film
Film can be a powerful tool for education. From MLK to BLM, these films will teach you something the history books don’t. They celebrate black excellence and prove black film is no longer a genre, but a vital part of film across all genres. In the spirit of creating a dialogue, we created a list designed as a resource guide to connect movie watchers with more relevant than ever classics like Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing and George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give, both tackling the epidemic of police brutality.
We recently had the privilege of conversing with Usher Morgan, the award winning writer, director, and producer whose work includes Prego, Windblown, Fine Dining, Trapped Inside and the newly released feature film, Pickings. Morgan’s new book, Lessons From the Se Lessons from the Set: A DIY Guide to Your First Feature Film, was released to bookstores by Library Tales Publishing on December 17th, 2018. Below are extracts from our conservation with the filmmaker.
BREAKAWAY DAILY: What was it that made you want to make movies for a living?
The Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is the first film festival dedicated to honoring female action and empowerment heroes. Since its inception in 2015, Artemis has celebrated powerful women taking action on the silver screen. From female action heroes to female activists, the festival has shone a spotlight on females in narrative and documentary films who are fearless, fierce, physically strong and independent. This year, the Artemis Awards Gala is taking place at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills, California on April 26th. Expect lots of films that feature female leads, exposing people to current and past events, in documentary and narrative films that are unknown, and very badass!
Jill Jaress is a producer, director, writer and President of her own production company Got a Laugh Entertainment. The first comedy she created, Someone to Love, screened at Cannes to a standing room only audience in the Short Film Corner and went on to win eleven laurels in other Academy-qualifying and international film festivals. In her next film, The One-Nighter, she stared opposite of Golden Globe nominee Timothy Bottoms as Pixie Lamour. Jill has also done a plethora of voice-overs, commercials, industrial films and is author of Acting: Everything My Agent Never Told Me.
Diana Galimzyanova is a writer and director based in Moscow, Russia. Her four award winning short films were accepted to more than thirty five festivals in thirteen countries. Her latest short script A Fangirl is a finalist in several competitions and will be the first ever female-directed Russian film noir with reverse chronology. She’s recently launched an Indigogo campaign for her debut feature The Lightest Darkness.
BREAKAWAY DAILY: What is it about film noir that you enjoy so much?
DIANA: I’ve always been a fan of classic Hollywood, and film noir is such an amazing style, and a lot of the film noir films look and feel absolutely relevant to our times because they talk about archetypal issues.
The Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is the first and only film festival honoring kick-ass female driven action films! The festival is taking place at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills April 22nd through April 24th honoring powerful women on screen, those who contributed to the success of the genre, and the undiscovered talent of the future. From superheroes to super stuntwomen, from martial artists to mighty athletes, from women in law enforcement to women in the armed forces. The festival shines a spotlight on females in film who are fearless, fierce, and revolutionary.
In an era of films that are littered with comic books, book adaptations, remakes, reboots, rehashes and re-imaginings its increasingly difficult to find something new or original as studios clamber for familiarity to draw audiences in. So when I stumbled on the Kickstarter for indie drama White Awake it wasn’t just a breath of fresh air but a perpetual gust of wind slapping me in the face and demanding my attention. What immediately struck me about the project was the tone, subtle understated but with a real undercurrent of passion and emotion by a filmmaker who knew the film he wanted to make.
Hainsley Lloyd Bennett has enjoyed success as a model as well as actor in film, theatre, music videos, television, and virals. He has been in commercials for corporations such as McDonalds, The Times, Rubicon, Burger King and Boots. Hainsley has made television appearances in the longstanding British drama Casualty as well as Papuan kidnapper Yudas
in the true story documentary My Holiday Hostage Hell and starred in the
BBC series Crimewatch. Hainsley’s first feature film was London
Boulevard where he played alongside Colin Farrell, Ray Winstone, Keira
Knightley and Ben Chaplin.
Writer & director Greg White channels Hitchcock in must see film Separation.
I am a huge follower and supporter of independent and Canadian cinema. There is some terrific work being done out there, and I love being able to share some of them with my audience. Separation, is no exception. It is not your typical home invasion film and really catches you off guard. Separation is a gem of a film that is packed with twists and turns. It will genuinely keep you guessing to the very end, and then urge you to watch the film all over again. I