You should be familiar with Nyu grad and filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu, whose work we've covered quite thoroughly in the past. Nikyatu is the helmer of the acclaimed shorts African Booty Scratcher and Say Grace Before Drowning. She was also the winner of the Shadow and Act Filmmaker Challenge for the screenplay of her short film Black Swan Theory. And now, Jusu's upcoming web series, Suicide by Sunlight, has released its promo teaser. Sunlight centers on "daywalking Black Vampyres protected by added melanin roam modern day NYC. Rayn, a half vamp+half human hybrid rejects her vampyre lineage while hunting for the right human mate." You can follow the web series' progress on Facebook...
- 7/9/2013
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
Well, it’s that time of year where an onslaught of nationwide film festivals take place. The Atlanta Film Festival will kick things off April 28-May 7 with a strong and diverse selection of films.
Here are a few films screening at the festival that we’ve highlighted on this site:
An African Nation
African United
Bouncing Cats
The First Grader
Say Grace Before Drowning (by S&A Filmmaker Challenge winner Nikyatu Jusu)
Rejoice And Shout
The Start Of Dreams
Things Fall Apart
A fair number of panels and workshops will take place covering various aspects of the business including The Impact and Importance of Film Tax Incentives, The Importance of Pre-production Planning, What Every Filmmaker Needs to Know About Film Critics, Making Your Home or Office A Shooting Location, How To Pitch Your Project, Distribution and Deliverables in the Digital Age and How To Get An Agent.
We’ll continue...
Here are a few films screening at the festival that we’ve highlighted on this site:
An African Nation
African United
Bouncing Cats
The First Grader
Say Grace Before Drowning (by S&A Filmmaker Challenge winner Nikyatu Jusu)
Rejoice And Shout
The Start Of Dreams
Things Fall Apart
A fair number of panels and workshops will take place covering various aspects of the business including The Impact and Importance of Film Tax Incentives, The Importance of Pre-production Planning, What Every Filmmaker Needs to Know About Film Critics, Making Your Home or Office A Shooting Location, How To Pitch Your Project, Distribution and Deliverables in the Digital Age and How To Get An Agent.
We’ll continue...
- 4/12/2011
- by Cynthia
- ShadowAndAct
The New York African Film Festival begins Today New Yorkers, and the 2011 lineup is an impressive one!
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
- 4/6/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The New York African Film Festival begins tomorrow New Yorkers, and the 2011 lineup is an impressive one!
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
- 4/6/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The New York African Film Festival has announced its 2011 lineup, and it’s an impressive one! I’m excited, and hopefully you will be too, especially if you live in New York.
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film at Sundance in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s Viva Riva!, which screened at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and Fespaco last month, where it won some awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I haven’t seen it, but I’m really looking forward to doing so.
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film at Sundance in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s Viva Riva!, which screened at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and Fespaco last month, where it won some awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I haven’t seen it, but I’m really looking forward to doing so.
- 3/15/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
It’ll be online until Tonight, Sunday at midnight Est, and we’re taking it offline after that, in consideration of potential release/distribution dates. So, if you haven’t seen it, or just want to see it again, I suggest you do so before it disappears! Although, I’m sure it’ll turn up again some time a little later.
Here it is folks! The completed 1st film of the Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge series, brought to you by Shadow And Act Films LLC; Nikyatu Jusu’s Black Swan Theory. To rehash briefly, we give a filmmaker $3,000 cash, based on a winning script that they submit; they then go off to make the short film with the money.
Synopsis: A psychiatric casualty of war, recently returned to the Us, Sonya’s imagined sense of normalcy crumbles around her; she must hunt or become the hunted.
Click The Image...
Here it is folks! The completed 1st film of the Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge series, brought to you by Shadow And Act Films LLC; Nikyatu Jusu’s Black Swan Theory. To rehash briefly, we give a filmmaker $3,000 cash, based on a winning script that they submit; they then go off to make the short film with the money.
