to this performance. The whole hall just felt like an oven. Hip-Hop Team was lit, but Performance Team is on fire at this rate.

Second quarter of the concert passed. Time for the real deal. Because everything hyped always happens at the third quarter. (Wth, this ain’t basketball)

The atmosphere was still hot as ever. Perhaps Performance Team set the temperature a bit too high. Hall was dark, until I saw the screen turning all red and displaying a visualization of flames. Wow shit, it’s gonna get ugly, in a good way. Click Here And as I expected, it’s gonna be lit for the rest of the quarter. The first song is ‘Crazy in Love’, my favorite song from the latest album. With all the red themed visualizations, and Seventeen wearing red, I’m practically a boiling water at this rate. Also, during Mingyu’s ‘Can’t stop it, neukkim, woo!’, I had the urge to dab. Just because I saw Wonwoo doing so during their dance practice. And yea, I dabbed. Click Here Click Here As if the torture wasn’t enough, they continued with another series of unit performances. This time it goes by the order : Vocal, Performance, and Hip-Hop Team. THEY ARE ALL FLAWLESS! And I figured, this quarter is the time where the fully perform their songs from their latest album. Minus Swimming Fool. Performance Team sent Jun and The8 to perform their duet song. Boy, there’s a bit of hot moment during their performance that made the crowd go crazy. (I don’t have the footage of Jun and The8′s performance. Sorry.) Finished with the unit performances. It’s Talk Time again! They did a lot of commentaries about the stage they just did, Indonesian Carats, and they did a little bit of dance battle! Click Here Joshua is just the cutest fluffball. And the leaders tho. Not forgetting to mention the amazing Diva Boo. His dances is literally the most lit one in my opinion. And last but not least, Wonwoo demonstrated Hip-Hop Team’s dance for their ‘If I’ stage. The moment he did that, I saw heaven. :’)) Click Here After they finished the dance battle, the performance continues to again, my personal favorites. Rock and Chuck. Now that the concert has finally come to an end, well, you know what I mean. They expressed their gratitude and the last song soon follows. The song we’ve been waiting for.

Click Here

I would like to point out a few stuffs that I didn’t get to record. Before the actual song was starting, there was a dance part performed by Dokyeom, and maybe, Jeonghan? I couldn’t see clearly because he was facing the opposite side. BUT HEY. THAT WAS THE MOST MAJESTIC THING I’VE EVER WITNESS. Jeonghan is a blessing. ;’))

The song finished. The screen went black. And the crowd?

‘ENCORE! ENCORE! ENCORE!’

Before the encore stage played, there was a VCR showing each of Seventeen’s members thoughts about Carats. To them, Carats are their energy, friend, air, something they could never live without. To sum up, Carats are their everything. What a sweet bunch of boys.

And the VCR ends... When another voice continues.

‘Slip into the Diamond Life...’

WOW. Just wow. Everyone showed up with their Diamond Edge tee. You know, the pink and blue one. Basically everything is so hyped and there was a lot of fanservice going on.

Click Here Click Here

That was so lit! It really brings back a lot of memories to me knowing that I’ve liked Seventeen back when they were still on Seventeen TV. I kinda teared up a bit despite the song being an upbeat one. Memories will be forever...

And the next song, the very last song, really makes the crowd heals. Yep, it’s Healing. :)

Click Here

There was a fan project going on. And everything went really smoothly. I hope we got the be in the next episode of Going Seventeen. Teehee~

As the song ends, it is finally the time to say goodbye. They bid their messages to us. And I’m surprised that they actually brought up a lot of memories during their tour last year. Mingyu, Jeonghan, Seungkwan, S.Coups, Hoshi, Dokyeom, and Vernon talked about their first ever visit to Indonesia last year. I’m ... Impressed actually. I assume that maybe, Indonesia left a good impression to them. So they were actually pretty glad to visit here again. And I’m glad that they are glad to feel that way.

It’s finally the time to say goodbye. For real. But I clearly remembered Mingyu’s words.

‘If you live your life happily while you’re waiting for us, I’m sure that the next time we meet will come faster.’

I’m taking that as a promise that one day, they will return. And the day of their return, I’ll be there to watch them again.

Looking back to that moment, I’ve never been so blessed in my entire life that I could finally meet them in such a close distance.

As I reflect on Mingyu’s words, I made a new promise to myself...

I will meet them again one day, in a closer distance. Where I can fully immerse myself in their stage presence.

And that closes the story of my amazing night with my boys, Seventeen. And my family, the Rose Quartz and Serenity.

#Seventeen #s.coups #jeonghan #joshua #junhui #hoshi #wonwoo #woozi #the8 #mingyu #dokyeom #seungkwan #vernon #dino #diamond edge in jakarta

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liliannorman · 5 years ago

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How math makes movies like Doctor Strange so otherworldly

For wild chase scenes, it’s hard to beat Doctor Strange. In this 2016 film, the fictional doctor-turned-sorcerer has to stop villains who want to destroy reality. To further complicate matters, the evildoers have unusual powers of their own.

“The bad guys in the film have the power to reshape the world around them,” explains Alexis Wajsbrot. He’s a film director who lives in Paris, France. But for Doctor Strange, Wajsbrot instead served as the film’s visual-effects artist.

Those bad guys make ordinary objects move and change forms. Bringing this to the big screen makes for chases that are spectacular to watch. City blocks and streets appear and disappear around the fighting foes. Adversaries clash in what’s called the “mirror dimension” — a place where the laws of nature don’t apply. Forget gravity: Skyscrapers twist and then split. Waves ripple across walls, knocking people sideways and up. At times, multiple copies of the entire city seem to appear at once, but at different sizes. And sometimes they’re upside down or overlapping.

Bringing the twisty other world of Doctor Strange to the big screen required time, effort and computers. Wajsbrot also needed a geometric pattern called the Mandelbrot (MAN-del-broat) Set. This is a type of shape known as a fractal. It’s made of curves and patterns, but those curves and patterns have curves and patterns of their own. There are patterns within patterns. And similar ones show up as you zoom in on an object. This happens in nature, too. Zoom in on a jagged mountain top and you find smaller jagged peaks within the peaks.

The Mandelbrot Set is a pattern called a fractal. It looks a little like a bug. Look around the edges, and you can see smaller Mandelbrot “bugs.” If you could zoom in on those bugs, you’d find still smaller copies.Wolfgang Beyer/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The people who worked on special effects for Doctor Strange wanted to use a lot of fractals, says Wajsbrot, who works with a company called Framestore. As characters try to navigate bizarre changes to their reality, scenes zoom in or out on a building, wall or floor. And this reveals more buildings, walls and floors within. The filmmakers’ goal was to use math to create sights that people had never seen in a movie before. To get that type of novelty, Wajsbrot says, they needed fractals. And of all the fractals they worked with, they found special inspiration in one type — the Mandelbrot Set.

“The Mandelbrot Set,” says Wajsbrot, “was the cherry on the cake.”

Monsters, infinities and snowflakes

The Mandelbrot Set is named for Benoit B. Mandelbrot. He was a Polish-born mathematician who studied math in Paris, France. He would go on to spend most of his life in the United States working for IBM, the computer company. He died in 2010. Mandelbrot is most famous for his studies of fractals. (In 1975, he even coined the term fractal to describe these shapes.)

Mandelbrot didn’t invent or discover these shapes. Earlier mathematicians had explored them. In 1904, for example, a Swedish mathematician named Niels Fabian Helge von Koch (Fon KOKH) devised one of the most famous fractals in history.

Von Koch’s fractal is a little easier to grasp than the Mandelbrot Set. Here’s his recipe: Start with an equilateral triangle (that’s one where each side is the same length). Then remove the middle third of each side. Now, build an equilateral triangle in each of those places where you removed the line. Keep going: Everywhere you find a line segment, remove the middle third and build an equilateral triangle there.

This image shows the original triangle and first six steps of a shape known as von Koch’s snowflake.António Miguel de Campos/Wikimedia Commons

The figure is known as von Koch’s snowflake. Mathematicians called shapes like this “pathological curves.” (“Pathological” things cause, or are caused by, physical or mental disease.) They sometimes called them mathematical “monsters” because the shapes don’t follow easy rules. For example: If you keep going with von Koch’s process forever, you’ll end up with an infinitely long line. Von Koch’s snowflake is a fractal. If you zoom in on it, anywhere, you’ll find the same pattern of triangles on triangles.

One of Mandelbrot’s early demonstrations of a fractal was similar to von Koch’s snowflake. It arose from a question: How long is the coastline of Great Britain? The question seems simple. The answer isn’t.

