The New Negress Film Society: I am a Negress of Noteworthy Talent

  • 195 Lewis: POP Party (episode 1)

Showings

Main Theater - Michigan Theater Thu, Mar 23, 2017 5:10 PM
Film Info
Event Type:Black Diaspora
Special Program

Description

The New Negress Film Society is a core collective of black women filmmakers whose priority is to create community and spaces for support, exhibition, and consciousness-raising. The group is formed by Frances Bodomo, Ja'Tovia Gary, Stefani Saintonge, Chanelle Aponte Pearson, and Dyani Douze. This year's program includes a screening series plus a conversation between collective members Ja'Tovia Gary and Chanelle Aponte Pearson. Together, they'll discuss the topic of black women's spectatorship and "looking relations," the significance of Black queer representation in cinema, and the goals, challenges, and achievements of a film collective dedicated to Black women's cinema. 

 

Ja'Tovia Gary is an artist and filmmaker originally from Dallas, Texas, currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Gary's work is concerned with constructions of power as it relates to shaping identity and how these power relations are made manifest in popular media and art. She is the recipient of the Sundance Documentary Fund Production Grant and the Jerome Foundation Film and Video Grant. Gary participated in the Terra Foundation of American Art 2016 summer artist fellowship and is the 2017 Remix Artist in Residence at the Jacob Burns Film Center. 

 

Chanelle Aponte Pearson is a Bronx-bred, Brooklyn-based visual artist and filmmaker. In 2015, Chanelle was awarded the euphoria Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers "Live the Dream" grant for the narrative series 195 LEWIS, her directorial debut. As chief operating officer, Pearson also oversees the management and operations of MVMT, a Brooklyn-based film production company. 

 

An Ecstatic Experience 

2015 | 6 | digital file 

Ja'Tovia Gary 

A meditative invocation on transcendence as a means of restoration.  

 

Cakes Da Killa No Homo 

Ja'Tovia Gary 

2013 | 13 | digital file 

Cakes Da Killa No Homo is an electrifying portrait of a young artist determined to live life on his own terms. Born Rashard Bradshaw, Cakes Da Killa is a 22-year-old hip hop artist. As an openly gay man, he is not your run of the mill rapper, but he just might be your new favorite.  

 

195 Lewis: POP Party (episode 1) 

Chanelle Aponte Pearson 

2014 | 15 | digital file 

195 Lewis: POP Party is a dramedy series about a group of friends navigating the realities of being Black, queer, and polyamorous in New York City. 

 

Pain Revisited 

Dyani Douze & Nontsikelelo Mutiti 

2015 | 14 | digital file 

This audiovisual project re-imagines the black body in pain as an agent of potentiality through art and collaboration. 

 

Seventh Grade 

Stefani Saintoge 

2014 | 11 | digital file 

Everyone is growing up except Patrice. But when a raunchy rumor threatens her best friend's reputation, she's forced to join the party and embrace adolescence. 

 

Afronauts 

Frances Bodomo 

2014 | 14 | digital file 

It's July 16, 1969: America is preparing to launch Apollo 11. Thousands of miles away, the Zambia Space Academy hopes to beat America to the moon in this film inspired by true events.

Additional Information

Sponsor: University of Michigan Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series and Witt Residency 

With Support from: The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts