SO WHAT IF IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT --- Community Filmmaking Entry 6/3/09

In July 2009 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers plans to shoot a short narrative film. We are inviting local residents to be involved in our “Community Filmmaking”. This weekly blog column will keep you updated on our next steps, introduce you to the volunteers and students already involved, and let you know how you might get involved.

"SO WHAT IF IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT" -- Find out what happened when the BYFC Director visited the Fort Greene Park Green Market -- Below under MEETING US

“Hey, what’s In the Box?!”

“Is it something I would want – that nobody else has?”

Find out June 27th!

FGInfoX STOOP SALE DAY!
SATURDAY, JUNE 27th, 11:00am-4:00pm

“Yard sales are where you go to find something you didn’t know you wanted.
Yard sales are where you go when you want stuff to find you.” – Richard Rubin

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is organizing the Fort Greene Information X-Change Stoop Sale Day on Saturday, June 27th, to give small neighborhood non-profits (including Brooklyn Child & Family Services www.bcafs.org , and Fort Greene SNAP www.fortgreenesnap.org) a unique way of promoting their work while running a stoop sale to fundraise for a special project. Proceeds from Brooklyn Young Filmmakers own stoop sale will help us with our Community Filmmaking shoot in July. (At our stoop sale we will be screening the three films we’ve produced and doing a reading of the script we will be shooting in July!)

We are also inviting Fort Greene neighbors to come out that day and hold their own household stoop sales that we will publicize as part of the FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day. (We encourage participating households to donate up to ten percent of their proceeds to a special project of their block association or to one of the small neighborhood non-profits participating in the FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day, but it’s not required.) If your household wants to do a stoop sale on Saturday, June 27th, you can contact Brooklyn Young Filmmakers to have your block included on the FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day map. We will start distributing the map throughout the community the week before the stoop sale day. We also are advertising the FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day in newspaper and online community calendars.

Our hopes are beyond raising money. We plan to heavily flyer and promote the FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day to residents in Fort Greene public housing, who can’t do stoop sales on government property. Stoop sales are fun because strangers spend time talking to each other and trading stories as they bargain over junk/precious possessions. Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is doing it front of the building I live in on S. Elliott Place. I’ve been polling my neighbors and a number of households will be doing stoop sales and giving a donation from their proceeds to S. Elliott’s annual summer block party and pig roast. So our S. Elliott block is definitely on FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day map. Want to add your block?

If your organization or household would like to participate in the Fort Greene Information X-Change Stoop Sale Day, contact Brooklyn Young Filmmakers: fginfox@wearebyfc.org (718)935-0490.

ARE YOU READY TO ANSWER THE RIDDLE? How can you contribute to Brooklyn Young Filmmakers next Community Filmmaking Project by giving up something you don’t want?

BYFC SCAVENGER HUNT: Do a green thing by donating saleable items that you are not using to Brooklyn Young Filmmakers for resale at our stoop sale and help us fund our July film project. (that’s one way to get your name in the film credits!). We are now accepting donated items for our sale.

GUIDELINES FOR DONATING:

- No perishables
- Items must be clean and have a suggested total selling value of at least $25
- Items need to be organized in boxes or bags
- Electrical items need to have been recently tested by you
- If you are able to drop off items, we can arrange different times throughout the week. If we need to pick up from you we will be arranging several pick up days in the weeks of June 15th and 22nd.
- You need to give us a list and an estimate of the value of the things you are donating in advance so that when we receive the items we can give you a thank you letter for your tax purposes.

If you would like to make a donation, contact us at: fginfox@wearebyfc.org (718)935-0490.

MEETING US

Last Saturday I finally got around to clearing out the last of winter debris from the plot of earth in front of my apartment building. Time to plant the garden. I headed towards the Fort Greene Park Green Market at the corner of DeKalb and Washington Park. I hadn’t been there since Spring ’08.

As I walked up Dekalb nearing the corner of Washington Park, I was surprised and happy to see so many artisan booths lined up with colorful and intricate wares. Then I heard jazz music and rounded the corner to see the nodding and swaying musicians. I felt the party coming on and smiled. In the area where the farmers were selling plants, there were so many people gathered around the tables that I would have to wait to get close. So I started wandering down the line of stalls on Washington Park that sell food and produce.

Suddenly I froze mid-way down the crowded walkway. In front of me another black woman was approaching. She passed me, and I shut down for a moment. I realized that I had passed maybe one of two other black people in the crowd that had seemed like one or two hundred. I then spent the next half an hour walking up and down the market counting black people. When I finally got to fifteen I stopped. My reality had shifted. Standing in the middle of the green market, I felt like I was in a white community --- not a mixed community or a black community.

I went to mostly white schools and as an adult I have often chosen to live in mostly white communities, so being one of the few is normal to me. When I moved to Fort Greene in 1998, suddenly life was different. I was in a mixed community (still mostly black) and it was bustling with culture and passion. I felt like all parts of me could be recognized and nourished here.

Maybe the half hour I spent in the market last Saturday was a fluke, and as soon as I left floods of color would start entering the marketplace. I knew if I went up into the park I would find a truer mix of the people in the neighborhood. But during those moments standing in the marketplace among a mostly white crowd, I wondered what had happened to the dream.

I continued walking down Washington Park pass where the market ends. As I walked towards Myrtle the festive sounds of the market became faint and vanished. There was silence behind me as I walked the empty three quarters of that long-long block. I reached the corner of Washington Park and Myrtle and happened to look down at the lamppost. A small low hanging sign invited people to go down the block to the market. I turned and looked back behind me down the block, way back. I couldn’t see anything. From the corner of Myrtle the market did not exist.

