#cucalorus

[thedailymobile]

“Who Doesn’t Love a Warm Cookie?”

[ohc-and-the-music-tapes-archive]

Documentary "Firewall of Sound" by Devin DiMattia featuring i.a. Julian Koster and Merge Records. Premiered in Autumn 2010

(link if video isn't working; it’s Vimeo so you might need to be logged in to see it)

It's great but if you want to watch only the parts with Julian, it starts around 0:20:00, also 0:37:00 (0:35:27 for context) and 0:57:49.

[uncwfst]

Cucalorus Internship 6/8/23

Rae Goergen

This week at Cucalorus we went to the Lumbee Festival in Pembroke NC! The other interns and I got to walk around and help our with marketing by passing our flyers for the screenings and trying to get people to come. We also got to help set up a merch bar and help set up for the actual screenings.

We also got a chance to look at old Cucalorus-related art! The picture above is from an event that Cucalorus had a few years ago where they got poets to write poems for people on a type writer, and sold them for a dollar each. I thought it was pretty cool.

[growsinspirals]

soo this past summer, i had the opportunity to participate in @theschoolofmakingthing ‘s IMMERSION 4.0 VR 360° video creation lab, Summer Residency Program, in partnership with @cucalorus film foundation. i played an awful lot lol. w/ sound, w/ vr cameras, with adobe premier 😅, in the atlantic ocean, along the boardwalk, at a state park in brackish water, with butterflies, w/ horses, in compost, on a skateboard, with fire, in a place that felt really familiar to me growing up in va along the coast only a couple hours away. we got to spend 3 weeks in wilmington nc, researching and absorbing the history of place, engaging with nature, living, creating, cooking, doing skillshares w/ and for each other. truly immersive! lol i also gathered madd footage for this short VR film i directed called “Record Warped on.tha Daily” that will be showing in Wilmington NC at the Cucalorus Film Festival in Mid-November (11/16 - 11/20). also too, i’m not sure if you’re aware, the school of making thinking has an active crowd sourcing campaign to launch their Artist Leadership Training Program. it’d be a good look to support if you can. this immersion definitely put a battery in my back and got connected with a community that’s madd encouraging and supportive. it’d be dope if they’d be able to expand their capacity to reach more artists (especially artists who are from disproportionately marginalized communities*). def peep the link in their bio for more info and if you’d like to support super grateful to have been able to be in community with such an amazing group of ppl. s/o to everyone involved, including @kissingtherain, @kesswa, @beautifulsoapbox, @mariabarbist, @mcfahnestock, @ks.brewer, fenton, @lizclaytonscofield, dan @stefanibyrdstudio .. slide 1: 🪞 @cucalorus slide 2 & 3 📸 by @beautifulsoapbox :scenes from a sound design skillshare i led 🎛🎚🎛🔉🔊 slide 4 📸 by @texasisaiah : 🌊 🧜🏽‍♂️ slide 5: @kissingtherain & @kesswa_ 🌊☀️ slide 6 & 7 📸 by @mcfahnestock : bts on site at the Daily Record vacant lot slide 8: New Hanover County Library archival reference slide 9: spanish moss @ sugarloaf.. carolina beach national park 🏞 slide 10: subt.le message by the 🔥 https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci2774NOkpM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[aristocratslog]

Murder Camp from Clara Aranovich on Vimeo.

"Two slasher killers make the fateful mistake of showing up to the same summer camp on the same night..."

Starring and Written by Will Lagos & Jeremy Radin Directed and Edited by Clara Aranovich

Adapted from the one-act play "Kevin & Greg" by the same people. Developed in partnership with Public Assembly.