Synopsis: A psychiatric casualty of war, recently returned to the Us, Sonya’s imagined sense of normalcy crumbles around her; she must hunt or become the hunted.
Click The Image...
- 2/20/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
As the title already says, Ms Nikyatu Jusu, who won the inaugural Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge, with her short script, Black Swan Theory, just won the $50,000 Panavision Equipment Grant at the BronzeLens Film Festival in Atlanta, Ga, over the weekend.
Her wonderful short film, Say Grace Before Drowning, was in competition and obviously impressed enough to get the award nod.
That’s certainly good news all around, and goes further to help secure our decision to award her with the $3,300 Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge award to produce her next short film, Black Swan Theory, which has been shot, and is currently in post-production. A teaser trailer and still image were posted on this blog a couple of weeks ago. If you didn’t see either, click Here to catch up.
So, how does Nikyatu plan to use the $50,000 Panavision equipment award? Can you say Black Swan Theory, the feature film?...
Her wonderful short film, Say Grace Before Drowning, was in competition and obviously impressed enough to get the award nod.
That’s certainly good news all around, and goes further to help secure our decision to award her with the $3,300 Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge award to produce her next short film, Black Swan Theory, which has been shot, and is currently in post-production. A teaser trailer and still image were posted on this blog a couple of weeks ago. If you didn’t see either, click Here to catch up.
So, how does Nikyatu plan to use the $50,000 Panavision equipment award? Can you say Black Swan Theory, the feature film?...
- 11/18/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
As promised, on this last day of August, 2010, after spending the last month reading and re-reading 57 short scripts and outlines, as well as watching and re-watching several short films sent in support of each application… we’ve chosen a winner of the inaugural Shadow And Act Filmmaker Challenge.
And the winner is… drumroll…
Not so fast my friends; hold on for just one minute . First, I’d like to thank everyone who submitted their work. It takes courage to allow others to read and closely scrutinize your art, and we’re all grateful that those who did participate were willing, confident and trusting enough to enter the challenge!
It was actually not an easy decision. A good number of them would make our honorable mentions list, if we were to create one. But it really came down to 4 scripts (although I won’t say what the other 3 were) that were...
And the winner is… drumroll…
Not so fast my friends; hold on for just one minute . First, I’d like to thank everyone who submitted their work. It takes courage to allow others to read and closely scrutinize your art, and we’re all grateful that those who did participate were willing, confident and trusting enough to enter the challenge!
It was actually not an easy decision. A good number of them would make our honorable mentions list, if we were to create one. But it really came down to 4 scripts (although I won’t say what the other 3 were) that were...
- 8/31/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
I’ve been wanting to do this for some time – a periodically (maybe annually) updated list of up-and-coming black filmmakers, especially those working mostly outside the mainstream; something we could call “black filmmakers to watch,” preceded by a year, not-so unlike Filmmaker magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film” list.
As I’ve already made known on this blog, I’m not necessarily a fan of lists, especially ranked lists where the arts are concerned.
However, I do see Some value in providing black cinema enthusiasts like yourselves (or cinema enthusiasts regardless of race) with the names of noteworthy black filmmakers who may otherwise go unnoticed by the the mainstream press, and even indie film publications like Filmmaker magazine. We’re celebrating those black filmmakers… propping them up, you could say. If a site like ours doesn’t do that, we certainly can’t complain when more prominent media outlets don’t.
As I’ve already made known on this blog, I’m not necessarily a fan of lists, especially ranked lists where the arts are concerned.
However, I do see Some value in providing black cinema enthusiasts like yourselves (or cinema enthusiasts regardless of race) with the names of noteworthy black filmmakers who may otherwise go unnoticed by the the mainstream press, and even indie film publications like Filmmaker magazine. We’re celebrating those black filmmakers… propping them up, you could say. If a site like ours doesn’t do that, we certainly can’t complain when more prominent media outlets don’t.
- 7/9/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
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