Across Myrtle opposite Fort Greene Park is public housing, where Brooklyn Young Filmmakers has had an office in the Whitman Community Center since 2005. I knew many of the items at the market could be considered luxury items that residents there couldn’t afford.

I turned back and started walking back to DeKalb. As I neared the market again, this time I noticed a man standing by himself on the edge of the sidewalk, a hundred yards before the stalls of the market began. His stand was built out of two stacks of boxes. Leaning against the stacks were displays of different colored miniature guitars.

No one was approaching him, though an occasional child walking by with a parent would look shyly towards the cute little guitars. I greeted the man and he strummed his little guitar for me. I was happy to hear his music. - Trayce, BYFC Director

COMING ATTRACTIONS IN NEXT WEEK’S BLOG:
Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Community CASTING CALL

for our July film shoot.

PATIENCE --- Community Filmmaking Entry 5/18/09

In July 2009 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers plans to shoot a short narrative film. We are inviting local residents to be involved in our “Community Filmmaking”. This Monday blog column will keep you updated on our next steps, introduce you to the volunteers and students already involved, and let you know how you might get involved.

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers participated the weekend of May 16th and 17th in the SONYA Stroll, curating an intergenerational multi-media art show at the Willoughby Senior Center in the campus of Fort Greene public housing.

“IDENTITY BOXES” by Benjamin Banneker High Students

From Ms. LeAnn Iverson’s art classes

INSPIRED

We picked up our SONYA packet (maps, balloons, small signage) on Friday from the house of Kathleen Hayek the coordinator of the stroll. SONYA (South of the Navy Yard Artists) is an all volunteer neighborhood non-profit like Brooklyn Young Filmmakers. And Kathleen is the octopus, with many arms out, coordinating all the rapidly moving (or refusing to move) pieces. And in-between and beyond that she’s an artist. Though the focal point in her living room on Friday was the table and boxes of SONYA materials, our eyes strayed to the mysterious and beckoning paintings and sculptures on the walls. Kathleen had turned her house into a gallery space to be one of the stroll sites. ART LIVES AMONG US – It Is Us and U – Welcome! (Kathleen doesn't actually say that, but it's the vibe.) We took that spirit and our packet and headed for the Willoughby Senior Center in Fort Greene public housing. (For Kathleen’s profile and a glimpse of her art visit: http://www.sonyaonline.org/ )

PUTTING THE SHOW UP

We stopped by Banneker High to pick up two dozen freshly painted and completed “IDENTITY BOXES” from students in Ms. LeAnn Iverson’s art classes. Back at the Willoughby Center, Jenny Chan, a volunteer at SNAP (http://www.fortgreenesnap.org/ ), opened up a black bag and out jumped ten GIRLS, GIRLS,GIRLS – framed comic inspired drawings of American princesses celebrating an innocent era. That Friday afternoon I finished mounting the pre-schooler art from Brooklyn Child & Family Services. I stayed away from visible tape and staples and cheap cardboard backing, knowing their value could be elevated if they were put in an attractive context:

The work of two 17 months old artists is given a lift

by the cloud and sky posterboard used to back them.

Below the paper flowers and vase done as a class project

by two year olds becomes the centerpiece for a dinner table.

These paintings by 3 yr olds are headed for MOMA

after their show ends at the Willoughby Center.

THE WEEKEND - WHO CAME

The turnout wasn’t what I had fantasized. About twenty strangers on the SONYA Stroll came through, and then there were a few friends, a few people connected to Brooklyn Child & Family, SNAP, and Banneker High (the other organizations whose artwork was displayed), and BYFC students and volunteers. We thought we would get a lot of the seniors who come during the week to the Willoughby, but surprisingly only a few came by.

Was it worth all the time and effort that went into putting the show together? I bought a small bleeding heart plant last year for the garden I grow outside the apartment building I live in on S. Elliott. It did so-so and at the end of the season I thought it had died. To my surprise it not only came back this year, but it has quickly grown into a big flowering bush. Seeds were planted with our participation in the stroll and it's up to us to make it worthwhile.

“PATIENCE IS ALSO A FORM OF ACTION.” - Auguste Rodin

LOST AMONG LITTER – FACTORS WE HAVE TO THINK MORE ABOUT

When was the last time you went into public housing?

The Willoughby Senior Center is half way down the block from the corner of Myrtle and N. Portland. Before you get to the center you pass large stretches of fenced grass surrounding six storied public housing buildings set back from the street. You can’t post any signage along there. When you get to the Willoughby Senior Center you wouldn’t know what it was because it’s housed in what use to be a childcare center, and what you see from the street is the fenced playground area with kiddy bars. You have to turn off the street and go on a walkway between a public housing building and the side of the center to get to the entrance.

We weren’t prepared for how hard it was for people to find us at 105 N. Portland. It was not until late in the day on Saturday we realized that someone had taken the SONYA balloons we had tied along the center’s fence on N. Portland to lead people off the street, and the small SONYA signs that might have been helpful posted in a storefront window, were hard to notice on the long stretch of fencing.

When we closed up on Saturday and left the Willoughby Center walking on N. Portland towards Myrtle, I noticed that a stretch of sidewalk and grass was full of litter – which is not the case at all when you go deeper into public housing and look around the entrances to buildings and the common outdoor areas. It was just on this disconnected stretch where many people passed by on the street.

I wondered, did some SONYA strollers get to N. Portland and start down the block trying to find us, only to turn back. Do people equate public housing and litter with danger? Next time, if needed, plan to pick up litter.