CAST: BECKY - Olivia Holguín JOHNNY - Ian Peterson KEVIN - Will Lagos GREG - Jeremy Radin CREW: Written by Will Lagos & Jeremy Radin Directed by Clara Aranovich Produced by Clara Aranovich & Lillian Campbell Associate Producer - Alana Dietze, Ahmed Darwish Lead Set PA - Dylan Arnow Runner - Izze Gunn Runner - Nic Murphy PA - Nic Bratcher Director of Photography - Samudranil Chatterjee 1st AC - Brielle Steele Prepping 1st AC - Minami Moriyama 2nd AC / Loader - Alfredo Garcia Steadicam Operator - Brian Freesh Gaffer - Collin Gibson Key Grip - Michael Madden Best Boy Electric - Dane Bruhahn Sound Mixer/Boom-Op - Anthony Gonzalez Production Designer - Kiki Harris Hair & Makeup - Kiki Harris Special Effects Consultant - Simon White Costume Designer - Nicole Lippman Park Ranger - Anthony Miller Set Medic - Eric Gladstone Editor - Clara Aranovich Visual Effects - Anderson Mills Supervising Sound Editor - Noah Hunt Sound Supervisor - Sebastian Visconti Sound Effects Editor. -W Blake Cook Additional Dialogue Replacement - Voiceworks Audio Re-Recording Mixer - Noah Hunt Assistant Re-Recording Mixer - Grant Cornish Composer - Josh Grondin Colorist - Jack Tashdjian

FESTIVALS/AWARDS: Fantasia Film Festival Beyond Fest Brooklyn Film Festival Cucalorus Nashville Film Festival | Best Graveyard Shift Short Catalina Film Festival | Best Director & Best Ensemble FilmQuest | Best Comedy Short SLASH Film Festival Uppsala Short Film Festival

Hollyshorts Brooklyn Horror Film Festival | Best Ensemble FemaleEye Film Fest Soho Horror Film Festival Not Your Daddy's Films Paris International Fantastic Film Festival | Oeil D'or Mutoscope Film Festival Saskatoon Film Festival | Silver Audience Award Lake County Film Festival

[andynortonuk]

We Are Here from 271 Films on Vimeo.

25+ festivals, 2 awards and counting. Doménica and Constanza Castro are the first Mexican Sisters to be in the run for an Oscar® in the Academy's history.

Four young immigrants reveal their hopes and dreams as they navigate a perilous system that defines their fate and freedom.

Awards and Nominations 2023 NAACP Image Awards - Best Animated Short - Nominee 2022 Animated Shorts Jury Award - New Hampshire Film Festival *Oscar Qualifying 2022 Grand Jury Prize for International Fragments - DocsMX

Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival, 2022 LACMA Shorts "I Am Series", 2022 Cleveland International Film Festival, 2022 The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, 2022 Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara, 2022 Barnes Film Festival, 2022 Palm Springs International ShortFest, 2022 Pyeongchang International Peace Film Festival, 2022 Nantucket Film Festival, 2022 Guanajuato International Film Festival, 2022 Doqumenta Festival de Cine, 2022 Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2022 Hollyshorts, 2022 Salute Your Shorts Festival, 2022 Tallgrass Film Festival, 2022 Indie Street Film Festival, 2022 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, 2022 New Hampshire Film Festival, 2022 DocsMX, 2022 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, 2022 DOC NYC, 2022 Still Voices Film Festival, 2022 Cucalorus Film Festival, 2022 Pittsburgh Shorts, 2022 Festival Internacional de Cine de Almería, 2022 3ra Edición Semana de Cine Migrante, Cineteca Nacional, 2022 Official Latino Film and Arts Festival, 2022 Miami Film Festival, 2023 Chicago Latino Film Festival, 2023

Miami Film Festival, 2023

CREDITS: Cast: Dulce Valencia Deron Ingraham Anonymous Valeria Marchesi

Crew: Directed and Produced by: Doménica Castro, Constanza Castro Executive Produced by: 271 Films , Antigravity Academy, Eloy Méndez, Scott Minerd, Carlos López Estrada, Kelly Marie Tran Written by: Doménica Castro, Constanza Castro, Salvador Pérez García Visual Art & Animation by : Cecilia Reeve Edited by: Salvador Pérez García Music by: Jesi Nelson Digital Intermediate : Company 3 Senior Colorist : Jill Bogdanowicz Company 3 Senior Producer: Matt Moran Company 3 Executive Producer: Ashley McKim Audio Post Production: One Thousand Birds Sound Design & Mix by: KT Pipal Recording Engineer: Jackie! Zhou OTB Executive Producer: Guin Frehling

[emzeciorrr]

349 from Kristen Lauth Shaeffer on Vimeo.