Measure a coastline on a globe or from satellite images, and you can use a ruler to find the solution. But if you hop in a boat and follow the rocky coastline all the way around, you’ll get a larger number. (That’s because you can measure more twists and turns, which add distance.) If you walk the whole length, you’ll get a still bigger number.

If you could enlist a crab to do the measurement for you, its report would be even bigger. That’s because it would have to scramble over or around every rock it encountered.

Mandelbrot showed that the measured length depends on the size of your ruler. The smaller your ruler, the larger your answer. By that process, he said, the coastline is infinitely long.

Nature is truly rough

Explainer: The basics of geometry

Geometry — the math of curves and other shapes — involves straight lines and neat circles. Mandelbrot argued that those concepts don’t describe the roughness of the natural world. Many objects in nature, including mountains, clouds and coastlines, look the same from far away as they do up close. In order to study these irregular shapes better, Mandelbrot turned to the idea of dimension.

A line has one dimension. (The lines making up the letters of this article, for example, are one-dimensional.) A plane, like a sheet of paper, has two dimensions. A box has three. But Mandelbrot’s idea was that rough, natural shapes, such as coastlines or clouds, have a dimension somewhere between two whole numbers. He said they have a fractional dimension, which inspired him to make up the term “fractal.”

Mandelbrot’s work opened a new area of math exploration, starting in the 1970s and 1980s. For artists, it led to new ways of creating landscapes. Mandelbrot showed that math could be used to create a realistic scene of mountains, water, clouds or other things in nature. The equations that make fractals soon became tools for artists.

Many digital artists now look to fractals like the Mandelbrot Set for inspiration. This fractal-like landscape was created by Hal Tenny, an artist in New Jersey. He contributed drawings to help inspire the filmmakers of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Hal Tenny

“A lot of people may not even realize they are looking at a fractal design that was created with math,” says Hal Tenny. This New Jersey artist creates his art using fractals. “With the different computer programs we have now, we can create almost photorealistic fractal images that are so different than what we are used to seeing with ordinary images.”

The Mandelbrot set grows up — and out

The Mandelbrot Set might be the most famous fractal of all. Like the von Koch snowflake, the Mandelbrot Set follows a mathematical recipe that tells you to repeat the same steps over and over and over. Mathematicians call this an iterative process.

The basic recipe for a Mandelbrot Set includes only multiplication and addition. These are done over and over, again and again. “It is this amazing thing that comes from such a simple rule,” says Sarah Koch. A mathematician, she works at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Koch is an expert in a field called complex dynamics.

Her work often leads her back to the Mandelbrot Set. It looks like a bug with lots of smaller bugs around its edges. Zoom in on those exterior bugs, and still smaller bugs, identical in shape, appear. (Other patterns, with names such as Seahorse Valley, also appear.)

Zoom in on the Mandelbrot bug, between the head and body, and you’ll end up in “Seahorse Valley,” which gets its name from curves that look like the snout and body of seahorses.Wolfgang Beyer/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Mathematicians still don’t know everything about the ultimate outermost edge of the Mandelbrot Set. It’s not a neat line or curve. It’s so twisty that the further you zoom in, the more twists you discover. There are other shapes lurking near the edge, too.

“If you take a Mandelbrot Set and zoom in anywhere around the boundary, you will find a baby Mandelbrot Set that’s close to the place where you’re zooming in,” Koch says. “The Mandelbrot Set has small copies of itself inside of itself.”

One of the most surprising things is that the Mandelbrot Set pops up even when people aren’t looking for it. Mathematicians have created graphs that should have nothing to do with the fractal. Yet when they zoom in on the pattern, they discover tiny copies of the Mandelbrot Set.

“It’s everywhere when you start to iterate,” says Koch. It’s so common, she says, that mathematicians now recognize the Mandelbrot Set as something basic, like an element in chemistry. It’s a building block of other shapes. “It is one of the fundamental objects in the field.”

Perhaps that’s the reason it’s been so irresistible to mathematicians and computer programmers alike. As computers became more popular in the 1980s and 1990s, people began writing code to show the Mandelbrot Set and other fractals on screens.

Soon they began to wonder: What would a three-dimensional version of the Mandelbrot Set look like?

Many programmers have now developed mind-bending spaces based on it. One of those is Tenny, who says he “works on fractals daily,” incorporating them into his art.

His digital images look like bizarre worlds that are both familiar and unbelievable at the same time. They’re so convincingly alien that, a few years ago, he heard from people working on a new movie about aliens. It was called Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.

From ‘Mandelbulb’ to movie star

The Guardians filmmakers asked Tenny to send in his ideas about what exotic, faraway planets might look like. Part of the 2017 movie takes place on a planet inhabited by Ego, a conceited and powerful creature with bad plans for the universe. That’s where Tenny saw his ideas on the big screen.

“Parts of my images had been selected and composited together by other artists,” he says. There, in the background, he saw glimpses of a Mandelbulb go flashing by.

What’s a Mandelbulb?

Back in 2007, mathematician Rudy Rucker began writing equations aimed at creating a three-dimensional Mandelbrot Set. He was also a California-based science-fiction writer. His work inspired other computer programmers to work on the project. One of them, Daniel White, gave the project a name: the Mandelbulb.

Paul Nylander was another one of those programmers. Now a mechanical engineer in Los Angeles, Calif., he first learned about the Mandelbrot Set in 2001. At the time, he was in college. “I asked the professors . . . in the math department what they knew about it,” he recalls. After lots of trial and error, he managed to write his own Mandelbrot computer program. “I finally figured out how to do it.”

About 10 years ago, Paul Nylander developed ways to depict Mandelbrot Sets in three dimensions. This is one of his creations.Paul Nylander

Eight years later, he found an online discussion about creating three-dimensional fractals. He read about the work of Rucker and other programmers. After 10 days, he produced an image of a 3D Mandelbrot Set that he liked. He posted the blob-like Mandelbulb image to the online group. Since then, the Mandelbulb has taken on a life of its own.

After seeing the 2017 Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, Tenny recalls being told “that some of my designs were pivotal in the direction they eventually took for Ego’s palace and other areas.”

Nylander says he’s seen many recent movies that draw inspiration for special effects from the Mandelbulb. At the end of the 2014 animated flick, Big Hero 6, the main character tries to rescue his robot from a strange otherworld filled with floating, Mandelbulb-like shapes. In the 2018 science fiction movie Annihilation, a translucent, jelly-like wall streams with Mandelbulbs. The alien in that movie, too, seems to be made from that shape.

Beyond the Mandelbulb

And then, of course, there’s Doctor Strange. “We are quite fond of fractals,” says Wajsbrot. “Quite early on we knew we wanted to use Mandelbrot.”

But they didn’t use the Mandelbulb. Instead, they tested a shape called the Mandelbox. It’s a cube that looks like it’s engraved or carved into Mandelbrot-like patterns. The Doctor Strange team ended up using a similar shape, called the Mandelsponge, which is also a fractal. To control the fractal — and create the illusion of worlds within worlds — the filmmakers had to use powerful computer programs.

Getting the look just right took more than a year. “On Doctor Strange, the Mandelbrot is one of the first effects we tried to nail,” Wajsbrot says. “And it was the last we delivered.”

Wajsbrot also worked on fractal images for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. More recently, his group used the math shapes to model undersea corals in the 2018 Mary Poppins Returns. They’ve also created a virtual-reality program called CORAL, based on fractal patterns. It’s an immersive world, full of self-similar shapes.

“It is aimed at discovery and exploration, giving the user infinite space to discover the beauty of mathematics,” says Wajsbrot. Looking for beauty and wonder, he says, is an important part of his job. “A good visual-effects artist needs to be open-minded and curious about the world he lives in. And there are so many interesting things in fractals.”

How math makes movies like Doctor Strange so otherworldly published first on https://triviaqaweb.tumblr.com/

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kurmancommunications · 5 years ago

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Look your best for the holidays! Dr. Mark Golden has the solution.

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wiit889-blog · 7 years ago

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WIIT Live Music Review-Andrew Bird, Esperanza Spalding @ Ravinia Festival, 7/23/17

Andrew Bird is a popular violinist, singer-songwriter, guitarist, glockenspielist, expert whistler, and, perhaps more importantly to some, a son of Chicago and its prominent folk-indie music scene. His critically acclaimed solo career has spanned over 20 years with 12 studio albums and several other live and compilation recordings. This is, of course, in addition to all the writing and recording he’s done with other bands, including Squirrel Nut Zippers and Bowl of Fire.