Those who did visit us on the stroll saw some incredible real estate -- sitting on table tops. Two seniors at the Willoughby Center decided they were going to have their fantasy houses -- even if they had to build them themselves. It took over a year, but here they are:

210 Ellis Drive

"My Brooklyn Ranch House"

Geraldine Ellis, Artist

888 Sills Lane

"My Spanish Villa"

Ruby N. Johnson, Artist

TINA AND C'ALLAH STROLL

During the stroll weekend I sent some of our crew out to other stroll locations to pass out our flyers and invite strollers to come to the Willoughby. Tina Flemmerer, the emerging filmmaker from Germany who was cinematographer and editor for "POINTING FINGERS", set out with C'Allah Coombs, who was raised and lives in Fort Greene public housing, and who was one of the actors in "POINTING FINGERS". Tina later gave an account of their stroll:

TINA: When we walked out of the projects down Myrtle Avenue, C'Allah was saying 'Hi' to everybody and everybody knew him. I really liked how relaxed and open he was with his thoughts. When we crossed Fort Greene Park, suddenly it was me who became the talkative one and he became quiet. He was more watchful and reserved and there was no one he knew to greet. We both loved the art we saw and how the artists were there to talk. C'Allah had never been on the stroll either, and he kept saying how amazing it all was, and that even though it was the tenth year of the stroll, how he had not known about it.

The Banneker teachers and students who we invited to present had not known about the SONYA Stroll either. Now they know. And the stroll gave us an opportunity for creative exchange. Our film "POINTING FINGERS" features a character who sings a HipHop song he wrote. We heard that Banneker's Participatory Action Research Team, led by their teacher Askia Egashira, had a multi-media presentation on the "Relevancy of HipHop for High Achieving Urban High School Students". We invited them to view our film and give their presentation.

Banneker students listen to a presentation on poster art and the BYFC goal

of creating a multi-layered story in one frame (one poster).

Then they gave their presentation in poetry and statistics.

Their conclusion was that the spirit and love of HipHop wasn't dead, but that the

"business" of HipHop, with the promoting of gangster rappers and sex, had deadended.

We concluded the weekend with a screening of "POINTING FINGERS"

and a reunion of some of the cast and crew.

THE MONDAY AFTER THE STROLL WEEKEND

The artwork was still up when the seniors streamed into the center for lunch and bingo. I was told later by the Willoughby staff that the seniors spent a lot of time looking over the artwork. They were amazed by the work of the 17 month olds, wanted to buy the "Identity Boxes" by the Banneker students, and had discussions about the BYFC film posters.

– Trayce

p.s. i will be taking a holiday next monday - so check back first week of june for the next posting

(NOTE: This article was originally posted on 5/18/09, but because of a format problem it had to be re-entered)

GOING WHERE YOU HAVEN’T BEEN -- Community Filmmaking Entry 5/11/09

In July 2009 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers plans to shoot a short narrative film. We are inviting local residents to be involved in our “Community Filmmaking”. This Monday blog column will keep you updated on our next steps, introduce you to the volunteers and students already involved, and let you know how you might get involved.

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Poster and
Postcard Art will be on display as part
of the SONYA Stroll this weekend.

BYFC SCAVENGER HUNT: Reminder - Starting June 1st we will put up the details about how, what, and where to donate to items for BYFC’s Fort Greene Information X-Change Stoop Sale that will happen June 27th (see details from our 5/4/09 posting: http://fginfox.blogspot.com/2009/05/strategy-we-got-community-filmmaking.html ) the week of June 8th we will start accepting your donations of items for our sale. Start saving the things you don’t want – but others would value – and help us fund our next Community Filmmaking shoot in July.

UPCOMING: "GETTING STARTED IN FILM", the second class in the BYFC "MAKE A FILM" Class Series, starts May 19th, 6:00pm-9:00pm ($120), and runs on consecutive Tuesdays through June 30th, at NYC College of Technology's Division of Continuing Education in Downtown Brooklyn. It's a comprehensive introduction to how to organize a low-low budget film shoot and how to be a good production assistant. To register: (718) 522-1170

(Students from the current BYFC "INTRO TO SCRIPTWRITING" Class)

MEETING US:

The 10th Annual SONYA Stroll next weekend features among its artists the Brooklyn Young Filmmakers who will be showcasing its work at the Willoughby Senior Center, which is located on the campus of Fort Greene public housing. This will be the first time a location in public housing will be featured on the SONYA Stroll. We hope it will create new foot traffic across the neighborhood as neighbors are iinvited to go places they haven't been before to see some great art and emerging talent! Art by seniors from the Willoughby Center, Banneker High School students, children from Brooklyn Child & Family Services, and volunteers from Fort Greene SNAP will also be featured. Banneker students will also do a special presentation on HipHop culture. (See below for full schedule of events.)

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers will be screening the films it produced and discussing Community Filmmaking. The aspiring scriptwriters from the BYFC Class “INTRO TO SCRIPTWRITING: Blueprint for Making a Film” will also do readings of their short scripts on Saturday, May 16th. Comments about the “INTRO TO SCRIPTWRITING” from some of the students:

TINA: “This is my third screenwriting class and all three teachers have had a different take on screenwriting. My first teacher was very character based so for him it was all about developing the back story. The second teacher was all about plot driven scripts. It was all about the inciting incident and where you go from there, the next beat, and the funny twist at the end. This BYFC class is like a very perfect combination of both of those classes. There’s emphasis on the plot points but we never neglect the characters. This class for $90 is incredibly cheap when I paid $1,000 for each of my other classes. (Tina is a 2008 graduate of the City College undergrad Film Program and the cinematographer/editor for BYFC's third film, POINTING FINGERS)

COREY BROOKS: “As an actor I’ve been mainly doing theater. Being in this writing class, even more than acting in a film, has made me realize how important putting down lots of visuals – what actors will do, what they see – is so important to moving the story along. (Corey is one of the three actors starring in POINTING FINGERS.)

