I am always filming.
Here is some of my work. Enjoy!
Cultura: The Movement of Spirit
A short compilation of the human spirit and some of my travels. I love to film everyday life and movement, I have a particular eye for makers and their hands. Some of these shots are a part of larger stories I am working on, where I capture a process and its story. I selected an Afrobeats song simply because the rhythm made me feel the joy and connection I felt when visiting these places. Afrobeats is an umbrella term to describe popular music from the African diaspora and exemplifies this syncretism.
Locations reflected here include Panama, Colombia, South Africa, and Jamaica.
Weaving Life: Love Letter to the Women of San Basilio de Palenque
A short series of shots that are a part of a mini-documentary about the history of hair braiding in San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, where there is a rich history of using braids as a part of their resistance efforts to gain freedom from Spanish slavers. I’ve spent significant time there interviewing, participant-observing and filming. I wrote and recorded a short poem that is a love letter to this resistance, the power and needs of Black women, the beauty of Afro hair, and the relationship between the stylist and the client. This particular hairstyle is for special occasions and represents the work of women.
San Basilio de Palenque was the first free African town in the Americas, and in 2005 was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
Special thanks to Karen Rocha for film, language, and culture assistance.
Can’t Cash Compliments
Launched on Equal Pay Day, the short video follows a 30-something professional who asks for a raise and receives compliments instead, she gets the genius idea to try and use the compliments she received to buy things. In a comedic way this exposes the truth that compliments are wonderful, but they don’t pay the bills. “Can’t Cash Compliments” is co-produced by myself and Twanna Toliver.
We are two friends who wished we could use all the compliments we receive for their work to pay bills, and we wanted to explore the pattern of using praise in the workplace to avoid fair compensation.
Special thanks to the Financial Gym in NYC for allowing us film in their offices and to the brilliant Debra Cartwright