Bird's songwriting, which has historically been rooted heavily in folk and country revival, boasts a wildly eclectic mixture of influences which Bird, with his expert musicianship, is able to blend cleverly and beautifully. His varied repertoire melds folk, neo-classical, and pop melodies with blues, rock, soul, and even Latin and cabaret rhythms. His music could be said to find much of its life on the airy, harmonic flourishes which he builds deeply into many of his songs. The playing of his signature instrument, the violin, is typically accompanied by his use of a loop pedal which adds layers to his melodic music. It is not uncommon for him to build his songs from layered loops of violin playing and plucking. These combine with other instruments to create full-sounding music, which he compliments with his brand of witty and intelligently unique lyricism.

Bird’s most recent release, titled “Are You Serious,” keeps these traditions and, as he always seems to be doing, adds to them, expanding, impressively, his already enormous range of styles.

Since the album’s release in April 2016, Bird has launched a major world tour in its promotion. Capping off appearances in Australia in the spring of 2017, he began touring the United States this summer, playing at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, IL on July 23, 2017. This show would be the first in his run of dates featuring Grammy-nominated and classically-trained jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding, after which he would tour with Belle & Sebastian, Spoon, and later, The Lumineers on future runs of his Summer 2017 tour.

According to its official website, the Ravinia Festival, an annual summer-long festival of outdoor, mostly classical performances, is the oldest music festival in North America. It’s set in the gently wooded 36-acre Ravinia Park: a gated park of grassy expansions oriented largely around a medium-sized sloping pavilion, which itself is directed at a main stage. The area is stocked with vendors and amenities and spotted with art displays and in-ground speakers allowing the musical performances to be enjoyed from nearly every point of the park. Furthermore, unlike other festival grounds, it did not disallow outside food and beverages from entering, and so was popular with large groups and families who could come in with coolers packing full of large picnics.

Gates for Bird’s July 23rd concert opened at 4 p.m., and between then and the 7 p.m. start time the audience slowly trickled in from surrounding areas, the parking lot, and the Union Pacific North Metra train line which made periodic stops conveniently next to the park. Later in the evening, those with advanced pavilion tickets started being seated in the pavilion, and the music began promptly at 7 p.m.

The opening act was an orchestral band of outlandishly and colorfully dressed musicians who performed eccentric music with four cheerleaders in equally colorful and mismatched cheer uniforms. Their performance had them running into the pavilion and grass audience, interacting and playing and dancing with them. Topping off the superb oddness, before ending their set one member of the band introduced the evening’s featured performers “Andrew Bird” and “Esperanza Spalding” amongst a series of “meows.”

It was at approximately 7:45 p.m. that a slightly nervous Spalding came out to perform with her band which she introduced as “The Royal Tees” or “The Royal Tease” (the spelling was ambiguous). The collective included herself on bass, two backup singers, a drummer, and a saxophonist, all wearing different colored overalls. They performed stunning and wonderfully composed jazz songs expertly. Particularly Spalding, whose acoustic and electric bass playing, as well as her scatting and singing, were vibrant and impressive. Given that Bird, although a versed musician in many genres, has not experimented with jazz as extensively as with others, the pairing with Spalding succeeded in expanding the purview of the night’s musical catalog. By the end of her performance at 8:20 p.m., the chirping cicadas had seemed to reach the crescendo of their own show.

At approximately 8:50 p.m., Bird emerged solo from backstage wearing a suave white suit, almost juxtaposing the eccentric and colorful outfits of the previous performers. His set began with him reciting some layered whistling and violin plucking and playing compositions with the assistance of his loop pedal. He stood afront a large red and white gramophone horn, which, when a mechanism was activated, would rotate in a circle corresponding to an emulated wah-wah effect produced in the music.

Beginning with his next song, and for the rest of the night, Bird’s band of equally formally dressed individuals (a guitarist, a drummer, and a bassist) emerged to play with him: Bird switching between violin and electric guitar, sometimes in the middle of songs themselves, while singing, whistling, and occasionally playing his vibraphone.

Bird’s set focused on songs from his latest album but was not lacking in that oft-requested older material, including, among many others, “A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left” and “Tenuousness” from his acclaimed albums “Andrew Bird & the Mysterious Production of Eggs” and “Noble Beasts,” respectively. Newer songs were sprinkled throughout but were mainly saved for the middle to end of his show. These included “Roma Fada,” “Truth Lies Low,” “Valleys Of the Young,” and “Are You Serious.”

Also from the newer album Bird played “Capsized”: a song that, as he explains in his supplemental album to “Are You Serious” titled “Are We Not Burning? The Devolution of Capsized,” emerged as result of several slightly different songs he had been playing live throughout his career. What ultimately did make its way onto the album was a song with a somewhat ominous Soul/Gospel feel and an almost “When the Levee Breaks” hard-blues twang to it.

At no point was it more apparent of Bird’s heavy Americana influences than the series of country- and folk-rooted songs he played in the middle of the show. One such song was a cover of “My Sister's Tiny Hands” by The Handsome Family, a song which was included on Bird’s The Handsome family cover album “Things Are Really Great Here, Sort Of….” During this time, his accompanying bassist and guitarist changed their instruments to both acoustic guitars and played into Birds central microphone, a task which gave the auditory and, probably even more so, visual effect of a country band recording music into a single-can microphone as might have taken place in early-radio (if the movie “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?” is any indication).

Bird did not talk much between songs, but one of the few remarks he did have early in the night was his nostalgically commenting on how he, himself, used to come up to Ravinia Park as a youth. He hadn’t been back since high school, however, so this experience was something of a homecoming for him.

Finishing with performances of his songs “Pulaski at Night” and “Darkmatter” a little after 10 p.m., Bird returned to stage for two encores. The first encore was a rendition of Duke Ellington's “Caravan” accompanied by none other than Spaulding herself on bass and scatting. The second was a performance of “Tables and Chairs,” which Bird prefaced as being about the oncoming apocalypse and life after it.

Bird remains an ambitious and consistently compelling artist, and his “Are You Serious” album and subsequent tour herald this sentiment. Although it could be said that his new album seems a bit more bare-bones indie-rock influenced than his previous releases, considering the vast range he has demonstrated among his other projects and albums, it is well within his personal range as an artist. He is obviously a brilliant showman and amazing musician, and his continuing ability to combine styles and influences so flawlessly is no less than a stunning exhibit of his genius.

-Reno Fera-Ducatt

#andrew bird #esperanza spalding #ravinia festival #chicago #live music #college radio #wiit

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kmusachiaeducator · 6 years ago

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YouTube Adventure & Twitter Extended Blog Post

I’ve had an interesting week with Youtube, a resource I’ve used before both for teaching and for personal use. My roommate and I have often remarked about how so many activities that once required a professional are achievable with a Youtube video. For example, I’ve begun an indoor garden to grow peppers in our garage, solely by using Youtube videos to do research! I started a new Youtube account with a new email in order to do some research this week, as I didn’t want all of my past searches for music videos or other content to color what I was researching for class. Youtube is amazing in that it will keep suggesting new videos to you until (what seems like) the end of time. Many students and adults alike remark that the “Youtube hole” is almost inescapable once it catches you.

This week, I made playlists for the different categories and learned a lot about quite a few subjects. I’m going to detail them by playlist here.

As you can see from the first playlist, I’ve been doing some exploration into ASMR videos. Wikipedia defines it by saying, “Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is an experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine.” ASMR videos were suggested to me by a friend based on a complaint I had about not being able to fall asleep some nights. In ASMR videos, a content producer whispers into a microphone or makes noises akin to nails tapping on a table lightly. These sounds create the response in some people described as ASMR. A lot of people find these videos to be relaxing and helpful for falling asleep. I tried them out this week and definitely fell asleep quickly most nights! I found that there are a lot of content producers for ASMR videos, but I liked one in particular. The channel “ASMR Requests” makes storytelling videos where the woman pretends she is a space voyage tour guide and has some very interesting content. Her videos are very popular and come up instantly when searching for ASMR. I thought that it was really interesting how Youtube could be helping many people relax and get to sleep each night without much more than a click of a button. I’m sure a recording of the sounds would work too, but the videos add a visual element that makes the sounds more understandable. It was also interesting how many people are making ASMR videos. Anyone can make them and anyone can view them. There were some content producers that were obviously more equipped to record than others, but the quality of the videos was always relaxing.