SONNY RODIGUEZ: “This class is showing me how to incorporate visuals into a story. Now when I’m reading a story in school about anything, it could be in a newspaper or a book, I’ll go “Hmmmm. How can I show this visually? What would the person be doing with his hands?” And other people will say those details don’t matter, and I say in my Scriptwriting Class it does.” (Sonny is a junior in high school.)

JOHN DARGAN: “This scriptwriting class has been one of the best classes I’ve ever taken in my life. I’ve done a number of Youth Media programs: Reel Works http://www.reelworks.org/; Downtown Community TV Junior Fellowship Program www.dctvny.org ; William H. Crosby Future Filmmakers Workshop at NYU http://about.tisch.nyu.edu/object/FutureFilmmakers.html and I’m doing the Summer Arts Institute this summer. I took the last BYFC “GETTING STARTED IN FILM” Class where we did Pre-Production for POINTING FINGERS. As we workshoped the script we did a whole chart of James Senior’s life going way back to what he did as a young man, even though the script is about him as an old man. Now that I’m taking the “INTRO TO SCRIPTWRITING” Class, I’m realizing now that everything goes back to the development of the script and how important that is. With my past media programs we did storytelling through film, but we didn’t go all the way back to the beginning where we try to understand where the characters came from. We only discussed what the characters were doing in the story we were going to shoot and we put storyboards together and we shot off that. The films ended up with a lot of quotes and music. I see know that the characters and their dialogues weren’t real.” (John is a high school junior who has worked on the crew of the last two BYFC film productions.)

WANT TO GET REAL?

JOIN BROOKLYN YOUNG FILMMAKERS

NEXT WEEKEND ON THE SONYA STROLL!


THE 10th ANNUAL SONYA STROLL
SATURDAY, MAY 16 & SUNDAY, MAY 17 12noon – 6:00pm FREE!
(Visit www.sonyaonline.org for a map of all the locations featuring artists work in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill)

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers
SONYA STROLL
at the Willoughby Senior Center
105 N. Portland
(across from Fort Greene Park, between Myrtle & Park)

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Viewing of Art on Display
12noon - 6:00pm
- Artists from the Willoughby Senior Center (model houses / jewelry / dolls)
- Brooklyn Young Filmmakers (posters, postcards, still photos from film shoots)
- Beryl Benbow, Paintings (Local Artist & Fort Greene SNAP Volunteer
www.fortgreenesnap.org )
- Jenny Chan, Drawings (Local Artist & Fort Greene SNAP Volunteer
http://www.fortgreenesnap.org/ )
- Brooklyn Child and Family Services, Children's Art (http://www.bcafs.org/)
- Benjamin Banneker High School, "Identity Cubes" (http://www.benjaminbanneker.org/ )


Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Presentations in the Main Hall
1:00pm Screening of BACK STREETS (32min, 2008) & Discussion of Production History
2:00pm Screening of FROM PAWNS TO KINGS (5min, 2008) & Study Guide Discussion
2:30pm Screening of POINTING FINGERS (Work-In-Progress,15min, 2009) & Discussion
3:30pm Showcase Reading & Analysis of Student Scripts
5:30pm Refreshments and networking
6:00pm Closing

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Viewing of Art on Display
12noon - 6:00pm (See May 16th)

Presentations in the Main Hall
1:00pm POINTING FINGERS Screening
Followed by a multi-media presentation by Benjamin Banneker High School Students:
"HIDE N SEEK, HIPHOP WHERE YOU AT"
Examining the Relevancy of HipHop for High Achieving Urban High Schoolers Today
2:30pm FROM PAWNS TO KINGS
Reading of script, screening of film and discussion of study guide
3:30pm BACK STREETS
Screening followed by discussion of production history with Adonis William, Director & Trayce Gardner, Executive Producer
4:30pm POINTING FINGERS
Reading of 2 scripts – Original student script and shooting script
Screening of film / Intro of cast & crew
Audience input into development of study guide
5:30pm Refreshments & networking
6:00pm Close of Event

*The Willoughby Senior Center is sponsored by the Fort Greene Council, Inc.

STRATEGY, WE GOT --- Community Filmmaking Entry 5/4/09

In July 2009 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers plans to shoot a short narrative film. We are inviting local residents to be involved in our “Community Filmmaking”. This Monday blog column will keep you updated on our next steps, introduce you to the volunteers and students already involved, and let you know how you might get involved.

(PA Cora Melvin marking the slate and Script Supervisor

Rosemary Roman taking notes during the BACK STREETS shoot)

BACK STREETS (32 mins, 2008)

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers /

Adonis Williams Production

Watch the trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qETIMBe8QBA&feature=channel_page

LAST WEEK’S RIDDLE: How can you contribute to Brooklyn Young Filmmakers next Community Filmmaking Project by giving up something that you don’t want?