349 (short dance animation, 3:05)

Created with hundreds of pencils and hundreds of hands, "349" is a collaborative animated dance film that explores the idea that we're all imperceptibly connected.

To create "349," a dance performance was videotaped and converted into a series of still frames. Over the span of two years, 349 different people each redrew one of these frames after being asked to "draw yourself and someone with whom you have a significant connection." The resulting drawings were scanned, sequenced, and synced to music to create the short animated dance film.

2016 New Orleans Film Festival, New Orleans, LA; 2017 Film Society at Lincoln Center + Dance Films Association's Dance on Camera Film Festival, New York, NY, and National Tour; 2016 Cucalorus Film Festival, Wilmington, NC; 2016 Paris International Festival of Animated Film, Paris, France; 2016 Tallgrass International Film Festival, Wichita, KS; 2017 Dance Camera West, Los Angeles, CA; 2017 Topanga Film Festival, Topanga, CA; 2016 DCTV + Dance Films Association's Long Legs Short Films, New York, NY; 2016 Dallas VideoFest (Jury Prize for Experimental Short), Dallas, TX; 2016 San Francisco International Festival of Short Films, San Francisco, CA; 2016 Video Art And Experimental Film Festival, New York, NY; 2016 Salamanca Moves MOVE-ies (Audience Vote Winner), Hobart, Tasmania; 2017 Third Coast Dance Film Festival, Houston, TX, and National Tour; 2016 American Dance Festival's Movies by Movers, Durham, NC; 2017 Denver Film Society Women + Film Festival, Denver, CO; 2017 Cascadia Dance & Cinema Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia; 2017 Experiments in Cinema, Albuquerque, NM; 2017 Cine Corps Paris, Paris, France; 2017 Capitol Dance & Cinema Festival, Silver Spring, MD; 2017 C.A.R. Contemporary Art Ruhr, Essen, Germany 2017 Mana Contemporary Chicago’s Body + Camera Festival, Chicago, IL; 2016 Flipbook Animated Film Festival, Little Rock, AR; 2016 University Film and Video Association (Honorable Mention for Animation Filmmaking), Las Vegas, NV; 2016 Film Kitchen, Pittsburgh, PA; 2017 DeSales University Screendance Festival, Center Valley, PA; 2016 Blue Plum Animation Festival, Johnson City, TN; 2017 Black Maria Film Festival Finalist

Soundtrack "Rescue," by Sessa can be found: iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/album/rescue-music-from-349-single/1333864204 Spotify: open.spotify.com/album/2lWHoCgVGGraNVOm74NytU YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=NuDLFgp4NJU

349 on Facebook: facebook.com/698dancepartners/

kristenlauthshaeffer.com

[philipperivrain]

We Are Here from 271 Films on Vimeo.

25+ festivals, 2 awards and counting. Doménica and Constanza Castro are the first Mexican Sisters to be in the run for an Oscar® in the Academy's history.

Four young immigrants reveal their hopes and dreams as they navigate a perilous system that defines their fate and freedom.

Awards: 2022 Animated Shorts Jury Award - New Hampshire Film Festival *Oscar Qualifying 2022 Grand Jury Prize for International Fragments - DocsMX

Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival, 2022 LACMA Shorts "I Am Series", 2022 Cleveland International Film Festival, 2022 The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, 2022 Festival Internacional de Cine de Guadalajara, 2022 Barnes Film Festival, 2022 Palm Springs International ShortFest, 2022 Pyeongchang International Peace Film Festival, 2022 Nantucket Film Festival, 2022 Guanajuato International Film Festival, 2022 Doqumenta Festival de Cine, 2022 Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2022 Hollyshorts, 2022 Salute Your Shorts Festival, 2022 Tallgrass Film Festival, 2022 Indie Street Film Festival, 2022 Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, 2022 New Hampshire Film Festival, 2022 DocsMX, 2022 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, 2022 DOC NYC, 2022 Still Voices Film Festival, 2022 Cucalorus Film Festival, 2022 Pittsburgh Shorts, 2022 Festival Internacional de Cine de Almería, 2022 3ra Edición Semana de Cine Migrante, Cineteca Nacional, 2022 Official Latino Film and Arts Festival, 2022 Oaxaca FilmFest, 2022

CREDITS: Cast: Dulce Valencia Deron Ingraham Anonymous Valeria Marchesi

Crew: Directed and Produced by: Doménica Castro, Constanza Castro Executive Produced by: 271 Films , Antigravity Academy, Eloy Méndez, Scott Minerd, Carlos López Estrada, Kelly Marie Tran Written by: Doménica Castro, Constanza Castro, Salvador Pérez García Visual Art & Animation by : Cecilia Reeve Edited by: Salvador Pérez García Music by: Jesi Nelson Digital Intermediate : Company 3 Senior Colorist : Jill Bogdanowicz Company 3 Senior Producer: Matt Moran Company 3 Executive Producer: Ashley McKim Audio Post Production: One Thousand Birds Sound Design & Mix by: KT Pipal Recording Engineer: Jackie! Zhou OTB Executive Producer: Guin Frehling

[edgarinsky]

Hand (2021) from Tsz-wing HO on Vimeo.

Project details: wing12381.myportfolio.com/hand

My website: wing12381.myportfolio.com/

Hand (2021) The weird hand creatures undergo different transformations in synchrony with the music.

Duration: 05'15" Technique: 2D hand-drawn (Photoshop & After Effects), Rotoscoping Director and Animator: Tsz-wing Ho Music: "Sekktortjek Ft. Tone" by Mads Lindgren Special thanks: Max Hattler and my family & friends

Awards 2022 - Winner of the Open Call Contest, Kinomural 2022 - Merit, 3x3 International Illustration Show No.19 Student Show, 2022 - Winner, Communication Arts Illustration Competition 2022

2021 - Best Abstract Animation Award, London International Animation Festival 2021 - Grand Prize for Student Shorts, Supernova Digital Animation Festival 2021 - Applied Arts Student Awards 2021

Screening 2022 - Animatou 2022 - Kinomural 2022 - OFF - Odense International Film Festival 2022 - Imaginaria 2022 - Animist Tallinn 2022 - La Guarimba Film Festival 2022 - 15th International Animated Film Festival Animator - 2022 deadCenter Film Festival - Sydney Film Festival 2022 - Animafest Zagreb 2022 - 19th IN THE PALACE Short Film Festival - Cardiff Animation Festival 2022 - 34th Filmfest Dresden 2022 - 49th Athens International Film and Video Festival 2022 - 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival - Tricky Women / Tricky Realities Animation Festival 2022 - 14th PIAFF Festival International de Films d'Animation 2022

2021 - 2021 London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2021) - GIRAF17 Independent Animation Festival - 59th Golden Knight Malta International Short Film Festival - Relentless melt No 24: Hong Kong Experimental Animation - 2021 Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - CINANIMA 2021 - Manchester Animation Festival 2021 - 2021 Cucalorus Film Festival - 2021 TIAF - Tbilisi International Animation Festival - 2021 Animest – Bucharest International Animation Film Festival - The International Short Film Festival of Cyprus 2021 - SICAF 2021 International Animated Film Festival - 2021 Supernova Digital Animation Festival - 2021 IV ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival - 2021 Encounters Film Festival - 2021 Ottawa International Animation Festival - Short to the Point ISFF AWARDS June 2021

[artwalktv]