Next, I chose to do a second playlist of my choosing by researching how to grow peppers from seeds. I’ve been researching this with my roommates since I’ve wanted to start gardening after we got some trees pulled out of our yard. It turns out that I didn’t have any knowledge on how to grow much of anything! After watching a lot of videos of the pepper-growing process, we bought a grow light and a tent and a heating mat for our garage and are going to start by trying to grow seeds in our garage. It’s still cold and wet in Houston, so the weather isn’t good for outdoor growing. We watched 7-10 videos from a user called “Khang Starr” who grows many different types of peppers, some even for competitions! We used his suggestions for what to buy for our indoor garden. We will be setting it up this weekend in order to give it a try and have already bought our seeds. We’re going to grow jalapenos, chilies, and pepperocinis at least. What I noticed while trying to research this topic was that there weren’t as many videos about this idea as there were about ASMR. The videos I did find were definitely more amateurishly made than the ASMR videos. This didn’t take away from their value for me, but I could understand why some people might not enjoy the videos as much because they seem unprofessional. For me, the fact that there were any videos on this topic made it much more approachable, especially considering the fact that no one at Home Depot was interested in helping me with my gardening adventure when I went to get some basic supplies.

For my teaching-related videos, I chose to create a Slam Poetry playlist. I had already found a few videos that I had shown students in class as warm-ups during our poetry unit, but I wanted to find more to send them for both personal enjoyment and studying purposes. I found that a lot of students in class were able to identify shift and tone from a slam poem easier than when I presented them with a text version (which is understandable). This helped me teach this concept to students. For example, the video for the slam poem “To the boys who may one day date my daughter” has a very funny and interesting tone shift. When the speaker is describing his daughter, he sounds loving, but when he describes the potential suitor for his daughter, he sounds terrifying. The shift between these two tones was much easier and more noticeable to students than in any of the poems I had presented earlier. I had a lot of students asking me for the link to this and other slam poetry videos I showed in class. I sent out a few of them in our Google Classroom and put some on our study guide for this unit. Youtube really helped me out in my classroom with these videos. A concept that might be difficult for students to understand became immediately recognizable after showing students these videos. If this is true of poetry, I’m sure it’s even more useful for concepts in science and history.

At first, I thought that the videos about teaching and learning with technology and the videos about web 2.0 tools for learning would be so similar that the playlists would have many of the same videos on them. I ended up being very wrong about this! For one, a lot of videos seemed to use a website called PowToon, which seems like an animator of some sort. I found a video that had some testimonials from students about using web 2.0 tools in the classroom, which were interesting to view. A few of them were a little dated, similarly to the ones we have viewed in the past for our class, and some seemed like they were made by school districts in an attempt to encourage teachers to use web 2.0 tools in their classrooms. I was reminded of how my admin team at work tried to teach us about TPACK after I had learned about it in my first ETEC course. Seems like we’re all catching up! On the other side of things, the videos about teaching and learning with technology offered a larger array of options. Many Ted Talk videos popped up, and even an Ellen Show video appeared! This video was a lot more humorous, but still educational since Ellen spoke with younger kids. I thought about how Youtube can really help us as educators in learning the value of these teaching tools and the opportunities we have with them. It can also help us with different methods of teaching concepts in addition to being a how-to guide for new technologies.

As for my Twitter playlist, I found a fair amount of how-to guides, but not much that I wasn’t already aware of. There were a few videos that I saved about how to promote yourself through Twitter, but that isn’t much of an interest of mine. Most of the tutorials were repetitive information for me, so I focused most of my Twitter time actually on Twitter, or rather TweetDeck, which I much prefer. This week, I kept my home page up on Twitter in addition to the Trending page and Notification page. I changed up some of my search term sections, however. I had the #etec527 term opened as well as the #BlackOutPoetry term. My classes have been covering poetry for the past few weeks and I gave students the opportunity to create their own blackout poetry this week in order to step into the role of the author. This was useful because I was able to show students a lot more examples in real time. This helped inspire them in making their own poems. I also opened up a search for #Allin4Aldine, which is my district’s hashtag. I’ve been trying to retweet anything of relevance to our class from there as well. This week at work, my partner and I planned a lot of hands-on activities for our students. For example, we played a bingo game with figurative language on Monday and Tuesday, created blackout poems on Wednesday and Thursday, and did a scavenger hunt using the website/app called GooseChase and (unsuccessfully) QR codes. I enjoyed this use of a new technology in my classroom (or rather, outside my classroom and in the hallways of our building), but it involved a lot of troubleshooting, which I ended up going to YouTube for! It all comes full circle! Because of this involved week, I’ve been tweeting quite a bit! I tweet student products so that their parents can see as well as other teachers in the district. I also tweet pictures of students participating in these activities so that others within and outside of our district can see the fun ways we are teaching content in our new school. Everyone at my school and in my district is very Twitter-happy, so they encourage tweeting as much as we are able.

I am glad I was able to add to my knowledge of these two tools this week and learn to incorporate new aspects of them into both my teaching practice and personal life. They have both had a very significant impact on my life and likely will for years to come!

Thanks for reading!

#youtube #learning #teaching #teacher #web 2.0 #blackout poetry #twitter #hashtags #english #high school #educational technology #etec527

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tinseltine · 6 years ago

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Tinsel & Tine :BLACKSTAR Interviews with Filmmakers

Tinsel & Tine's

5 QUESTION INTERVIEWS with BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL FILMMAKERS

By Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

youtube

Post Update 8.15.18 Compilation of Post Screening Q&A from the filmmakers

The 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia gets underway shortly (August 2-5, 2018). To further shine a spotlight on the talented filmmakers screening this year, I asked several of the directors and/or writers in the shorts programs to answer the same 5 Questions, which resulted in varying and personal responses. Please see filmmakers answers below:

BEHIND THE DOOR: JOLA'S STORY Director Michael Adeyeye Writer Chioma C Ezeh When World's Collide Shorts Program Friday, Aug. 3rd 4:05pm United Kingdom, 2017, 9 min. North America Premiere

A story of loss, struggle and liberation. Jola, who was trafficked from her home country of Nigeria when she was a child, has spent the last decade being transported across different countries and cities. We begin to unravel the pieces of her individual story and her journey towards liberation. TRAILER

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Chioma C Ezeh: I think its important that the work I create is not only visually captivating but also improves peoples lives in some way and I feel honored that I was able to achieve this through BTD, as the writer and lead actress, it was crucial that the director and I shared a common understanding as to what we envisioned this film to be, and I think that's definitely been one of the great successes of this film - the fact that we were all so invested in Jola’s story and the possibility that this film could inform & add to the conversations surrounding Modern Day Slavery. 2.T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Chioma C Ezeh: As a filmmaker, I would say the place I really shine is when it comes to the “untold story” or when I get a chance to challenge or inform narratives. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Chioma C Ezeh: Of course a massive shout out has to go out to our Indiegogo supporters, and to my team, particularly our incredibly talented and supportive Producer Earleatha Oppon who has been with me from the very beginning and helped us get to BSFF! Our Director Michael Adeyeye, Costume designer Elleshia Flowers, our amazing actors Kingsley Amadi, Guy Samuels, Melanie Gayle and Clara Rose and Louise Davidson who supported this journey from its inception. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Chioma C Ezeh: We actually had a food scene where one of the characters brings Jola this plate of unpleasant food which didn’t make it to the final cut (we’ve since included it in our production diary which can be found here http://btdfilm.com/productiondiary.html ) and the idea here was really to further illustrate her way of life. Other than that, I remember after one of the scenes we were moving onto our final location, and we all eating and just talking really and suddenly that's when it all felt real for me that this vision was actually coming to life. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Chioma C Ezeh: It means so much to have been selected, to be included in a line up that celebrates Black Art and conversations in this way truly is an honor. CAL & V Director Timothy Offor Possibly, Maybe Shorts Program Saturday, Aug. 4, 12:00 noon United States, 2017, 13 min.

