Official Selections
The Bus
Generosity
Birdie
The Therapist
The Karens
Flowers of Joy and Grief
This short solo dance video is an autobiographical one. I choreographed it, danced it, directed it. It has been filmed with my personal cellphone, a Samsung Galaxy A20 5G.
The images have been filmed in the kitchen of the house where I live, somewhere in the slums around Lima, Peru, where I and my family have been volunteering for the last 2 years.
The whole project, from preproduction to post-production, lasted 2 months, between 5 and 10 days of work.
It is a one-shot sequence film. It had to be done in the real postpartum period I was really going through, when the emotions and the sensations of this specific time in life were still very vivace and most of all, true. It also had to be done with all the respect due to what I and my baby who had been born 3 months before were experiencing.
Gladiolus flowers were and still are inhabiting the kitchen where the video was shot. In the desertic areas of Peru, they bring colors and joy. They bloom inside one's body, celebrating this glorious time of life when life is born. They wither inside one's body, as petals being stepped on after a party when it is all that is being left. These two opposite movements are present at the same time within the woman who is standing in her kitchen, as a gladiator in the middle of the arena.
The Salve Regina is a catholic antienne dedicated to the Virgin Mary, commenting about the difficulties of life and asking for Her protection and care.
Not As We Do
Mama Retreat
SEAMSTRESS
Stay
Functioning
I AM NOT OK
Rest
HOT ANGRY MOM
Marie is a people-pleasing New York City mom who thought she’d have money, success, and respect by middle age. Instead, she's working too many survival jobs and failing to meet her family’s expectations. But Marie’s the kind of woman you can count on to swallow her anger and put on a bright fucking smile. When she gets an opportunity to step into the role of a powerful Goddess, Marie thinks she’s finally getting what she deserves. But her world is turned upside down when a video of her unleashing her anger goes viral.
For moms, theatre nerds, those impacted by #metoo, and anyone who has ever struggled with their RAGE, HOT ANGRY MOM asks, "What does healthy anger look like? And how can we turn it into a source of power?"
DC Black Superhero
Produced by Sari Leigh, owner of Anacostia Yogi Media, a health and wellness media company based east of the Anacostia river in Washington, D.C.
Reopening
Stay-at Homes
THE COVID1619 PROJECT
PHOENIX RISING
Producer/Director/Editor: Lois M. Moses
This film tells the story of a Yogini Nya Patrinos who is incited during the confluence of the pandemic, the Breonna Taylor and George Floyd demonstrations, such that she goes out to march, befriends a group of African American teenage girls, and reflects that she has been playing life too small. Through that experience, she turns her practice of yoga into her activism, following a long tradition of yogini’s who fought in and for revolution.
Producer/Director: Melissa Beatriz
Animator : Gabrielle Patterson
Voiceover: Tatiana Bacchus and Melissa Beatriz
Editor: Tatiana Bacchus
A reflection on how Philly artists/cultural workers have been impacted by the pandemic, and how they are envisioning a new future that includes cultural equity. The piece uses a combination of documentary footage and animation.
Producer/Director: Eboni Zamani
Produced by: Pearl’s Girl Productions
Cinematographer/Editor: Stephanie Malson
This short documentary takes a look at the impact that the dual pandemics of COVID 19 and racism have had on the lives of Black people in Philadelphia. We speak with Sanitation Worker and Advocate Terrill Haigler, Community Organizer Shakira King and Nurse Toni T. about their lives during 2020. We discuss what life has been like for them during a year of civil unrest, personal loss, economic crisis, and a global health crisis.
THE LAST RESPONDER
Producer/Director: Nikki Harmon
Cinematographer: Stephanie Malson
Editor: M. Asli Dukan
A Philadelphia undertaker discusses the impact the pandemic has had on his business and his life. Keith Hodges is the director of the Beckett, Brown, and Hodges Funeral Home in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia. The funeral home services primarily African-American families and has been overwhelmed with the bereaved needing their assistance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding: The project is funded in part by Independence Public Media Foundation.
Becoming
Director & Choreographer: Anabella Lenzu
Videographer and Editor: Todd Carroll
Composer: Geoff Gersh
Dancer: Fiamma Lenzu-Carroll
SENSES
Ro & the Stardust
Super Scar
For Mum
Countless Little Moments
A Thousand Times A Day
Good Mom
Doubles
Coach Emily
My Vote Registration Vanished in 2016
After casting my ballot, I decided to investigate my vanished voter registration, and wondered if my vote vanished because of Interstate Crosscheck, centralized corporate voting systems, or the Russians?
Keep Your Head Up, Sweet Pea!
Her classmates could care less about her. Her teacher treats her as if she's stupid. And she can't even walk home without grown men harassing her.
For a 14-year-old girl, stuck between so many worlds, it all seems like too much.
But Once Upon a Time, not so long ago, Naddie loved to dance and wasn't afraid of anything... at least that's what her mother tells her.
Still, how can she take on all the challenges before her and still face the world with conviction now?
Is happiness something you lose when you grow up, or do you learn how to adjust with the times and still keep your head held high?
Home Soon
HOME SOON is a snapshot of time capturing all that is, and all that was hoped for immediately prior to an all too familiar tragedy faced by many in Black communities across America.
Nina has not seen or heard from her son Troy since the previous evening. His girlfriend Simone pops over for an unexpected visit in an attempt to locate her love who has uncharacteristically “ghosted” her the night before. Our drama depicts a pivotal moment where both women, in an attempt to reroute worry, hash out their differences in how they love Troy in his absence. Their exchange reveals fears, hopes and conflicting desires all left unresolved until his anticipated return home.
Birth From the Earth
A Mother is Born
Rainbow Baby
First Dance
Gloria's Birthday
A Life Well Lived
Noctiluca
Assaman
Logline: A love story with the future kaleidoscopes in a cosmic twin encounter.