Project details: https://bit.ly/3fQLNWH My website: https://bit.ly/2J5CT7M Hand (2021) The weird hand creatures undergo different transformations in synchrony with the music. Duration: 05'15" Technique: 2D hand-drawn (Photoshop & After Effects), Rotoscoping Director and Animator: Tsz-wing Ho Music: "Sekktortjek Ft. Tone" by Mads Lindgren Special thanks: Max Hattler and my family & friends Awards 2022 - Winner of the Open Call Contest, Kinomural 2022 - Merit, 3x3 International Illustration Show No.19 Student Show, 2022 - Winner, Communication Arts Illustration Competition 2022 2021 - Best Abstract Animation Award, London International Animation Festival 2021 - Grand Prize for Student Shorts, Supernova Digital Animation Festival 2021 - Applied Arts Student Awards 2021 Screening 2022 - Animatou 2022 - Kinomural 2022 - OFF - Odense International Film Festival 2022 - Imaginaria 2022 - Animist Tallinn 2022 - La Guarimba Film Festival 2022 - 15th International Animated Film Festival Animator - 2022 deadCenter Film Festival - Sydney Film Festival 2022 - Animafest Zagreb 2022 - 19th IN THE PALACE Short Film Festival - Cardiff Animation Festival 2022 - 34th Filmfest Dresden 2022 - 49th Athens International Film and Video Festival 2022 - 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival - Tricky Women / Tricky Realities Animation Festival 2022 - 14th PIAFF Festival International de Films d'Animation 2022 2021 - 2021 London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2021) - GIRAF17 Independent Animation Festival - 59th Golden Knight Malta International Short Film Festival - Relentless melt No 24: Hong Kong Experimental Animation - 2021 Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - CINANIMA 2021 - Manchester Animation Festival 2021 - 2021 Cucalorus Film Festival - 2021 TIAF - Tbilisi International Animation Festival - 2021 Animest – Bucharest International Animation Film Festival - The International Short Film Festival of Cyprus 2021 - SICAF 2021 International Animated Film Festival - 2021 Supernova Digital Animation Festival - 2021 IV ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival - 2021 Encounters Film Festival - 2021 Ottawa International Animation Festival - Short to the Point ISFF AWARDS June 2021

[leahshore]

HANDS Wins Honorable Mention at Indie Memphis 2018!

HANDS Wins Honorable Mention at Indie Memphis 2018!

HAAAAAAAANDS!!! That’s right, she is still hands-ing to play at film festivals…my signal film I made for the amazing film festival CUCALORUS just won a damn Honorable Mention award at Indie Memphis!! I am so sad to have missed this one. NOT to mention my new film, Funeral was also playing there. Wow. Just wow. Thank you Jury members, thank you staff, programmers, volunteers, filmmakers,…

[shirleygnome]

Goodnight @cucalorus and thanks for the hangover. Next stop Victoria Nov 25 and Duncan Nov 26. Should be recovered by then... maybe... ❤️🤢❤️🤢❤️🤢 photo by @wallychung at @cinekink • • • #cucalorus #filmfestival #stage #citystage #northfronttheatre #artsfestival #wilmingtonnc #northcarolina #filmington #northcameralina #shirleygnome #takingitupthenotch #cabaret #musicalcomedy #jengos

[uncwfst]

Grace W Cucalorus blog 2

For the past month, I have had a lot of fun at Cucalorus. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I come in for about 4 hours. If I’m available on the weekends I help out with projection or concessions at the film screenings! I do different things every day! I check for updates on the Kickstarter campaign, assemble the rewards and ship them out, or deliver the local ones myself! There are also certain projects around the warehouse that I have done like making the magnets for the screening plans at the final festival. These are really important so that there is a visual for the screenings that can be easily adjusted and experimented with. I also am there to help if there is a daytime screening, most recently the GutterCast Film Festival and the Work in Progress project for independent filmmakers. I have walked around downtown talking with businesses and hanging up flyers for our Friday night screenings. 

