33. Sabaah Folayan: Everything Is Practice / January 18, 2017 by Elaine Sheldon
Sabaah Folayan is an activist and storyteller who illuminates the humanity, resilience and beauty in the struggle of communities as they mobilize and fight for justice. She merged her dedication to human rights and a newfound passion for film with Whose Streets?, a feature documentary chronicling the experience of Ferguson community members after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Sabaah and her co-director Damon Davis are premiering Whose Streets? at Sundance 2017, but this episode's conversation took place in October of 2015, when Sabaah was still in the depths of production and stepped away to pitch the film at Camden International Film Festival's Points North Forum in Maine. We talk with Sabaah about moving to Ferguson, working to understand the complexities of the situation amongst a sea of sensational headlines, the unique education she had between living off the land in Hawaii and living in divergent Los Angeles neighborhoods, and the forever valuable lesson she learned as a basketball player, "Everything you do is practice for the next time you do it." The music in this episode is off Velvet and Bone, a new album by a past MusicMaker, Stag Hare.
MUSIC in this episode is off a new album titled Velvet and Bone by past She Does MusicMaker and friend, Stag Hare. Willow (formerly Zara) is the MusicMaker behind Stag Hare and was featured in Episode 22.5. Listen to and buy her music via Bandcamp and visit her website and Facebook.
"Space has been so privatized. We've been so socialized to be individuals and be on our own and our lives are our own little bubbles. I think that it was such a relief for people to just lock arms and say that 'I'm feeling this too.'"
Sabaah's Website, Blog & Twitter
Whose Streets? Documentary Website & Twitter
Whose Streets? Sundance 2017 Screening Dates
Sabaah and co-director Damon Davis as Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2016
She Does: Race & Media live conversation at CIFF 2015 featuring Sabaah Folayan, Shayla Harris and Alex Hannibal
Riot Footage From Inside The Battle of Ferguson
Ferguson Shooting 2015
Startling cell phone video from Michael Brown shooting scene
episodes sabaah folayan, whose streets, documentary, sundance film festival, filmmakers, women in film, activism, documentary makers, social change documentary, brit doc, chicken and egg film December 08, 2017
30. Lily Baldwin: It's Not My Own Trip / March 23, 2016 by Elaine Sheldon
Lily Baldwin is a New York-based filmmaker and dancer that uses movement of the body and unconventional narrative structures to tell human stories. Her short films (Sea Meadow, A Juicebox Afternoon, Sleepover LA, and Swallowed) have played at festivals like SXSW, Berlinale EFM, and the Lincoln Center and been featured on NOWNESS, Short of the Week, Fandor, Filmmaker Magazine, and Vimeo Staff Picks. Lily fell into filmmaking when she was performing as a professional dancer in David Byrne's two year world tour Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. Lily often writes, choreographs, directs, edits and plays the leading role in her films, seeking to "rip things up" with both graceful and rigid moments and scenes made up of bold, jarring edits. In other scenes, she's simply another human on the street, walking with the rest of us. Lily is a Sundance Fellow with her upcoming VR project in collaboration with Saschka Unseld, Through You. She's about to start shooting her first feature, Glass, a stalking thriller based on a real experience about a dancer and an insidious fan in our privacy-gone world. Lily talks about the rigor and commitment of dancers, coming into film as a "second career", the responsibility she feels as an artist to pull from her own experiences and educate, and "working your buns off" to be the ultimate version of yourself.
"I think we have a responsibility to mine what we know. It's great to make up stories and live in imagination but I feel like I can do a better job with something I've been through. Life is unlived, for me, if I don't peel off the layers."
Lily's Website, Twitter and Instagram
Berlinale Short Talks (Video Interview)
Ravelin Magazine Feature
Girls on Film Interview
Lily's Films on Fandor
Dancing Words Artist Profile
MUSIC in this episode is by Michelle Blades. Listen to her music on Bandcamp or on Midnight Special Records' Soundcloud, and take a peek at her Tumblr.
Songs you heard: Subtropical Suburban, Crush! I Went to Your Party from the album Ataraxia // Le Bois, Lava Boy, Swallowing Truths & River Rocks, Yellow Petaled Coast from the album Songs From Another's Bed // My Grimey Dreams, I'll Let in the Outside Noise from the album & // 10th and Wilson Score off the EP Nah, See Ya // Making Friends In The Dark, It All Ends Here off the album Cold Shoulders
Name: Lily Baldwin
What are you listening to now? I just went throwback on myself and have been listening pretty nonstop to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works II
What film/book/show/piece of media changed you? There are too many to fit into this white box, but if I look at my bookshelf right this second, I'm going to say: Eadweard Muybridge's pictures and Murder She Wrote -- Jessica Fletcher is one of my favorite protagonists.