(Philadelphia Premiere) Shot primarily in one take, this film depicts a moment in the lives of two former lovers. Cal Reese, a movie star, fresh off a career comeback, returns to the old neighborhood in order to reclaim his one true love, Vanessa. To his surprise, Vanessa resists his advances, protecting her heart from another abandonment. Cal persists as they stroll down memory lane, deflecting the dissenting opinions of old friends and concerned neighbors. When they can go no further, Vanessa must decide whether the depths of old wounds run deeper than the waters of forgiveness. Click for Trailer

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Timothy Offor: The main inspiration for my film was watching my friends and even in my own experience as I transitioned from my late 20s into my early 30s navigate love and our relationships, specifically the ones that never seem to end. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Timothy Offor: I think I shine most at being able to deliver extraordinary emotions out of relatively ordinary circumstances. I was once told by a professor in undergrad that everyone is interesting. Therefore, when I see the ordinary things we go through in life, I look at it throw a cinematic lens and I am able to dramatize them and make them captivate you as you view. I believe this works because I relate to my work so much and I feel if I make it as it is relatable to me as I do to my cast and crew then that will translate to the viewers. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Timothy Offor: Big shout out to my entire cast and crew. Especially our lead producers Ian McClellan and Jheanelle Brown who were on the project long before and way after anyone else. I also want to thank professor USC Jed Dannenbaum who pulled me into his office and encouraged me to make this film with this style when I was at one of my lowest moments. USC Professor Richard Burton for mentoring me throughout the process. Also my aunts Mel, Jenny and Wendy who donated to us in order to make this film happen. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Timothy Offor: Although no food was eaten on screen, the entire cast and crew enjoyed a Trinidadian inspired spread for lunch, catered by my Aunt Debbie. Over a year later I'm still getting requests from crew members for her food. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Timothy Offor: It's an honor and truly appreciated to be a part of the 7th annual Blackstar film festival. This film has played at many festivals and obviously I haven't been able to attend all but I knew I would make this one work. I have a black & brown love story, I don't think that is often seen on screen, at least not with the approach we took. Blackstar is the place that is giving filmmakers like myself the opportunity to showcase our work without bias and for that I am grateful.

RECURRENCE PLOT: THE FAMILY CIRCLE Director Bryan Oliver Green Future Frontier Shorts Program Friday, Aug. 3, 12:00 noon United States, 2018, 14 min.

A crystal, memory-storing bracelet transports a young mother back to the day of her own mother’s traumatic death and challenges the notion that time flows in only one direction. World Premiere.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Bryan Oliver Green: "Recurrence Plot: The Family Circle" is a film adaptation of the first chapter of Rasheedah Phillip's self-published novel "Recurrence Plot And Other Time Travel Tales". So clearly, the main inspiration for my film would be Rasheedah Phillips and her work. It was an amazing experience to finally collaborate artistically with such a good friend. Essentially, "The Family Circle" is a story about trauma, breaking cycles of destruction, and the struggle of modern black womanhood. It acts as a prologue and sets up the personal history/background story of Khepri, who becomes the main character for the rest of the novel "Recurrence Plot". 2.T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Bryan Oliver Green: As a filmmaker I shine most as a writer, director & editor. I adapted Rasheedah's work directly from the page in a way that best-served her story and her vision. As a director, I am very adept at pulling stellar performances from child actors and even individuals with little-to-no acting experience. One of my golden rules about directing is that it's typically better to tell an actor what their character feels and why, rather than simply telling an actor what to say or do. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Bryan Oliver Green: I had the absolute best team assembled for this project! Kevin Martin, another long-term collaborator, was my Director of Photography [he also DPed on my comedy "The Philadelphia Bicycle Vignette Story" nominated for best narrative short in BlackStar last year] he shot everything beautifully and really brought our vision to life! Sara Zia Ebrahimi was indispensable as a producer and AD, assisting me with the fundraising process. Derrick Woodyard wore so many hats and came with so much of his personal equipment on this production! He assisted Kevin as AC and gripped/gaffed for us as well. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Bryan Oliver Green: I also had a very dear friend of mine, Nia D. Minard [Imbitecurious Catering] provide meals for us for all three days. We graduated from Drexel together, and I've been a devoted fan of her cooking for nearly 15 years now haha It's great to be able to hire her professionally as the two of us progress in our respective careers over the years. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Bryan Oliver Green: Screening "Recurrence Plot" at BlackStar this year means more to me than I could possibly verbalize! I love the fact that I've been given the opportunity to screen at BlackStar two years in a row with two very dynamically different films [a comedy and a sci-fi drama] showcasing my range as a filmmaker & storyteller. I also love the fact that I announced my intention to put "Recurrence Plot" together last year at BlackStar in the Q&A following my screening of The Bicycle Vignettes, and exactly a year later it has become a reality!

FOUR DAYS IN MAY Director Deborah A. Thomas, Junior “Gabu“ Wedderburn, Deanne M. Bell August 2nd 1:15pm (Screens before Douvan Jou Ka Leve) United States, 2017, 41 min.

Four Days in May explores how state violence generates archives of both suffering and life by focusing on the 2010 State of Emergency in West Kingston, Jamaica. Locally dubbed the “Tivoli Incursion,” the joint operation of the military and police forces into Tivoli Gardens and surrounding communities in order to apprehend Christopher “Dudus” Coke, who had been ordered for extradition to the United States to stand trial for gun and drug-related charges, resulted in the deaths of at least 75 civilians. The film features community residents talking about their experiences during the “incursion,” and naming and memorializing of loved ones they lost. Click for Video of Thomas

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Deborah Thomas:To our minds, there wasn't enough attention being paid to the ongoing issues related to the Tivoli Incursion in Jamaica, and people's stories weren't being heard. It was too easy for Jamaicans to dismiss what happened as something that was in the past and something that had to happen to change the political system, but then they weren't addressing the victims of the incursion as full humans beings. The film was meant to add depth to the media reports that were dominating people's understanding of the incursion. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Deborah Thomas: I am, first and foremost, an anthropologist, and I am interested in the ways we can represent social worlds outside of books and academic audiences. Before I became an anthropologist, I was a professional dancer, and so always believed in the power of art to change people's thinking and hearts. As a filmmaker, I am committed to telling complex stories without offering easy solutions to problems, which is also the strength of anthropology. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Deborah Thomas:Of course, my co-directors Deanne M. Bell and Junior "Gabu" Wedderburn are amazing, as are the many many people who helped make this film happen, in Jamaica and in the US. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Deborah Thomas:Food? Lots of discussions over curried conch at Moby Dick's, my favorite restaurant in downtown Kingston. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Deborah Thomas: We're so excited to be part of Black Star's seventh year, in part because our earlier film, BAD FRIDAY, was in the first Black Star festival. We're honored to be able to return!!

ACCIDENTALS filmmaker Aisha Evelyna Family Matters Shorts Program Thurs. August 2nd 11am Canada, 2017, 12 min. (U.S. Premiere)

An estranged father and daughter come to terms with their frayed relationship during a tense road trip as they each limp towards the realization that neither of them is doing okay on their own. Click for TRAILER

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Aisha Evelyna: A little bit of August Wilson’s Fences and a LOT of Scandal. Yes, Shonda Rhimes’s “Scandal"- and the lack of father daughter relationships on screen- specifically with regards to black familial relationships that exist outside the crack head narrative, that are NOT comedy. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Aisha Evelyna: Not a director! (at least I don’t consider myself one right now lol) Where I hope I shine as a filmmaker is as an actor on screen. However, I plan on putting on a director hat for my next short film, Shoegazer, which I will also star in, because Shonda hasn’t made me a serious offer yet. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Aisha Evelyna: Shout out to my Director and Best bud - Natalie Novak, Producer Magician Mother Greatness- Elizabeth Fraser, Powerhouse Kevin Hanchard, Annie Fairfoul at We Make Movies Canada, John Marcucci for sitting through 10 awful first drafts, Farid Yazdani, Y.E.A.A, & ACTRA Toronto, & my mom for listening to me cry when making a movie was a wee bit too much for me to handle. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Aisha Evelyna: There are a lot of “Tim Bits” (donut holes) eaten while shooting this short. They were all eaten by me, and I loved every second of it. The next day- not so much. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Aisha Evelyna:Everything. The fact that people continue to find any kind of artistic merit in this film still continues to leave me incredibly humbled and in awe. Grateful is not a big enough word.

JUNIOR Director Tarik Jackson Family Matters Shorts Program Thurs. August 2nd 11am United States, 2017, 9 min.