BYFC SCAVENGER HUNT : Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is doing a giant Stoop Sale and we want those things of value you might have stored that you don’t want. Our stoop sale will be Saturday, June 27th. Starting the week of June 8th we will be accepting your donations of items for our sale. (We will put up the details about how, what and where to donate in our June 1st blog posting – but you can start saving your valuables for us now!) Proceeds from the sale will help us shoot our next film in July. Our stoop sale though is about more than us. Read on:

FGInfoX STOOP SALE DAY (1st Annual!), SATURDAY JUNE 27TH: Fort Greene has the Fort Greene House Tour and the SONYA Stroll that take you walking down blocks in the neighborhood you’ve never been to view beautiful homes and challenging artwork. Well here comes the Fort Greene Information X-Change Stoop Sale Day! Walk across the neighborhood bartering over your neighbor’s junk while helping to fund the special projects of neighborhood non-profits.

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers, under its Fort Greene Information X-Change (FGInfoX) Project, is organizing this stoop sale day to also give non-profits a unique way of promoting the work they do. (Block associations and community gardens are also invited to participate.) We will create a neighborhood map showing the “stoops” of participating non-profits and listing the special projects they are fundraising for. Non-profits are encouraged to put together sidewalk presentations about their work (brochures, photos, computer presentations, etc.). Other non-profits that are joining our stoop sale/information day include: Fort Greene SNAP, the Willoughby Senior Center, and Brooklyn Child & Family Services. Participating non-profits will contribute to the cost of publishing the FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day map and help develop a media and outreach campaign.

What Your Organization Will Get Out of Participating:
- A fun project for your volunteers to coordinate
- A new way for your staff, volunteers, and supporters to contribute to your non-profit by donating items for the stoop sale
- Contact with neighborhood residents who might not otherwise make contact with your organization
- Positive media
- Great photos!
- $$


Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is inviting non-profits from all sides of the park to participate in the day and be on the map. The FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day has the potential of driving new foot traffic across the neighborhood. Residents from public housing and surrounding working class areas will venture into the more affluent areas of the neighborhood if they have a map showing them where they can find bargains they can afford. More affluent residents will be given a fun reason to go to places in the neighborhood they have never been.

If your Fort Greene/Clinton Hill non-profit is interested in participating in the FGInfoX Stoop Sale Day, contact BYFC at: fginfox@wearebyfc.org 718 935-0490 . Please give us your organization’s name and address and a contact name, email, and phone number.

MEETING US:

FOR REAL! IN THE FLESH!

BROOKLYN YOUNG FILMMAKERS

At the 10th ANNUAL SONYA STROLL*

SATURDAY, MAY 16 & SUNDAY, MAY 17

12noon – 6:00pm
WILLOUGHBY SENIOR CENTER**

105 N. Portland Street
(across from Fort Greene Park, between Myrtle & Park)

(*Visit www.sonyaonline.org and download the map!)

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers will screen its films:

BACK STREETS (32min., 2008) Watch the BACK STREETS trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qETIMBe8QBA&feature=channel_page

FROM PAWNS TO KINGS (5min., 2008)

POINTING FINGERS (15min., 2009)

Our Students will do readings of the scripts being considered for the July BYFC Community Filmmaking Shoot

PLUS!!!!!

The Willoughby Senior Center Wacky Tacky Fashion Show!

Senior Art including: Giant Model Homes (With Plumbing!) Made Out of Cardboard & Recyclables, Handmade Dolls & Jewelry

Artwork by Volunteers from Fort Greene SNAP

&

by Kids from Brooklyn Child & Family Services

NEXT MONDAY: The complete schedule of BYFC events for the SONYA Stroll

**The Willoughby Senior Center is sponsored by the Fort Greene Council, Inc.

"DEAR GOD" --- Community Filmmaking Entry 4/27/09

(HipHop artist Ashanti Baptiste, wearing the peaked cap and beard,

sits in on a class session on the set of POINTING FINGERS)

- photo by Jenny Ducaud

In July 2009 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers plans to shoot a short narrative film. We are inviting local residents to be involved in our “Community Filmmaking”. This Monday blog column will keep you updated on our next steps, introduce you to the volunteers and students already involved, and let you know how you might get involved.

BYFC SCAVENGER HUNT : RESULTS! We told you last week that we needed 2 minutes of original instrumental music to use in the opening credits for POINTING FINGERS. Thank you for helping to make our first online scavenger hunt successful!!! We have received 15 responses from high school and college students and professional musicians. Some people attached music samples or directed us to where you can find their music online. Other people offered to send CDs. Half of the people responding had been referred by someone else who had read our blog and then told them about it. We are currently responding back and have already heard some good stuff. Next Week: Brooklyn Young Filmmakers will announce its next Scavenger Hunt. RIDDLE: How can you contribute to Brooklyn Young Filmmakers next Community Filmmaking Project by giving up something that you don’t want? Find out next week!

GRANTS FOR ASPIRING SCREENWRITER/DIRECTORS: If you are a double threat – both writer and director – the Jesse Thompkins III Foundation for Young People in the Arts (JT3 Art) is offering a $2,000 grant. Applicants must be U.S. Citizens between the ages of 18 and 30, and residents of Brooklyn. Deadline for applying is June 22, 2009. More information on the awards program can be found at www.jt3art.org .


MEETING US:

My mind is struck in one place as if cemented
And when I try to escape
I’m just prevented
Feels like
The thoughts I think about be demented
Should have been in a crazy house getting sentence
-- from “DEAR GOD” by Ashanti Baptiste

A HipHop Artist Talks About Basketball Courts, Fort Greene Association, & BAM

The son in POINTING FINGERS sings Ashanti’s song “DEAR GOD”, which also plays over the closing credits. I’ve known Ashanti as a neighbor for over nine years. He’s been volunteering with Brooklyn Young Filmmakers for a number of years and last year he joined our board. Ashanti read my interview with C'Allah from last week and had a lot to say.