Who is your career role model? Cindy Sherman -- she's self taught, fearless about changing herself and isn't afraid to be ugly in her work.
What is a tool you can't live without? A Panasonic boombox from the 80's that I listen to NPR on.
How do you drink your coffee/tea? Coffee-- a super dark, greasy brew with a dash of cream
What's your spirit animal? Wolf.
Updates? I'm thrilled to be premiering my short film Swallowed as part of the upcoming omnibus feature project, Collective:Unconscious, at SXSW as the first ever omnibus feature in competition! Next on the horizon this year is gearing up to shoot my first feature GLASS, a thriller inspired by a true stalking story. I'm also going to be directing a VR project, Through You, with Saschka Unseld in collaboration with Sundance. And on less immediate burners, I'm cooking up two episodic series!
Ride, Rise, Roar (Feature Documentary Trailer)
Sleeping With Frank (Short Film)
Sea Meadow (Short Film Trailer)
A Juicebox Afternoon (Short Film)
Sleepover LA (Short Film)
Music from Swallowed by Mark degli Antoni (Short Film from Collective:Unconscious)
Women of The Year: Misty Copeland (Short Film)
episodes filmmaking, dance, choreography, women in media, she does podcast, she does, lily baldwin, sxsw, sundance film festival, david byrne, dancer, modern dance, contemporary dance, interviews with women, interview April 07, 2016
2. Lyric Cabral: You Gotta Have a Beat / January 28, 2015 by Elaine Sheldon
Lyric Cabral is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker based in the Bronx. She, along with her co-director David Felix Sutcliffe, premiered her feature-length film (T)ERROR at Sundance this year in the US Documentary category. (T)ERROR is billed as "the first film to document on camera a covert counterterrorism sting," but the documentary has been in the works for over a decade. Lyric came across the film's subject, an FBI informant, when she was only 19, but knew she was too young to tackle the story then. Lyric talks about the uncomfortable situations she's found herself in as a photojournalist, being inspired by Gordon Parks, spending over a decade covering national security issues, and returning to a story 12 years after discovering it.
Name: Lyric R. Cabral
Current City: New York City
DOB: 1982
What are you listening to? D'angelo and the Vanguard "Black Messiah"
What film/book/show/piece of media changed you? I really appreciate the silent film "Sidewalk Stories" by Charles Lane. I saw the film at a time when I was making the professional transition from still photography to moving images. The film is quite moving for me because each frame is beautifully photographed, and reflects an attention to detail that reveals the sensitivities and struggles of life in New York city.
Who is your career role model? Someone who I admire personally and professionally is filmmaker Shola Lynch. I value that her body of work critically examines the lives of Black women (Shirley Chisholm, Angela Davis) in America, as these stories are typically lesser seen on screen. Shola is a meticulous archivist and historian, who researched "Free Angela" for 8 years. I am inspired by the tremendous commitment that motivates each of her films, and by the engaging narratives that she presents on screen.
What is a tool you can't live without? I really appreciate Twitter. I am able to access the perspectives of citizen journalists around the world, and research stories in a unique way.
How do you take your coffee? One sugar and a little whole milk
What's your spirit animal? A calico cat
(T)ERROR on Facebook
(T)ERROR at Sundance Labs
Candescent Award at Sundance 2015
Lyric: How I Shot That (Indie Wire)
(T)ERROR at Sundance Film Festival
Meet The Artists, Lyric and David: Video Interview for Sundance
"I am the type of journalist that I'm never done. I don't drop in and drop out. Whether they get a Christmas card from me, or I try to call, I just really try to stay in touch with people. I really don't like the feeling of: I come in. I document you. I publish it. And then I just leave you alone with the consequences of whatever happens because you are now public. I'm never quite done."
— Lyric R. Cabral
PRODUCED by Elaine Sheldon and Sarah Ginsburg
Blank Panther archival, (T)ERROR
First Rebirth
The Passion Hifi
Marco Raaphorst
Anenon
episodes women directors, women in journalism, women in technology, women in film, women in media, web series, awesome women, creative women, new podcasts, new podcasts for 2015, powerful, new podcast, new shows, interviews, podcasts by women, podcasts for women, podcasts about women, podcasts made by women, sarah ginsburg, she does podcast, stories, listen, journalis, journalism, terror documentary, lyric cabral, elaine sheldon, elaine mcmillion sheldon, role models, advice, sundance film festival, sundance 2015, news, interviews with filmmakers, gordon parks, photography, photojournalism, famous, life magazine, vogue magazine, inspiration, gordon parks photography, black women, african american filmmakers, african american photographers, successful black women April 12, 2016