A young black boy wakes up to a noise in the middle of the night. It is an attempted robbery at their comfortable, middle class home that gets thwarted by his father who has a gun. The police arrive and their investigation causes tension. Later, after a fishing trip, their car is pulled over by hostile police who think the dad is a criminal.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Tarik Jackson: The project came together as a part of the feature film shot (available on DVD right now) directed by film school professor and mentor Jeremy Kagan. Kagan wanted to make a small project about how gun violence has affected black communities and reach out to me about making it happen. As soon as I heard about the project I instantly thought of the first time a gun was pointed at me. It was when my Dad and I were pulled over by two cops when I was 8 years old. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Tarik Jackson: I shine in a lot of areas lol. If I had to choose one it’d be working with actors, I really feel comfortable conversing with them and pushing them to the height of their creativity. I’m also really big on framing shots but I always make sure to work with a super talented DP who can expand my visual vision. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Tarik Jackson: First out shout out the best producer in Jacquin DeLeon who almost died twice putting this film together. My co writer Salim Lemelle who really helped me shape the story we were telling and make it feel as real as possible. My cousin/brother and DP Elijah Karriem who pulled off the best oner of my career in the opening scene. A’sia Horne who had to sit in session after session of our ridiculous notes for the edit. AJ Gannon who did all the post sound in his new in home studio. Jognic Bontemps who gave us an original 90’s sitcom style score. Actually I use some of the music he created as the theme song for my daily show TLDR on Mel Magazine. And last but not least the man who paid the bills Jeremy Kagan. (Tarik & Salim are also writers on the Web Series Melvin Gregg Presents Class)

4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Tarik Jackson: Nah not really. We ate when we were hungry. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Tarik Jackson: I’m amped for it. Some great filmmakers I came up with like Tim Offor (see interview above) and Chris Ortega are also screening in the fest so I’m excited to see their films play with the new crowd. And I love Philly, so having a reason to come to the city of Brotherly Love is always a blessing. This the second time I’ll be in Philly this year, I was out here a few months ago to visit my boy Steve Caple while he directed Creed 2, so to be back with my own film is dope AF. ZENITH Director Ellie Foumbi When Worlds Collide Shorts Program Friday, August 3rd 4:05pm United States, 2017, 15 min. North America Premiere

When an adopted Black Mennonite has an unexpected connection with a migrant worker, she is torn between her faith and her desire to explore the outside world. www.elliefoumbi.com

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Ellie Foumbi: I was inspired by an article I found about an African-American woman who was adopted into a rural Mennonite community as a baby. I saw direct parallels with my own upbringing when I first moved from Africa to the U.S. and attended a French school where there were relatively no other students of color. It was quite a culture shock for me. I struggled to find my place in this new society. With Zenith, I saw an opportunity to examine identity through the lens of race and family. I was also really interested in exploring the world of Mennonites, a community rarely depicted on screen. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Ellie Foumbi: I’ve been a cinephile since the age of five. I fell in love with the films of Claire Denis, Michael Haneke and Lynne Ramsey, among others. Visually, I’ve spent the last several years developing my eye as a director at Columbia University’s School of the Arts where my style has evolved immensely. My experience as an actor has also given me a lot of confidence when it comes to directing actors. I’m not afraid to throw away my script and to find new interesting moments through improvised work with the actors. I think that’s one of my strongest attributes as a director. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Ellie Foumbi: I had the most incredible team, starting with my cinematographer, Charlotte Dupré who was one of the first crew members to join the project. Our collaboration was one of a kind. I also need to credit the incredible producing team we had, which includes Sola Fasehun and Joseph Mastantuono. They each contributed very differently to this film. The cast was one of the best, I’ve ever worked with: Rudy Mungaray, Benton Green and Michelle Macau. Finally, I have to shoutout my editor, Dan Gross and my composer, Gavin Brivik. I was awarded a film scoring grant from ASCAP, which gave Gavin and I the resources to create a very unique score. This really helped elevate the film to another level. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Ellie Foumbi: Sadly, food did not play a part in our film. The entire film was shot in a house in upstate, NY. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Ellie Foumbi: It means everything. Up to date, the film has screened solely at international film festivals like BOGO Shorts and Zanzibar International Film Festival. It feels really good to bring it back to the States as this is our U.S. premiere. I’ve heard really good things about BlackStar for years and had many friends screen here. My team and I are honored to have the opportunity to share our work with a Philly audience. UR MINES Director Jeff Lucky Possibly, Maybe Shorts Program Saturday, Aug. 4, 12:00 noon United States, 2018, 6 min. US Premiere

On a single day in London, a jaded saxophone player and a frustrated photographer make a seemingly random connection as they bond over their common artistic and personal struggles.

I gave each filmmaker the choice of writing their responses to the 5 questions or creating a video to answer. So happy to present the first video! Jeff did a perfect job answering on camera in an awesome t-shirt!

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BLOOD RUNS DOWN Director Zandashe Brown Haint Business Shorts Program Sunday August 5th 11:45am United States, 2018, 18 min. East Coast Premiere

It’s the night before Ana’s fifth birthday and Elize wants to make sure all is in order to give her daughter the best celebration yet. Consistently weary from the never-ending job of single motherhood with no outlets for her own care, Elize searches for a place for her own peace and vulnerability. When Elize undergoes a frightening transition, Ana must decide between saving her mother or protecting herself in this haunting account of inheritance, daughterhood, and demons.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Zandashe Brown: BLOOD RUNS DOWN is a deeply personal film, based mostly on my own experience living with a mother who was in the midst of a mental breakdown. On a larger scale, it's a story about generational trauma amongst Black women and girls, and the connection of that trauma to... well, I'll let you watch the film and see. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Zandashe Brown: I like to think I shine when I get to the script analysis. Communication is very important to me as a filmmaker, and the challenge of directing has made me a better communicator in real life. I really enjoy breaking down words and scenes - even if they're ones I've written, especially then - and expanding the subtext and motives and everything else behind the words into a larger universe. Then when I can bring that universe to the actors, have them expand it even more and explore the possibilities, I truly feel like I've started the process of creating something beautiful. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Zandashe Brown: I owe so much thanks to my mentor and producer Lauren Domino who really led me through the process of making my first real film (and encouraging me to submit to BlackStar!) I also have to give a very special thanks to my production designer Jesse Ray Guillory and co-producer Alexis Clark. The three of us spent many nights and days together crafting Blood Runs Down with very few resources. I'm thankful for what our friendship created. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Zandashe Brown:We’re a group of Louisianians so food is everything. All the time. Because we shot through the night and were already tired, we tried to make sure our meals and craft were light and boosted our energy. That can be a challenge when you’re in New Orleans surrounded by foods covered in all kinds of gravy, sauces, and ettouffee. It’s not that healthy options aren’t available to us, it’s just sometimes tricky to choose a veggie platter and hummus over a warm bowl of gumbo that someone’s mom could have thrown together. Thankfully, we all wanted to stay awake and made good choices. Plus, it’s Louisiana so... we're always gonna eat good. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Zandashe Brown: BlackStar will be my first experience screening a film outside of Louisiana so this is huge for me! It especially means a lot to screen for the first time at a festival that centers Black narratives and filmmakers. BLOOD RUNS DOWN is a film made for and largely by Black women. I trust that this very personal yet universal story will be warmly welcomed and honored by this community and I look forward to meeting so many other filmmakers with beautiful visions!

PARIS BLUES IN HARLEM Director Nadhege Ptah Family Matters Shorts Program Thursday, August 2nd 11am United States, 2018, 14 min. East Coast Premiere

Paris Blues in Harlem is the story of a young woman, Paris, and her attempts to save her grandfather’s insolvent Harlem jazz nightclub. Paris has a few hours to convince her rigid elder to accept a real estate agent’s briefcase with mounds of cash in exchange for his nightclub. But, as time runs out, he struggles to let go. With only a few seconds left, Paris is faced with a choice between legacy and money.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Nadhege Ptah:My inspiration was in preserving the legacy of Paris Blues - a Harlem Jazz club owned and operated by Samuel Hargress since 1969, and has such a rich history. Gentrification and the shift in Harlem made it pertinent to capture this old Harlem legacy through film; particularly while the elders are alive to share stories while it still exists. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Nadhege Ptah: I shine on being truthful and genuine and encouraged my creative team to shine on their truth and talents to bring the story towards fruition. The process is really organic by meeting the creative team, discussing my goals, intentions and hearing their input on how to enhance it. I'm a stickler for meticulous preparation and creating a family atmosphere where respect and fun are in the mix so we can get out of our own way and let the artistic process shine and be the main focus. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Nadhege Ptah: So many people to name. Okay, let me name a few which are the: Producing Team ( Michele Baldwin/Actress, Lisa Durden, Frances Lozada) Executive Producers: Samuel Hargress, ideacoli, Actors: Charles Weldon, Tonya Pinkins, C. Truth, Arthur French, Doctor Bob Lee, Iris Gale, Set Decorator: Fabiola Didier, Set Design Assistant: Dawn Patterson, Director of Photography: Snyder Derival, Editor: Gaudens Zulu, Music Composer: Jeff Joseph Jeudy, Costume Design: Yvette P. Joseph, Makeup Artist: Felicia Graham, Hair: Alethea X. Graham and countless more. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Nadhege Ptah: Food is a huge component of filmmaking for me. If we don't feed the soul how can we expect them to do their best work? Also, I'm huge on healthy and meeting diverse palettes. I Iove to eat healthy and delicious food. I love to eat. I do my best on sustaining healthy options. Hence, for low budget films, it's a challenge. So, my producer Michele and I are very creative in constructing a meal plan that's not costly and healthy. I have cooked large meals myself for my past two productions with leftovers remaining. Vegetarian Chili, brown rice, baked barbecue wings, stir-fried vegetables Asian noodles, rice and peas, salad, Hisbicus punch juice, pasta salad, etc. Also, I've had restaurants sponsor food for private screenings, production and utilize the catered meal in the some of the scenes. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Nadhege Ptah: A huge honor. I have attended many years ago with friends and I was impressed with the selection of films and the overall atmosphere of the festival. So, screening at the Black Star Film Festival feels like I've gain access and I'm a part of a community of innovative storytellers.

