Doccumentary Short Films

50 SHOTS
Directed by: Rashaad Ernesto Green

On November 25, 2006 in Jamaica, Queens, Sean Bell, an unarmed 23-year-old African-American man, was shot and killed by NYPD on his wedding day. This documentary follows a protester who galvanizes a community at a rally that takes place one week after Sean’s funeral.

50 SHOTS
USA/2007/5min/BETA/COLOR
DIRECTOR: Rashaad Ernesto Green
PRODUCER: Rashaad Ernesto Green
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rashaad Ernesto Green & Tamika Guishard
FEATURING: Donald Murray

EL PLAY
Directed by: Pablo Medina

EL PLAY tells the story of Juan Manuel Candelario, an aspiring baseball player in San Pedro de Macoris, the baseball capital of the Dominican Republic. The film provides an in-depth look at his dedication to the game and uncovers many aspects of the local culture, from lifestyle to family to economics. Ultimately, the film is about Juan’s dream of becoming a professional baseball player and the reality of its improbability. Interview subjects include scouts, coaches, family members, a baseball historian and San Pedro-born Robinson Cano, the second baseman of the New York Yankees.

EL PLAY (World Premiere)
DR/2008/29min/DIGIBETA/COLOR
DIRECTOR: Pablo A. Medina
WRITER: Pablo A. Medina and Arístides Falcón Paradí
PRODUCER: Pablo A. Medina
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Pablo A. Medina
FEATURING: Jairo Candelario, Darío Marrero

FRESH OFF THE BOAT
CO-DIRECTORS: MARK ANDERSSON AND KATRINA LUCAS

Watch out if you don’t like ethnic Australians! Music/comedy act F.O.B. is young, outspoken, and full of ethnic pride. These Generation Y Melbournians of Malaysian, Indian, Filipino, Egyptian and Assyrian heritage are pushing cultural buttons and seeking notoriety by taking their unique brand of ethnic comedy out to the most public domain they can find: Melbourne’s Federation Square. The concert provides them with a forum for national exposure and offers some laughs along the way. But with lyrics like “Explosives, let’s blow this building to the ground zero/ Now I’ll be my town's hero,” could they face a backlash in the current political climate?

FRESH OFF THE BOAT (US Premiere)
AUSTRALIA/2007/25min/COLOR
CO-DIRECTOR: Katrina Lucas & Mark Andersson
PRODUCER: Kristian Moliere
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Mimi Belt & William J. Gonzalez
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mark Andersson

JUROR NUMBER SIX
Directed by: Rachel Lyon

JUROR NUMBER SIX interweaves interviews with legal and communications scholars with captured media clips and a running commentary of research results concerning the intersection of race, crime and the media. The film exposes the role of the media in promoting racialized representations of crime and shows how these portrayals can negatively affect jurors. The film demonstrates how cable television news, fictional programming, and internet websites were affected by the unique profitability of the OJ Simpson case in the 1990s, and how they continue to create fear and bias in jurors, often leading to disproportionately harsher sentences for minority defendants in the criminal justice system

JUROR NUMBER SIX
USA/2008/BETA/COLOR
DIRECTOR: Rachel Lyon
WRITER: Christine Intagliata
PRODUCER: Rachel Lyon
FEATURING: Charles J. Ogletree Jr, Charles Nesson, Andrea Lyon, Renee Ferguson

TRAILER

MAKING HISTORY
Directed by: Karen McKinon & Caecilia Tripp

MAKING HISTORY is a lyrical, panoramic film where syncopation is fueled by poetry. Edouard Glissant, Nobel Prize winning poet and one of the most important Caribbean writers of the last–half century, and Linton Kwesi Johnson, the father of dub poetry, meet in New York for a fiery debate on identity, politics and how slavery created modernity. The film features music from Linton Kwesi Johnson and DJ Spooky.

MAKING HISTORY (World Premiere)
UK/2008/9min/BETA/COLOR
DIRECTORS: Karen McKinon & Caecilia Tripp
WRITER: Caecilia Tripp and Karen McKinnon
PRODUCER: Stephanie Charmail
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tobin Yelland
FEATURING: Edouard Glissant, Linton Kwesi

SEEN, BUT NOT HEARD: AIDS AND THE UNTOLD WAR AGAINST BLACK WOMEN
Directed by: Cyrille Phipps

“The marker of success in the Black community is the success of the Black woman” -W.E.B DuBois

SEEN, BUT NOT HEARD: AIDS AND THE UNTOLD WAR AGAINST BLACK WOMEN is a short documentary that explores the historical antecedents, current trends, and emerging activism surrounding HIV/AIDS and women of African decent. Through raw and revealing personal accounts and comprehensive investigative journalism, the film seeks to challenge, inform, and inspire viewers to look past the daunting HIV/AIDS statistics - to see and hear the real stories of women of color whose lives are affected by HIV/AIDS.

SEEN BUT NOT HEARD: AIDS AND THE UNTOLD WAR AGAINST BLACK WOMEN (New York Premiere)
USA/2007/10min/BETASP/COLOR
DIRECTOR: Cyrille Phipps
PRODUCER: Cyrille Phipps
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Shelia Dawkins

TRAILER

THE 13TH AMENDMENT
Directed by:Michael J. Dennis

This documentary short follows a 90-year-old great-great-grandmother on her trek to vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 Pennsylvania primary. Having voted all of her life, this is the first time she’s had the opportunity to vote for a black man for the office of President of the United States.

THE 13th AMENDMENT (World Premiere)
USA/2008/5min/BETA SP/COLOR
DIRECTOR: Michael J. Dennis
PRODUCER: Michael J. Dennis
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael J. Dennis
FEATURING: Helen F. Denis

URBAN FRAMING
Directed by: Wanda Hu

URBAN FRAMING is an experimental documentary about the Rivington Place Visual Art Centre, designed by award-winning architect David Adjaye. The film takes us on a journey around and through Rivington Place, where the architectural experience of spaces is mediated through the urban framing of the facade. The film is narrated through the artistic juxtaposition of images and sound.

URBAN FRAMING
UK/2008/5min/BETA/COLOR
DIRECTOR: Wanda Hu
WRITER: Wanda Hu
PRODUCER: Stephanie Charmail
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Emery
FEATURING: Wanda Hu

URSULA RUCKER: POET
Directed by:Michael J. Dennis

Poet Ursula Rucker is best known for her diverse musical collaborations with King Britt, The Roots and 4Hero. She has appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and toured the world. She translates raw emotion into art, always finding love in the balance.

In this half-hour documentary portrait, she performs several of her best-known pieces in an “unplugged” setting. Through interviews with peers and mentors – including Saul Williams, Sonia Sanchez and Gil-Scott-Heron – we come to appreciate the difference between “spoken word” and “poetry” and trace the path that led Ms. Rucker to become one of the most acclaimed artists of her generation.

URSULA RUCKER: POET (World Premiere)
USA/2008/30min/BETA SP/COLOR
DIRECTOR: Michael J. Dennnis
POETRY BY: Ursula Rucker
PRODUCER: Craig Carpenter, Bianca M. White
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Craig Carpenter
FEATURING: Ursula Rucker, Sonia Sanchez, Gil Scott-Heron, Saul Williams, King Britt, and The Roots.