ASHANTI: “I’m use to hearing about fights on the court. But what caught my attention when I read your interview with C’Allah last week was that he said the kids were crying. And that he didn’t learn why they were crying until they told him what the opposition coach had said to them. That was deep. You read the newspaper and hear there was a shooting and you get used to it. But you don’t hear that young black kids are crying because someone calls them “nigger”. In my experience, most of the time I see kids quick to fight, “Who the hell R U F talking to?!” As if they really know their history enough to get seriously mad about what is meant with the word.

Hearing that these kids cried touched me. I think what really hit them was the other part of what was said – that they “ain’t got nothing down here”. The last few years the intense gentrification has gotten close to them. The stores where their families shopped were torn down on Myrtle and the luxury condoms are now towering over the projects from right across the street. When these kids come out of the projects and look across the street, all they see is the rich people moving in and that there’s nothing really for them here anymore. The adults have long known this, but now the youth are really realizing that this neighborhood is getting pulled away from them and they can’t do nothing about it.

The youth tend not to care if it don’t have to do with name brand clothes and money. In the neighborhood they’re not paying rent. They might fight over who rules the sidewalk in front of their building, but beyond that they aren’t thinking “this is our neighborhood”. But now the youth are saying “Yo, we getting moved out and there’s nothing here for us.” The basketball court is like the last thing for these black youth – not hiphop, not rap – the basketball court. C’Allah’s kids don’t have a regular place to play. And then to be on a basketball court in your neighborhood and have a white coach tell you that you don’t have nothing down here in the projects, that’s deep. That’s powerful.

To me it brings joy to know that these kids were crying because it makes me think they are reachable and that’s a good start. Also from how they played the game, it was good strategy. The way they stayed a little behind the other team for three quarters and let the other team get prideful thinking it was all over. Then in the fourth quarter C’Allah says the kids came out like gangbusters and started stealing the ball and quickly pulled ahead. They were practicing THE ART OF WAR. That’s a book by Sun Tzu, a Chinese philosopher, that everybody on the streets and in the business world reads (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War ). It teaches how to get through a battle without physically having to indulge in it. It’s a mental game. And that’s basically what those kids played. That was smart. Was that C’Allah’s strategy?

No it wasn’t his. He kept thinking they were losing the game. It was his kids strategy, or maybe the 17 yr old coach he had put in charge.

ASHANTI: Our kids are ready to think. But they and their families need the dialogue and exposure that things like BYFC’s Community Filmmaking could bring. As a black male who’s grown up on the streets of Fort Greene, I see Brooklyn Young Filmmakers as a vessel that could be the backbone to help promote and connect. It’s very hard to get the different classes of people to come together. It’s like it’s taboo. I attended the Fort Greene Association meeting last Monday. They talk about wanting to bring all the neighborhood together. I’ve been to at least 12 of their meetings over the last 9 years. I always feel like I’m the only one coming from the poor community who’s sitting in the audience. They have a lot of connections. I feel angry sometimes because it’s not the right people there.

It might not be ALL people there. But when you say the “right people” that makes it sound like the people who attend are wrong and that they don’t care about the other neighbors who don’t attend.

ASHANTI: I’m not going to say they’re wrong or have bad intentions, but their ideals don’t match up with most of the people I know in Fort Greene. I don’t see the FGA advertising in the projects and on Myrtle. I don’t see them figuring out how to reach the people who are not on computers.

Have you seen this flyer? I picked it up in a store on Fulton. It’s about registration for the Brooklyn Pitbulls Youth Football, which is for kids 5 – 16 yrs old. The Fort Greene Association, along with Councilmember Letitia James and State Senator Eric Adams, have put up money to reduce the fees for kids to register (for more info: brooklynpitbulls@msn.com / www.eteamz.com/brooklynpitbulls ).

ASHANTI: No I haven’t. That’s a good thing. It’s a start. But what we really need are things that promote dialogue among the different people if a real connection is to take. And rather than people who control resources shaping everything, it would be good if there were more grassroots people having a say. The bottom is where the truth is at. You gonna get all feelings, the good, the bad, and the angry. But if we let it out we can turn it into something positive. But most institutions, like BAM, are starting from the middle and top, not from the bottom up. BAM has a lot of great programs for students in schools, but what about the kids in the neighborhood and projects right around BAM, the kids who really need something good and new to happen.

BAM was speaking at the FGA meeting about the new building they are going to put up where the Salvation Army building is. It’s going to have a theater and programs to teach theater and filmmaking for both youth and adults. You think they are going to come up with their own version of community filmmaking? It would be nice if they would talk with Brooklyn Young Filmmakers if they are headed in that direction. They’ve got buildings and money, and we’ve got a strategy for making things happen from the bottom up.

(Hear more about Ashanti's thoughts on the neighborhood in a Neighbor Sketch we posted last year: http://fginfox.blogspot.com/2008/09/neighbor-sketch-ashanti-baptiste.html )

People
Curse u out
Say that u don’t exist
Then scream your name in vain
And claim they the holiest
Dear God
Wherever u are
Whoever u are
Dear God
Wherever u are
Whoever u are
U probably chill with the stars
-- from “DEAR GOD” by Ashanti Baptiste

"SUSAN BOYLE'S GOT TALENT" ---- Community Filmmaking Entry 4/20/09

(Actors C'Allah Coombs and Shai Shackley on the POINTING FINGERS set)

Photo by: Jenny Ducaud

In July 2009 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers plans to shoot a short narrative film. We are inviting local residents to be involved in our “Community Filmmaking”. This Monday blog column will keep you updated on our next steps, introduce you to the volunteers and students already involved, and let you know how you might get involved.