XIN (Heart) Director Desha Dauchan Haint Business Shorts Program Sun Aug. 5th 11:45am United States, 2017, 12 min. East Coast Premiere

Xin (“heart”, in Mandarin) is the story of a woman haunted by the ghost of her mother after having been her caregiver and watching her succumb to Atypical Parkinson’s Disease. With the help of her therapist, she tries to gain clarity on the nature of the hauntings. tinahuang.com

We get the filmmaking team on this one! 1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Tina Huang (Writer/Co-producer/Actor): Firstly, this story grew out of my own struggle with grief: in 2014 my mother passed away after suffering from a degenerative disease. I had been her caregiver. I hoped I would move linearly through the known "five stages of grief." What I found was that grief is not linear; I often traversed backward and forward and got knocked sideways. I had nightmares, day dreams and thought I could still sense my mother's presence. I felt crazy and alone. I found some help in therapy and began to write. Secondly, my community rallied behind me. My loved ones and closest friends, especially my producing partner, Karla Mosley, encouraged me to write through the grieving process. I was hesitant to share my personal experience and cried a lot while writing. Surprisingly, at the screenings we've had, the film has resonated with people who have also experienced profound loss and numerous people have approached me after to share their own stories. I feel honored that people feel connected to our film and to the imagery. I realized that sharing my experience, a universal human experience, has a true healing power and my feelings of isolation have been shattered. Finally, I am first generation Taiwanese American and my stoic, immigrant parents didn't raise me to celebrate or express my emotions. In my life, I haven't seen many faces like my own on the big screen. I thought it was important to make a film with people of color. We need to see our stories represented. Because Xin is such a personal story, I needed a director with the sensitivity, vision and intelligence to tell a universal story and Desha was the right person. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Desha Dauchan (Director): I dive in to know and feel the heart of the story and allow it to guide my attention to detail at every step of the process. For Xin, we began with such a well-written and heartfelt script. Collaborating with Tina, the producer, actress and writer felt so organic. We found such easy common ground so often, knowing we were peeling back the layers of Elaine’s grief to uncover the source of her own personal haunting. All of that guided my directorial choices as I worked with my team of creative collaborators…from holding a very still restricted frame compositionally and giving way to movement as the character’s stagnancy begins to break a bit…to holding back on the triumphant feel of the drums in the score until it was earned in Elaine’s evolution…to encouraging my actors and then stepping out of their way for their incredibly connected performances. For me, knowing the heart of the journey drives the guiding and texturing of what we are creating. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Tina Huang (Writer/Co-producer/Actor): This project could not have been done without my producing partner, Karla Mosley who Co-founded 1:1 Productions with me. Our mission is to champion women of color in front of and behind the camera. Not only did she encourage me through the tough writing process, she is an incredible co-producer and co-star. We would like to give a shout out to Desha Dauchan, director, Felecia Hunter, producer, Chris Low, director of photography, Romina Rey, editor, our amazing cast, CiCi Lau and Jim Lau, and to all of our amazing crew. We would also like to give a HUGE thanks to all of our donors whose financial support made this entire project come to life. BIG love to our family and friends who supported us through to the end. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Tina Huang:Food does not play a role in our film but Craft services does! Since so many of our crew are originally from the East coast, we made sure to get a large tub of Twizzlers and everyone was happy with that! Down with Red Vines! 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Desha Dauchan: I so admire Blackstar Film Festival’s bold commitment to a richly curated program highlighting storytellers from the diaspora. I am grateful to be back and we are honored to be apart of this community of filmmakers. Tina Huang:I ditto Desha's answer. I respect the work BlackStar is doing in supporting and lifting up underrepresented stories. I feel absolutely honored to be a part of this festival and extremely grateful to be in this community of filmmakers as well. I cannot wait to share XIN (Heart) with BlackStar's audiences.

FAMILY of TOO MANY (فامیل زیادی) Director Maaman Rezaee Family Matters Shorts Program Thurs, Aug 2nd 11am Iran, Islamic Republic of 2017, 14 min. World Premiere

Bahar, an 8-year-old Iranian girl, believes she has caused the death of her grandmother. As she deals with her feelings of guilt, her parents decide to steal the grandmother’s body. As Baha’is living in Shi’a Iran, the family risks everything when they spirit the body away in the middle of the night so that they can perform their prohibited religious rituals.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Maaman Rezaee: The film is about a persecuted religious minority in Iran, one that I grew up in, and their struggle with obtaining the most basic rights, like that of burial rituals. I have heard similar stories growing up and they've always moved me. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Maaman Rezaee:I really enjoy collaborating with others and how the end film is never what you pictured in the beginning but is a result of the creative energy everyone brings to the table, whether it’s a constructive energy or not. It’s as if the film takes a life of its own. As someone who also spends a lot of time writing, and usually in solitude, this collaboration is what I’m looking forward to as I go through other phases. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Maaman Rezaee:So Many people were involved in the making of this film. As it states in the credits, many of these individuals, whether working on the crew or supporting us financially, didn’t want their names to be mentioned in the credits due to concerns for their safety. This film was challenging in so many ways, both in preproduction and production, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of everyone involved, credited or not. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Maaman Rezaee: We had Persian food on one of the production days. And I don’t know about anyone else on set, but I remember enjoying the food that day on a different level. As if the flavors and smells took me back to Iran, where the story comes from. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Maaman Rezaee:This is my first time attending Backstar Film Festival but I’m beyond excited to have the film premiere in my current city and at this festival. It seems to bring the community together under the same values of telling stories that matter and of people that are rarely represented in mainstream cinema. And that’s the exact image I had in mind while creating Family of Too Many.

NIGHTS OF AUTUMN Director Majestic Tillman Here On Out Shorts Program Sunday, Aug. 5, 2:30 PM  United States, 2018, 13 min. World Premiere

When Cameron returns to his childhood home to visit his sister Mira, he is confronted by his stepfather Marcus, forcing him to confront his tumultuous family history.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Majestic Tillman:My main inspiration for my film was an idea I got wondering what lengths I would go to to protect my little brother. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Majestic Tillman:I mostly focus on acting and screenwriting But for this project I chose to direct it as well. Where I’m strongest at in my directing is how I can relate to an actor and explain the reasons behind where their character is going what they are doing. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Majestic Tillman: I would like to shoutout RougeFX for helping me to film this project. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Majestic Tillman:We had craft services from a local cook named Deirdre Kelly who cooked for us on our night shoot. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Majestic Tillman:For me it’s a form of recognition from my people who are trying to make it in the same field I’m in, and it’s exciting to know that people take my art serious.

BLACK LIGHT Director Justice Singleton Here On Out Shorts Program Sun. Aug. 5th 2:30pm United States, 2017, 11 min.

This film, set in Los Angeles, is about Kasim Jordan, a skateboarder and aspiring filmmaker who, after getting kicked out of his home, begins to explore Hollywood and the dangers his mother has warned him about.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Justice Singleton:My inspiration for my film still is Trayvon Martin’s death and the results from it. I felt the need to respond to the madness by writing a feature film. When executive wanted know how my film would look I ended up directing this short first. Ultimately, the main inspiration was really being drawn in by the pain and anger of how mothers feel when they lose their children. In response their children become heroes and martyr for a vast movement. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Justice Singleton: I feel I shine as a filmmaker because I see the whole picture. I’ve been in various positions on and off set since I was young. I understand the whole entire process and the humility and care needed to collaborate with others. Directing has taught me compassion and patience. My greatest gift is having a talent for fine details. Finding a shot or frame or moment that’s very unique and touches an audience. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Justice Singleton: So many people uplifted Black Light such as my Director of Photography Laterrian McIntosh, costume designer Sami Martin Sarmiento, my talented actors Elijah Reed and Lola Albright. Of course, my parents, specifically my mom who nurtures a lot of my ideas! 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Justice Singleton: I eat a lot of junk onset, anything with hot sauce or something sweet involved! But for my people, had my grandpa make hot dogs or burgers. Really, if I want anything on set it’s soul food all the time! 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Justice Singleton: For my film to screen at this festival sincerely means a lot. I worked very hard to keep these ideas and dreams alive. To share BLACK LIGHT with others is a true blessing because I know we all share the same emotions and guilt involving black lives and how much they matter. This festival has always been known for being very black-centric and artsy, it’s cool to be apart of this BlackStar crew!

