Art Bytes

FILM - YOUNG JAMAICAN FILMMAKER WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARDS

 

Jamaican director Isabella Issa’s short film Yellow Girl and Me has been racking up several awards at the Black Film Festival of New Orleans, getting Best Director, Best Writer, Best Film and Best Actress. The film has also been selected for the Toronto Black Film Festival and the feature length screenplay made it to the second round (of two) of the Sundance Screenwriter’s Development Lab and is getting interests from other producers.

 

Inspired by Issa’s real life friend, Nicole Robertson, the film tells the story of abuse of her and her older sister-guardian, and Nicole’s own battle with losing her hearing. Yellow Girl and Me was developed as a thesis project to complete Issa’s Master of Fine Arts in Directing at the American Film Conservatory and was then selected for production. It has since premiered in Los Angeles and recently in Kingston. Issa is working on her second feature script, a coming-of-age drama about Jamaican schoolgirls.  

 

Art Bytes

The BBC has made a film on the story of a Jamaican whose life was changed by the Windrush scandal.

Jamaican-born photographic print artist Paul Anthony Smith got to talk about the role of young, black artists in America’s current climate in an article in the current issue of Architecture Digest.

Abihail Myrie and Neko Kelly were featured in TeenVogue entertainment writer Sara Li’s 13 Best Vogue Challenge Posts article.

Harper’s Bazaar’s first ever black editor in chief has Caribbean parentage.

Brothers Akeem and Tyreik Pennicooke are working on a demo of a video game to be ready for release in the next three to six months for PC and Mac users.

Until June 28, Artist and stylist Akeem Smith is exhibiting his first major solo presentation Akeem Smith: No Gyal Can Test at Red Bull Art New York.

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