One of my personal reflections would be when I learned from a mistake. I was doing concessions one night and I forgot how to use the register so the night was a little complicated. Most people grabbed refreshments from the bar but I remember feeling really bad about not knowing how to use the register upfront. Luckily, the guests and staff were really nice and understanding. It was really good knowing that I was still valued and wasn’t expected to be perfect all the time. It is anxiety-inducing to make mistakes, but it’s important to remember that mistakes are normal and important for growth. You cannot learn new skills if you know everything and don’t make mistakes first. While it was just a concessions-related mistake and not something related to film, it taught me a good lesson about reaching out for help when I need it. I feel really comfortable going to any of the Cucalorus staff members for anything.

Only two of my photos would upload so I've put them in a google drive folder that should be viewable for everyone!

[growsinspirals]

proud to announce that i will be showing my first VR 360 film “Record Warped in.tha Daily (Short)” at the Cucalorus Film Festival this Saturday in Wilmington North Carolina! soo much gratitude to @theschoolofmakingthinking for creating and inviting me to participate in the IMMERSION 4.0 VR summer residency program; this is the space where i gained knowledge on how to create using 360 cameras as a medium. many thanks to @cucalorus for providing space and being intentional in us learning about the space and place we were creating in. and the surf lessons juss took me! omg 👌🏾🥹🤯✨ also too, big thank you to UNCW’s Film Studies Department for providing access to their VR headsets and for overall being open with their tools, knowledge, facilities as well as for being super supportive! but yeah, if you catch yourself in Wilmington NC this Saturday, definitely try to make time and peep.. the IMMERSION 4.0 VR Salon will be from 2pm to 6pm at the Thalian Ballroom (@thalianhall) i’ll be there with family and will be able to share my intentions, answer questions and just connect. for those who aren’t able to make it, if you’d like to see what i made, reach out to me, i’ll share the unlisted link excited to be in this stage of development and in the company of a really talented and supportive community 🙏🏾🖤✨ more details about saturday are in my bio soo much love and gratitude to all involved! 📸 1. salon info 💅🏾✨ 📸 2. sugarloaf 🪞🤙🏾 📸 3. new slaves ⛓🤍** 📸 4. alexander manly 🖤💯** // note: slides with ** are archival references for the film from New Hanover County Library // (at Wilmington, North Carolina) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClEtULFOVLc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[aristocratslog]

Hand (2021) from Tsz-wing HO on Vimeo.

Project details: wing12381.myportfolio.com/hand

My website: wing12381.myportfolio.com/

Hand (2021) The weird hand creatures undergo different transformations in synchrony with the music.

Duration: 05'15" Technique: 2D hand-drawn (Photoshop & After Effects), Rotoscoping Director and Animator: Tsz-wing Ho Music: "Sekktortjek Ft. Tone" by Mads Lindgren Special thanks: Max Hattler and my family & friends

Awards 2022 - Winner of the Open Call Contest, Kinomural 2022 - Merit, 3x3 International Illustration Show No.19 Student Show, 2022 - Winner, Communication Arts Illustration Competition 2022

2021 - Best Abstract Animation Award, London International Animation Festival 2021 - Grand Prize for Student Shorts, Supernova Digital Animation Festival 2021 - Applied Arts Student Awards 2021

Screening 2022 - Animatou 2022 - Kinomural 2022 - OFF - Odense International Film Festival 2022 - Imaginaria 2022 - Animist Tallinn 2022 - La Guarimba Film Festival 2022 - 15th International Animated Film Festival Animator - 2022 deadCenter Film Festival - Sydney Film Festival 2022 - Animafest Zagreb 2022 - 19th IN THE PALACE Short Film Festival - Cardiff Animation Festival 2022 - 34th Filmfest Dresden 2022 - 49th Athens International Film and Video Festival 2022 - 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival - Tricky Women / Tricky Realities Animation Festival 2022 - 14th PIAFF Festival International de Films d'Animation 2022