BYFC SCAVENGER HUNT : INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is seeking 2 minutes of original instrumental music to use in the opening credits for POINTING FINGERS (2009, 15 min.), a story about family members pointing fingers of blame at each other, only to find out that they don’t really know each other – or themselves. trayceg@wearebyfc.org (718) 935-0490. (See last Monday's entry for more about our hunt for music: http://fginfox.blogspot.com/2009/04/community-filmmaking-41309.html )

*************************

LATEST HEADLINES:

Susan Boyle’s got talent.

(Now, what about those out-of-control

black kids you’ve heard about?)

When Susan Boyle stepped out on stage last week on "Britain's Got Talent" (the Brit version of "American Idol") the audience started snickering. The frumpy, ruddy-cheeked, unemployed forty seven year old announced she was going to sing “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical Les Misérables. The snickering became wincing among both audience and judges, as they braced for the painful and off key. Susan Boyle opened her mouth. She spread her arms (wings?). The Sound emerged and made all thought stand still. It was melodic. It was knowing. It swelled with the heroic and the generous. The woman judge cried and Simon Cowell’s mouth dropped open and stayed that way. The matronly live alone woman who’s never been kissed penetrated the souls of those who would scorn her with her song and presence. She was not the lesser being. She was more than they. (Watch the performance that 50 million have now viewed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY )

Susan Boyle’s got talent. Obama is our president. Slumdog is a Millonaire and Oscar winner*. There is speculation that maybe now, you’ll all be ready to meet – really meet – those out-of-control black kids you’ve heard about (fear to meet) from the projects. (*See the 3 part article on SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE http://fginfox.blogspot.com/2008/12/slumdogs-in-obamaland-take-on-community.html)

MEETING US:

Now I had the blues before sunrise
With blues standing in my eyes
It’s such a miserable feeling
A feeling I do despise
Seems like everybody
Everybody’s down on me
-- “Blues Before Sunrise” by Leroy Carr

Last Tuesday in our free “I Love Film” Class at the Willoughby Senior Center I gave participants the assignment of coming up with an idea for a one scene, one location, short screenplay. It was C’Allah’s turn. He said his script would be about a fight that breaks out on a basketball court between a young player and the two coaches on an opposing team. I asked C’Allah, does this take place during a game? Because you know you’re limited to using just 2 – 3 characters, no extras, when you write your first draft.

C’ALLAH: “Yeah I know,” (sucking the air through his teeth and sighing) “but it’s a real story. The kids I’m coaching were in a fight on the court and the police were called.”

I said, Oh No! I knew how important the kids were to C’Allah. He’s been rounding up young male teens from Fort Greene public housing since the Republican Convention in 2004, when there was an execution style killing on the outdoor basketball courts near the old Ingersol Community Center. That’s when C’Allah picked up the ball and started running his own impromptu tournaments. Recently a new league for junior high kids (11 - 15 years old) formed in the neighborhood. C’Allah put together a team made up of kids he and his son play ball with and other kids recruited through the grandparents at the Willoughby Senior Center where he volunteers.

C’ALLAH: "It was our first game of the season. We were playing at the junior high school on Park that use to be known as “Sands” when I was growing up and went there. This was home for us, I looked at the opposition and I was surprised. It was a good mix, a really good mix of kids – white, black, Hispanic – and I thought that was great! Our team is all black, so they don’t get the exposure to different kinds of kids. Then I looked past the kids and was surprised again. Their two coaches had red faces, beer bellies and beards. They looked like they’d just come out of the hills of West Virginia! They didn’t look like any basketball coach. Didn’t look like anyone from Brooklyn."

I guess you haven’t been to all parts of Brooklyn.

C’ALLAH: "Guess Brooklyn’s a big place. Well, I was feeling good. We had the advantage. After the first two minutes of the game though I was thinking, whoa, we’re over our heads! The opposition, they was good! They went out ahead and stayed ahead. They were disciplined. They played really well as a team. That’s not saying we were terrible. I was actually videotaping it, so I had an eighteen year old who’d been playing with me for years coaching the game and he kept the game close. Our kids stayed about 6 points down for most of the game. But we could never catch up.

I felt bad, ‘cause I knew our training wasn’t as good as the other team’s. Part of it is that we can’t get any indoor court time in the winter to practice. There’s the Farragut Community Center indoor court, but they got their teams already booked into it. I have to tell my kids to be patient because they get so frustrated they start bouncing the ball in the hallways in the buildings they live in, and I tell them they can’t do that.

As we were losing to my surprise our team was actually very confident. They kept telling me, “Don’t worry C’Allah. We’re going to win.” And I kept saying to them, “You’re playing like you were hanging out all night partying.” They were always just a step behind the other team who were really hustling. I kept looking back over at the beer bellies and thinking that they were doing a great job of coaching their team. I didn’t like it though that their kids started doing a lot of trash talk at our players.

We were trailing by 6 pts going into the final quarter and our kids had never been ahead, but they were confirming their promise to me, “Don’t worry C’Allah, we’re gonna win the game.” And they lived up to their word. They came out for that last quarter like gangbusters. They started stealing the ball from the other team. Our team went ahead by 8 points! There was only one minute of play left and things had reversed.

Our guys started to trash talk the other team who were now looking confused. There was a loose ball and a scuffle broke out. One of the opposing players took his hand and mushed one of our players in the face. A fist fight broke out. The two opposing coaches ran straight at my player and started growling something at him. Then all hell broke loose. My kids started crying. I mean, literally crying. I was shocked. Then they were yelling, “This is Fort Greene. You don’t come down here talking to us like that! We fight coaches too!” My kids chased the coaches and their team! Ran them into the locker room and locked them in.