WHITE KNUCKLE Director Xavier Coleman Free RangeShorts Program Saturday, Aug. 4th 10am United States, 2018, 23 min.

When a serial killer begins targeting the gentrifiers of a dwindling, historically Black neighborhood, three young adults attempt to determine the murderer’s identity… before they’re next. TRAILER

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Xavier Coleman: In 2014, I moved to the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York. Once referred to as "Little Harlem,” Bedford-Stuyvesant is a historically black, working class community previously known for containing the highest concentration of black homeowners in the country. When I finally arrived in Bedford-Stuyvesant, however, I noticed the extreme extent to which the Black community was being pushed out as a result of gentrification. And as the community was fading, so were the cultural elements and diversity which made the neighborhood so historically significant. I began to wonder what the cultural consequences of gentrification might mean for Brooklyn and cities like it around the world. This investigation ultimately led me to begin writing a horror film. The horror genre, and the slasher subgenre in particular, has always been a powerful tool to explore and critique American suburbia and expose its hidden dangers. Thus, it seemed to be an ideal framework with which to unpack the repercussions of gentrification for by inverting the genre’s suburban tropes within an urban setting. 2. T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Xavier Coleman: Absolutely love writing dialogue, and its something I want to continue to hone as I move forward as an artist. In terms of directing, constructing a rhythmic storyboard with my DP, Connor, and then editing it into existence is also something that gives me a lot of life. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Xavier Coleman: Big shout out my core team, best friends and co-creators - A.D. Tess Raih, Cinematographer Connor Lawson, Producer Philip Champagne, Producer Miranda Kahn, and 2nd A.D. Miakoda Gale! Another shoutout to the mentors who have supported us: Monkeypaw Productions, Tonya Lewis Lee and Molly Conners. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Xavier Coleman: I utilized food as a cultural signifier and a tool of character development in White Knuckle. Considering the way businesses and consumption are such a benchmark of gentrification as they cater to specific demographics, it made sense to unpack some of our films themes via food and beverage. In terms of what specifically is portrayed - you'll need to see the film to find out! 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Xavier Coleman: Being at BlackStar means I'm following in the footsteps of some my favorite artists who have been associated with the festival in the past; people such as Arthur Jafa, Bradford Young and Ava DuVernay. And it means I'm moving alongside of the next wave of amazing filmmakers, of which there are too many that I admire to name. Being a part of BlackStar feels like I'm on the right path.

IN THE FIELD Director Tesia Walker Haint Business Shorts Program August 5th 11:45am United States, 2017, 14 min. Philadelphia Premiere

In The Field follows an ambitious local reporter, John Landon, who witnesses a police-related shooting of a black girl outside a toy store on Christmas Eve. John is tasked with interviewing the girl’s family to get the scoop that will bring him national fame. However, he finds that getting the exclusive involves more than just being there first. TRAILER

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Tesia Walker: It's been a tense past several years in America. I wanted to make a statement along with the co-writer, Bobby Kruger. We wanted to add to the conversation of police and their relationship with the Black community. But we wanted to do it in a way that hasn't been seen before. So we decided to play with some aspects of horror and sprinkle it throughout the film. Because some of these tragedies that do happen are a bit horrific in a way. 2.T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Tesia Walker: I believe that stories pick their filmmakers, not the other way around. I am good at recognizing the stories that I should tell. I just feel it right in my core. On set, I love working with actors. I am totally a director's actor. It's a collaborative effort from script to screen. When an actor can give it that little special something, or add something in the moment that hasn't be thought of, it's like pure magic for me. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Tesia Walker: I want to thank Bobby Kruger, EJ Argenio, and Ryan Daveport, for giving me the opportunity to tell this story with them. They saw my film, Search Party, and recognized that we shared the same creative vision. I am eternally grateful for my amazing cast for slaying it over long hours in the cold: Tyson, Sally, Bobby, Antonio, John, and Shaakirah. Everyone from the camera team, editing, art department, the grips and gaffers, wardrobe, sound, locations, transportation, my AD, and production assistants--you are amazing!!!! 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Tesia Walker: You can always expect someone to be holding a cup or eating a snack at some point in my film. We had on camera snacks in one of the shots, but I am pretty sure at some point I started munching on those because waiting and eating go together on a film shoot. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Tesia Walker: I am really honored, especially because I have heard such great compliments from other filmmakers about Blackstar. Very excited to be a part of this dynamic festival!

FALLOU Dir. Alassane Sy When Worlds Collide Shorts Program England, Senegal, 2017, 31 min East Coast Premiere

Fallou is the story of a young man who has been sent from Senegal to London by a marabout linked to an extremist group. Fallou will discover London’s energy, music and people. He will make new friends and eventually make a choice: stay faithful to his marabout or embrace the exciting life of this new city.

1. T&T: In a nutshell what was the main inspiration for your film? Alassane Sy: The confusion people have between Islam and terrorism. The many reasons why someone would want to join the dark side of extremism. These are the reasons why I wanted to bring an African perspective to this subject. 2.T&T: Where do you really shine as a filmmaker? Please expand upon directing to include the aspect of the directing process where you know you are most on point? Alassane Sy:When I have a story in my mind and a script that is open enough to improvise and use what the environment has to offer, then I am happy and feel like I am really creating something, not just following what has already been written. 3. T&T: Give a quick shout out to your creative team and anyone who helped get your film from an idea to screening at BlackStar. Alassane Sy: We shot this film with only £3000. So it required a not necessarily super experienced team, but a passionate and dedicated team. The list is long, but the entire cast and crew were just amazingly talented artists (singers, dancers and others) to make this happen. Without them, this film would never happen. 4. T&T: Does food play a part in your film? It can be something you like to eat on set, while editing, some great Craft Services, a scene involving food or a restaurant/bar/coffee shop. Alassane Sy: Thieboudiene (favourite Senegalese dish), made by one of the main actors of the film, Khadime Manè (Badou in the film), was the secret of this whole shooting process. 5. T&T: What does it mean to you to screen your film at the 7th Annual BlackStar Film Festival? Alassane Sy: I think just the name”Blackstars” is enough for any black filmmakers to feel like they are at the right place. With a film or without, I would be happy to assist or contribute in somehow to this great initiative.

In preparation for #Blackstar18, I sent these interview questions to many of the filmmakers screening short films, because it seemed to me since their work is shown in blocks, it would be nice to highlight each individual director and/or writer. However, that doesn't mean I can't give some love and attention to a filmmaker debuting his first feature length film - Menelek Lumumba's film "1 Angry Black Man" had its World Premiere in Philadelphia during #BlackStar18 CHECK OUT HIS 5 QUESTION INTERVIEW

BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL 2018 AWARD WINNERS

JURIED AWARDS Best Feature Documentary Douvan Jou Ka Leve (Gessica Généus) Best Narrative Feature Jinn (Nijila Mu’min) Best Short Documentary Nuuca (Michelle Latimer) Best Short Narrative Where the Water Runs (Dubois N. Ashong) Best Experimental Film Fucked Like a Star (Stefani Saintonge) Best Youth Film (Ages 11-18) blu blak (King Ali Emeka) Best Youth Film (Ages 19-22) I Have Something to Tell You (Tshireletso Phalatse, Kagiso Baloyi, Rethabile Milisi) 21st Century Global Inclusion Awards for Emerging Voices: Narrative War Paint (Katrelle Kindred) 21st Century Global Inclusion Awards for Emerging Voices: Documentary Birth of Afrobeat (Opiyo Okeyo) AUDIENCE AWARDS Favorite Experimental Film: Fucked Like a Star (Stefani Saintonge) Favorite Documentary Feature: The Feeling of Being Watched (Assia Boundaoui) Favorite Narrative Feature: Jinn (Nijila Mu’min) Favorite Documentary Short: Black 14 (Darius Clark Monroe) Favorite Narrative Short: Where the Water Runs (Dubois N. Ashong) Favorite Youth Film (11-18): Beyond My Skin (Aniya Wolf) Favorite Youth Film (19-22): Hot and Bothered (Leah Byrd)

I knew BLACKSTAR FILM FESTIVAL founder Maori Karmael Holmes moved to LA to work for Ava DuVernay's @ARRAYNow before the 2018 #BlackStarFest, but just came across this interesting behind the scenes interview via @Generocity - https://t.co/01o9lZrtgy

— Tinsel & Tine (@tinseltine) December 1, 2018

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Tinsel & Tine

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