2021 - 2021 London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2021) - GIRAF17 Independent Animation Festival - 59th Golden Knight Malta International Short Film Festival - Relentless melt No 24: Hong Kong Experimental Animation - 2021 Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival - CINANIMA 2021 - Manchester Animation Festival 2021 - 2021 Cucalorus Film Festival - 2021 TIAF - Tbilisi International Animation Festival - 2021 Animest – Bucharest International Animation Film Festival - The International Short Film Festival of Cyprus 2021 - SICAF 2021 International Animated Film Festival - 2021 Supernova Digital Animation Festival - 2021 IV ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival - 2021 Encounters Film Festival - 2021 Ottawa International Animation Festival - Short to the Point ISFF AWARDS June 2021

[dr-archeville]

“I’m a former businessperson realizing that I’m an artist,” says Durham-based filmmaker Stephanie Diane Ford, whose career trajectory has been an example of following your passion.

After earning a business degree and working in IT and software development, Ford moved to Paris to pursue fashion management.  Motivated by the desire to escape the 9-to-5 and immerse herself in a visually creative environment, she discovered her love for filmmaking while creating a short promo trailer for her fashion blog.  It didn’t feel like work.

“Once I discovered my interest in film, I knew I could hit the ground running as a producer because management just came naturally,” she says.  “That whole process was fun from start to finish.  I decided in that moment, this is how I want to spend most of my day.”

Eight years later, she’s a “Filmed in NC” grant recipient from the Cucalorus Film Foundation.  Her first short, The Black Baptism, premiered at the Hayti Film Festival in February, and then screened at the Hip-Hop Film Festival and the Revolution Me Film Festival, where it won in the “Best Horror/Thriller/Sci-fi” category.

Next, at 8:00 p.m. Thursday, August 27, The Black Baptism appears in a block called “Tough and Transforming” in the Tarheel Shorties Film Festival.   A program of Wilmington’s Cucalorus Film Festival, Tar Heel Shorties showcases indie films from North Carolina.  It usually takes place in Wilson but is online-only this year.

A genre-blurring ode to Black women in search of their higher selves, the Afrofuturist film takes viewers deep into the main character’s psychological state, skillfully incorporating African and European mythology and religion in nuanced ways.

“The first character, the Goddess, she is inspired by the Egyptian Pantheon, and the overall story comes from the Yoruba Oya story mythos,” Ford says.  “Those stories correlated with the themes I wanted to tell, and they create the space to put it in a fantasy environment.”

Ford says the plot was inspired by a combination of her personal life experiences and the collective experience of Black women: “The feeling like there’s no protection, on a collective level.  The feeling that we’ve got to figure it out all alone.  Everything’s a struggle.  You know we’re overworked, having to build things from scratch, not having something established to walk into — but then, look at what can come.”

The protagonist, played by Amethyst Davis, begins as a prisoner.

“She just has herself,” Ford says.  “She starts off naked, imprisoned, barely getting any supplies.”

But as the 20-minute film progresses through short vignettes, we realize a murder has occurred, which results in the prisoner being forced to navigate a series of life-or-death challenges that are meant to connect her to her divine purpose.  

The Black Baptism is also a metaphor for the dynamics of dysfunctional relationships and break-ups.  Ford considers what internal healing looks like in order for an individual to take responsibility for their own actions.

“Most people don’t,” she says.  “We really do have the power to create our own reality.  As hard as it is, when you really take full ownership of that, you move away from being a victim in a lot of ways.”

Rather than a specific romantic relationship, the film reveals the emotional turmoil and pain women experience as a result of relationship lows or breakups.

“For some people, certain relationships stick with them forever,” Ford says.  “So it really is, for women, a process to work through that type of hurt sometimes.  That is what shaped the foundation of why [the protagonist] needed to connect to her spiritual side instead of being stuck.”

There are a number of important messages embedded in the plot, communicated through the Goddess that directly assists the protagonist and the viewers.  For Ford, the most important takeaway from the film is the tagline — “fear is a lack of imagination” — which reminds us that, through collective self-belief, Black women can overcome almost anything.

Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.

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Tarheel Shorties Film Festival Tuesday, Aug. 25–Thursday, Aug. 27, 8 p.m. free–$25 suggested donation