Community Film Workshop’s 50 Years of Chicago Women in Film

329 East Garfield Boulevard,Chicago IL 60637

11 March, 2022

Description

In collaboration with Community Film Workshop, in honor of Women's History Month. To honor Women’s History Month, Arts + Public Life is proud to present an evening of films from alumnae of the legendary Community Film Workshop of Chicago (CFWC). This year, CFWC is celebrating 50 years of building independent film institutions where thousands of people of color, including many women, got their start as camera operators, editors, producers, and the technical crews on television, commercials, feature films, and independent media projects. Join us to watch the award-winning film The G Force from CFWC alum Pamela Anderson Sherrod, and new work by emerging women filmmakers Natalie Battles, Melanie Brezill, Devorah Crable, Susan Carlotta Ellis, and Safiya James. Following the screening, CFW director Margaret Caples will moderate a discussion with all the filmmakers. Program: The G Force (Pamela Anderson Sherrod, 57 min, 2018) When parents are unable to parent, for whatever reason, an increasing number of grandmothers and grandfathers are filling in to raise their childrenʼs children. The grandparents who step up to being full-time caregivers to their grandchildren are those who make up The G Force. The Journey (Safiya Eshe Gyasi, 4:59 min) The Journey is an experimental documentary that explores how trauma affects Black women through sound and movement. A Garden Grows In Englewood (Susan Carlotta Ellis, 4:41 min)"A Garden Grows In Englewood" is about the redemption of Mrs. Geraldine Smith, a 17 year Illinois Death Row Parolee, who has created a cradle to grave community garden that promotes healthy eating as well as keeping youth safe. Tread (Devorah Crable, 5:00)A dramedy (dark drama comedy) about how a well-heeled street naive young lady’s rabid frustration with an unscrupulous used car dealer leads to solution options involving Chicago’s colorful underworld. At Their Feet (Natalie Battles, 5:00 min)A documentary about passing down African American stories, history, and legacy to future generations as a tool to educate, inspire and keep black history and truths alive, through the stories of two extraordinary elder African American women who have paved the way for many. “At Their Feet” speaks to the importance of knowing the greatness from which we come, then using that energy and information to push forward. Sweet and Savory Dreams (Melanie Brezill, 5:00 min) In Sweet and Savory Dreams, Ain’t She Sweet Cafe owner Margo Strotter, and her daughter Ayesha, discover the path to a successful business is not easy but there is nothing a mother and daughter can’t accomplish when their hopes are linked together. Artists: Pamela Sherrod Anderson, founder of Graceworks Theater and Film Productions, is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, playwright, educator and journalist. Her films have been shown nationally and internationally and at teacher conferences from Connecticut to California co-sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Her films have been selected for the City of Chicago’s Movies in the Parks program, the Best of the Black Harvest Film Festival and shown on Amazon Prime, Tubi, and IMDB. Her documentary, The G Force, which tells the story of grandparents stepping up to raise their children’s children, was a 2020 semi-finalist in the Cannes Independent Film Festival and made its debut in the 2018 Black Harvest Film Festival in Chicago. Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper gave it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. The G Force began as a story idea in Community Film Workshop’s and Kartemquin Films’ Diverse Voices in Docs program. She proudly counts Community Film Workshop of Chicago as part of her filmmaking journey. CFWC supported her first film, Getting Directions, a love story told by different generations while riding a CTA bus. The film screened at the Black Harvest Film Festival, the Golden Gate Fiction & Documentary Festival, Chicago Short Film Festival, and was shown in the short-program broadcast on Brooklyn Cable Access Television (BCAT). It also screened at Reel Sisters Film Festival in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Arts Council International Film & Video Festival, the Annual Women of African Descent Film Festival and at Le Kadjinol Theater in Dakar, Senegal. Anderson grew up in the Woodlawn neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. She has been a Diverse Voices in Docs fellow, a DVID mentor, served on the Kartemquin Films Board of Directors and as Kartemquin Films Board Chair. Safiya Eshe Gyasi is a 16-year+ Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI] Survivor and a Multimedia artist with over ten years’ experience of creating and performing through various mediums including film-making, fiber work, and curating. She is a multi- talented and multi-dimensional Creative Director with proven skills in Event Planning and Project Management, invoking Afro-futurism to create healing experiences for communities. Susan Carlotta Ellis is a Community Film Workshop Inaugural 2019 Fellow of the Digital Storytelling Production Institute, and former Independent CANTV Producer on short docs of "African American Architects" where she garnered a National Hometown Video Documentary Award. Ellis is a graduate of Howard University College of Architecture, and most recently a 2021 City Bureau Journalist Fellow covering Urban Farming and Community Gardens on Chicago's South and West Sides. Following a ground breaking award-winning broadcasting career, Devorah Crable is re-emerging as a digital space content provider and narrative/documentary filmmaker operating through her company MSD Global LLC. Her mission is to present compelling, empowering and inspiring narratives of the African Diaspora experience to heighten appreciation and understanding of Black culture and its global impact. In 2021, she completed the University of Chicago Logan Center’s Digital Storytelling Initiative program where her premier narrative film TREAD won the Avalonia Film Festival Best Dark Comedy Short Film award and was selected for screening at the Culver City Film Festival in Los Angeles, California. Natalie Battles is a visual and performance artist, and the founder of "Melanated in America '' (MIA), a full service production and event company whose mission is to highlight, promote and showcase everything melanated in America by creating original and empowering content and helping other Melanated people to make their media dreams a reality. Natalie is also the co-founder of the "Healing Academy," an arts and education based non-profit organization whose mission is to transform urban communities by offering education for the entire family that inspires solid minds, transforms whole bodies, and fulfills the entire soul. Melanie Brezill is a Chicago based filmmaker, actress, and documentarian with a passion for telling black women’s stories. She is the creator of The Grandmother Project Series and Archive and the creator and host of the monthly series, Pearls and Pocketbooks, both of which are available on YouTube. Other film projects include I AM the Movement, a Public Access series which aired on Chicago's Can TV. She is currently a cast member of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in San Francisco. Other recent theatre credits include ‘Celia’ in As You Like It at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the ‘lady in yellow’ in Court Theatre’s for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf and ‘Sweet Thing’ in Northlight Theatre’s Nina Simone: Four Women. Melanie made her Broadway debut in The Book of Mormon before touring the country with both the 1st and 2nd National Tours.