Nov. 5, 7pm New Short Filmworks 2015

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Nov. 5th, 7pm, Admission $6.00
SMG Chatham 14
210 W 87th St

In November we are screening a collection of the best new shorts by local filmmakers.

Kinfolk: [kin-f?k] noun. A person’s blood relations, regarded collectively.
Conceived in the murky swamps of Southern Louisiana and the fertile cotton fields of Arkansas, gestated under the gloomy skies of London and the white sands of Cannes, Kinfolk Collective was birthed inside a smoke filled hookah lounge deep in the concrete tundra of Chicago.

With our cinematic lens, we trace the overlaps and commonalities between members of the African diaspora. At Kinfolk, we don’t view people as commodities or as resources to exploit. We view them as family we welcome to our porch to join us as we exchange otherwise untold narratives.

We see ourselves as the poet laureates of the lowlives and the underrepresented.

Third Timothy USA, (2014)
Director: Julian Walker
A duo of run-away brothers struggle against loyalties peddling fake holy water on a journey through the rural South in order to fund their escape from an abusive foster home. Their plan is jeopardized when they meet a woman who does not easily fall victim to their con.

Savage Vs. The Void USA, (2014)
Director: Darren Wallace
Savage vs. The Void is a phantasmagoric fever dream exploring the night of Troy Davis’ death through the microcosm of a theater troupe rehearsing a play about Troy’s anticipated execution.

2 films by Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah
 “Akata” USA, 2015,
In one night a young Black artist must confront a deeply seated indignation for a city that celebrates his art, but refuses to recognize his humanity. Shot on film stock, Akata features a non-actor cast, deploying a hybridized neo avant-garde and cinema new wave influences resulting in a cinema that is at once visceral and liberating.

“Frames From Yesterday” USA, 2013,
Director: Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah
When her alluring beauty is mysteriously found in almost every frame roll of film shot on his camera, a helplessly smitten street photographer goes in search of the dame he’s obsessed with.

Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah Bio:
Born in Ghana, Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah is following in the footsteps of his ancestors, Djibril Diop Mambèty and Fela Kuti. The cinema is his weapon of choice. His is a trajectory marked with a poetics of refusals.
His lens is a river running through a thousand villages, reflecting the hope and aspirations of the African people. With a BFA in Television Production from the National Film and Television Institute in Accra, and an MFA from Columbia College Chicago Cinema Art + Science, he now considers himself an apostate of the academy and commercial cinema.
This is a position that stems from his renewed faith in Third Cinema and a commitment to making work and championing film pedagogy that directly impacts social change. Ofosu-Yeboah’s work spans four continents. He has taught television at the National Film and Television Institute in Accra and participated in a residency at China Radio and
TV Association, Beijing, and Serbia’s Documentary Master Class (InterDoc). In 2014, he received a fellowship from The Gamechangers Project, a US-based national fellowship program for emerging filmmakers of color. He is also a recipient of the Albert P. Weisman Award, Chicago, and The City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) Individual Artists Program (IAP) Grant Award, among others. Kofi Ofosu-Yeboah has developed media content for the National Black Programming Consortium’s (NBPC) Black Public Media. The filmmaker has presented work at the annual convening of the University Film and Video Association (UFVA) at
American University in Washington, D.C. and Montana State University in Bozeman.

Aside from completing post-production in Chicago on his newest short, Akata, Ofosu-Yeboah continues with development on his debut feature, Mangoes and Coffins, set in the land of his birth, Ghana. In 2016, he will present new work at the prestigious Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV) in Bauta, Cuba.

Shades of Shadows USA, 2014
Director: Amir George
Commissioned by Chicago Film Archives. Shades of Shadows is a collaboration with psychedelic soul band The O’Mys, that delves into spiritual mysticism and ritual sacrifice. Created with all archival footage the characters in the film seek to manifest a better self.

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