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Talkhouse

Eromose is an artist working in both visual and graphics. He spent his childhood in Nigeria and England before studying at Columbia University, New York. His first feature film, Legacy, premiered at the 2010 Tribeca Festival and his short film Nostradamus premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Festival. He returned to Tribeca for a third time in 2022 with the premiere of his feature political thriller, <a href="http://www.samuelgoldwynfilms.com/88-2/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">88</a>, which is out now in theaters through Samuel Goldwyn Films and is available to stream from March 24. Eromose writes, directs, produces and edits his films. He is also a coder and software developer. He now works independently on his various artistic and technological ventures.

Eromose

Film

Decoding 88: How One Film Changed My Perspective on Race

Ingrid Raphaël is a filmmaker, educator and artist. They draw from their immigrant experience(s) to understand, situate, and contextualize their work which is often described as “personal,” “intimate,” “transfixing,” “collaborative” and “reflective.” Interested by themes of place, memory, time, and accessibility, they co-created No Evil Eye Cinema, a nomadic radical microcinema, co-directed the short film <a href="https://fieldofvision.org/they-won-t-call-it-murder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">They Won&#8217;t Call It Murder</a> and is currently developing a speculative thriller narrative film. As an educator, they&#8217;ve extensively taught independent and collaborative curriculum at Black Quantum Futurism, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, EyeBeam, The Young Artist Program, Mono No Aware, Harlem School of the Arts, libraries and more.
Melissa Gira Grant is a journalist, author, and filmmaker. She is is a staff writer at The New Republic; the author of Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work (Verso), which was named a Village Voice favorite book of the year; and the co-director of <a href="https://fieldofvision.org/they-won-t-call-it-murder" target="_blank" rel="noopener">They Won’t Call It Murder</a>, selected for the 2021 DOC NYC Short List. Her forthcoming book, A Woman Is Against the Law: Sex, Race, and the Limits of Justice of America (Little, Brown and Company) is a feminist indictment of the criminal legal system. She was a senior staff writer at The Appeal, as well as a contributing writer at the Village Voice and Pacific Standard. She lives in New York.

Ingrid Raphaël and Melissa Gira Grant

Stories of What’s Left Behind: On Making They Won’t Call It Murder

Jessica Kavana Dornbusch is a writer and director who is best known for her film Love and Debate (2006), a coming-of-age story set in Miami, based on her experiences as a high school and college debater. With continued determination to create made-in-Miami films, Kavana Dornbusch followed her feature film debut with two short films, Escape and Snap, both of which were showcased at film festivals around the world. She has worked for Univision, Televen (in Venezuela) and helped pioneer HTV out of Miami. After seven years in development, Kavana Dornbusch’s second feature film, Reefa, based on the life of murdered Colombian artist, Israel Hernandez, is out April 16 through Vertical Entertainment.

Jessica Kavana Dornbusch

When I Needed Them, My Community Was There for Me

Friendship Commanders is a melodic heavy duo from Nashville TN comprised of vocalist/guitarist Buick Audra and drummer/bassist Jerry Roe. The band recently released two new singles, &#8220;Stonechild&#8221; and &#8220;Your Reign Is Over.&#8221; The new singles follow their Spring 2020 EP, Hold On To Yourself∫, and were mixed and mastered by the same team of Kurt Ballou and Brad Boatright. While there is a sonic through-line, &#8220;Stonechild” and “Your Reign Is Over” cover new territory for the band. The music still occupies a heavy space, but the vocal presentations and energies vary, as do the subjects.

Friendship Commanders

Music

On The Tragic, Unjust Death of Stonechild Chiefstick

Muta’Ali is an award-winning film director from Westchester County, NY. His latest feature documentary, Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn, airs on HBO at 9PM on August 12. His past documentary films include the award-winning Life’s Essentials with Ruby Dee, which featured notable guests including Harry Belafonte, Alan Alda, and Spike Lee. Muta’Ali is determined that his artistic body of work be wholly focused on what he calls “Love, Art &amp; Activism.” (Image by Jihaad Muhammad.)

Muta’Ali

Radical Honesty: You Alone Are Powerful

Victoria Ruiz is frontwoman for Downtown Boys. Their album Full Communism is available now via Don Giovanni Records. You can follow Downtown Boys on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/downtownboys" target="_blank">here</a>.

Victoria Ruiz

Fuck the Police: Victoria Ruiz (Downtown Boys) on Why You Should Protest the Cops, Too

David Midell began his filmmaking career drawing inspiration from working as a teacher and therapist in economically disadvantaged areas of Chicago. David&#8217;s debut feature, NightLights, followed a sister and brother with autism as they experienced the heartbreaks and triumphs on their journey to find their place in the world. The film was released in 2014, made its network television premiere on the Lifetime Movie Network in 2015, and won numerous awards, including a Prism Award from the Entertainment Industries Council. His latest film, <a href="https://www.killingofkcfilm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain</a>, tells the true story of the events that led to the death of an elderly African-American former marine, suffering from bipolar disorder, who was killed during a conflict with police officers in his home. The film, which stars Tony Award nominee Frankie Faison and Tony Award winner Anika Noni Rose and has won awards at the Austin Film Festival, Oxford Film Festival, Urbanworld and more, and is out September 17 through Gravitas Ventures.

David Midell

How Special Education Led Me to a Career in Filmmaking

Voices

Fuck the Police: Victoria Ruiz (Downtown Boys) on Why You Should Protest the Cops This Weekend, Too

David Felix Sutcliffe co-directed with acclaimed photojournalist Lyric R. Cabral the documentary <a href="http://terrordocumentary.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(T)ERROR</a>, which marks the first time that filmmakers have had access to an active FBI informant in a domestic counterterrorism investigation. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize for Breakout First Feature. Sutcliffe&#8217;s first film, Adama, an hour-long documentary about a 16-year-old Muslim girl from Harlem arrested by the FBI on suspicion of being a “potential suicide bomber,” aired on PBS in 2011. In 2013, he was included in Filmmaker magazine&#8217;s annual list of &#8220;25 New Faces of Independent Film.&#8221;

David Felix Sutcliffe

Why the Systematic Targeting of Citizen Journalists by Police Must Stop

Shamir is Shamir and remains Shamir through and through, no matter what the universe puts him through. You may know the singularly named artist (think—Madonna or Cher) from his 2015 debut hit record Rachet, beloved by NPR listeners and club kids alike. After quickly rising to underground fame with his Northtown EP in 2014, the DIY pop star made a sonic splash with Rachet’s lead single “On The Regular,” a poppy banger that had extensive commercial usage. But how to follow all that up? Shamir, who came from the dusty dunes of Las Vegas, to Brooklyn’s Silent Barn, to the Philly indie scene (and all over the world in between), wanted to go back to what had inspired him from the beginning. Outsider music, country &amp; punk. Raw and vulnerable tunes, stripped down to their emotional core. 2017’s Revelations explored a new avenue of guitar driven hooky indie rock and was widely critically praised in the US and overseas.
Shamir’s most recent releases, the brilliant Room 7” on Father/Daughter, and his self-released limited edition album, Resolution, are pinnacles in the catalog of the increasingly fascinating artist’s career. Room and its b-side Caballero celebrate Shamir’s love of country music, while Resolution is a deeply introspective look into the fabric of society and the artists’ own mind.  With these two releases he has refined his craft exponentially and done so in less than six months from the release of Revelations.

police brutality