Ghetto Talks to Screen at the 16th Annual LA Film Festival

15 Apr 2010, 11:54 AM by Elizabeth Rodd, Urban Arts MediaLab

Life Stories Performs at 10th Annual Rebel Verses Festival

31 Mar 2010, 1:02 PM by Juliagrob, Life Stories

Life Stories was invited to perform at the 10th Annual Rebel Verses Festival on March 25th and 27th. 

REBEL VERSES is the first youth-based theater festival of its kind. The festival provides a unique opportunity for young artists to write, act, direct and produce theatrical work. Culminating in a two-week run that showcases various youth organizations, young and emerging artists, the repertory format of the festival offers a rare chance for fellow artists to view each others performance and network with their peers.

Warming up before the show with casts from MCC and Roundabout.

Life Stories performed an improvisation piece based on the Harold, pioneered by the Upright Citizen's Brigade.  While we had a structure we had no idea what the content of the piece would be from night to night.  The first performance our inspiration word was "CUPCAKES."  Amongst the brilliant ideas explored by the ensemble, a couple lines stand out:

"It is: too expensive in Manhattan."

"I am Vanilla"

The second performance our inspiration word was "DOG." Not only did this performance climax in our brilliant students getting physical onstage as dogs, but featured such stand-out ideas:

"the dog ate my homework,"

 "i was bitten by a dog, and he looked like a wolf, man."

Life Stories kicked some major booty at the show, leaving the audience in stitches of laughter.

GO LIFE STORIES GO LIFE STORIES GO!

Don't miss our Spring show April 25th & 26th

"One single word cannot define you!": A Mother's Response to Ghetto Talks

27 Mar 2010, 12:55 PM by Elizabeth Rodd, Urban Arts MediaLab

Story by Regina Bonsu, Producer, Ghetto Talks II

Photographed by Marlin Almonte

Hello, my name is Regina and I am one of the producers for Ghetto Talks, an original documentary created by student filmmakers from the Urban Arts Partnership Media Lab.  Today we interviewed Carmel Sanon, the mother of one of our directors and cinematographers, Omar Cyrille.  We decided to interview her for The Ghetto Talks Response Project because we knew that, as a parent, she would have a passionate reaction to the discussion of language and stereotypes in our film.

Ms. Sanon did not disappoint!  As the interviewer, I was really touched by many of the thoughts that she shared with us.  She talked about the word ghetto in relation to her children and the way it affects them.  One thing she said that I felt many people could agree with is that there are so many words that could define one person; one single word cannot do.  Overall, I felt that Ms. Sanon took our response project to a whole new level.

The technical part of our interview was also extremely successful.  We tried using a different light for the first time, and it made Ms. Sanon’s interview look a little more professional.  I was proud of us for challenging ourselves technically on this response piece. 

Personally, one thing I really want to improve on as an interviewer is the way I interact with my subjects.  I have noticed that I ask follow-up questions that may be slightly off-topic. I need to work on making my follow-up questions as relevant to our topic as possible so that we capture the most information for our film.

The Ghetto Talks production crew is currently looking for more interview candidates.  Please write to medialab@urbanarts.org if you have an idea for a response piece.  Keep checking back on our blog for more information on the Ghetto Talks Response Project!

Ghetto Talks on the Film Festival Circuit!

26 Mar 2010, 12:42 AM by Elizabeth Rodd, Urban Arts MediaLab

Meet the Filmmaker: Joshua Davis

20 Mar 2010, 5:53 PM by Elizabeth Rodd, Urban Arts MediaLab