The director of the tournament announced that our team, the Willoughby Little Bees, had forfeited the game because of fighting. My kids got even madder. They stayed on the court and wouldn’t leave. I gathered them together and angrily told them how they had embarrassed me with their behavior. That’s when they told me what the opposition coaches had yelled at them and made them cry. The coaches had told them, “That’s why you niggers ain’t got nothing down here.”

The tournament director had called the police, who came to escort the visiting team out of the neighborhood. A couple of the police knew some of our kids because they had given them warnings when they were hanging out in the hallways of their buildings playing and making noise. The police officer said, “Oh yeah, we know these kids. They’re a bad bunch.”

The police led the other team down the front stairs of the school. We were behind them. The opposition coaches stopped and pointed at me and said, “It’s all your fault! You don’t have control of your kids. You shouldn’t have let that young guy coach. That just set up trouble.” My response was, “You didn’t say a word about it when you were winning all game!” My friend Ali knew to pull me away."

Susan Boyle has talent and people living in public housing are not who you think they are. Check in next Monday for another update on Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Community Filmmaking Project.

peace & future

Trayce, BYFC Director www.wearebyfc.org

COMMUNITY FILMMAKING - 4/13/09

(Tina Flemmemer, POINTING FINGERS cinematographer,

consulting with script supervisor Jermaine Mitchell)

In July 2009 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers plans to shoot a short narrative film. We are inviting local residents to be involved in our “Community Filmmaking”. This weekly Monday blog column will keep you updated on our next steps, introduce you to the volunteers and students already involved, and let you know how you might get involved.

BYFC SCAVENGER HUNT : INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is seeking donation of the use of 2 minutes of original instrumental music to use in the opening credits for POINTING FINGERS (2009, 15 min.), our third film production that is in the final editing stages. The film closes with an original rap song donated by a Fort Greene artist . For the opening credits we are looking for something in a different vein – older generation with a slower beat, possibly blues or jazz or maybe classical, can have edge to it. We are open to being surprised. Love to hear what you have: trayceg@wearebyfc.org (718) 935-0490.


MEETING US

TINA: “I was a very melancholic kid. Every time I felt like crying I would go in my room, shut the door and listen to the audiotape of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”. I would bawl. It was so sad what happens to him.”

I was totally taken back when Tina said this. I tried to imagine her as a seven year old in the small town of Schwandorf listening to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” in German. When I was ten (before Tina was even born) in Oakland, California, reading about slavery made me too sad, so when I was melancholic I read Holocaust stories.

TINA: “My therapist thinks this is a problem, my melancholy. When he said you have “chronic melancholy”, I objected. Do Americans think melancholy is always bad? Sometimes Americans are too smiley, and not because they are really feeling it. When I am melancholic I can have my most creative spells.”

Tina started volunteering with Brooklyn Young Filmmakers after she attended our January 2007 INSIDE MAN Conference at LIU. At the time she was a junior in the City College undergrad film program and living in Washington Heights. Tina initially helped us with graphic arts on publicity materials. When Brooklyn Young Filmmakers decided to started producing its own films, she was one of the emerging filmmakers who helped to make it possible. She was cinematographer and editor on FROM PAWNS TO KINGS (5 min.) and POINTING FINGERS (15 min.). Tina fell in love with Brooklyn while working with Brooklyn Young Filmmakers and moved close by to Bushwick. She graduated from City College last summer and will be going back to Germany in July when her visa runs out.

TINA: “Volunteering with Brooklyn Young Filmmakers has allowed me to step outside of the insular student world and helped me feel connected to a real community in New York. The way I’ve been welcomed with open arms by everyone working with BYFC has impressed me. In Germany you would not necessarily get that kind of welcome as an alien. Working with Brooklyn Young Filmmakers has also taught me a lot of things I didn’t learn in film school where the focus is on the technical. By helping to produce these two BYFC films I’ve learned that you can actually pull it off with little or no means. It has taught me how I can look beyond film people to just people in the community for help making a film. ”

WHAT THE NY TIMES DIDN’T COVER:

We were grateful that the New York Times recently covered Brooklyn Young Filmmakers producing efforts with an article on the Times Fort Greene blog:
http://fort-greene.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/making-it-easier-to-make-a-movie/?emc=eta1 The Times highlighted how Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is giving residents of all ages in public housing, and other working class people, a chance to work on film productions. It was unfortunately the Times did not choose to cover the other part of what Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is focused on – getting the more affluent residents in our community to pitch-in and work alongside those in public housing to produce Community Filmmaking projects. Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is committed to speaking out about the economic divides in our community (in most communities) not to be negative but to be positive. We are developing this creative neighborhood bridging project to give diverse neighbors a chance to interact and get to know and trust each other. Please stay tune for our Monday blog postings.

peace & future,

Trayce, BYFC Director

DROP-IN: You’re invited to drop-in on the free MAKE A FILM Class Series Brooklyn Young Filmmakers is offering on Tuedays in April and May, 1:30pm-3:30pm at the Willoughby Senior Center, 105 N Portland (half a block from Myrtle Avenue), in Fort Greene public housing. All ages of adults and teens welcomed. For more info: classes@wearebyfc.org (718)935-0490.

MARK THE DATES:

Free Public Screening of BYFC Films As Part of SONYA Stroll
Brooklyn Young Filmmakers will be participating in the tenth annual SONYA Stroll (www.sonyaonline.org) the weekend of May 16th and 17th. We also will be doing public readings of the scripts being considered for our next film project and inviting you to give input.