The best skill...

You can rent or buy the animated short film, The Question, here!!!

You can purchase the picture book, Joe's Question, here!!!!

Kassi was selected for the Minority Filmmaker Showcase in Baltimore, Maryland

* My film, Kassi was accepted to the Minority Filmmaker Showcase, presented by Reel Independent Women. *

Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Time: 7pm - 11pm

Ticket Price: $12 General Admission and $9 Creative Alliance Members

Location: Creative Alliance at the Patterson

3134 Eastern, Avenue 

Baltimore, MD 21224

‪#‎Kassi‬ ‪#‎AnimatedFilm‬ ‪#‎Animation‬ ‪#‎Indie‬ ‪#‎IndieFilm‬ ‪#‎Art‬ ‪#‎Film‬

It's the return of, "FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST"

If you are a visual artist, dancer, writer, filmmaker, graphic designer, animator, musician, actor/actress, poet, singer, or all around creative person, we are looking for you. The five questions are below.

1) What is your name?
2) Where are you from?
3) What do you do?
4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
5) What is your view on the state of the arts?

For those who are interested, please send us a message here, or through our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ExodusExpedition...

The first review of our newest short film, Kassi

"The Independent Critic" review of Kassi

Animation Insider interview of James Bowman

Interview of James Bowman

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Iris Huey - 

2) Where are you from?
- Phoenix, AZ - 

3) What do you do?
- Live life and grow spiritually. And I bring what I learn to my creative outlets like filmmaking and acting. I also enjoy performing spoken word. - 

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- The fulfillment I experience from making films and acting impels me to work in these areas. -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- It is ever expanding. More and more people seem committed to creating opportunities to share their art with the world. Great things are happening. Beautiful art is everywhere. -

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Kimberly Townes - 

2) Where are you from?
- Virginia - 

3) What do you do?
- Filmmaker - 

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- I never perceived of doing anything else. Maybe I thought of being an anthropologist. But the two closely relate if you think about it. -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- I think the art scene is bursting, maybe not flourishing. Everyday a new tool is created making them abundant and cheap. There is no excuse to not create something. There is no reason to not tell your story. -

The Question

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Araia Patrick Tesfamariam - 

2) Where are you from?
- I live in Chicago but I am originally from Dayton, OH - 

3) What do you do?
- I am a copywriter and commercial producer - 

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- My father bought a camcorder when I was 13 years old and he used to let me make little movies with it. I loved the idea that I could make people see what I wanted them to see, to have a vision in my own mind and be able to impress that image on another person. -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- I believe that technological advances will continue to make it easier for people to create and distribute their projects. But if all this access isn't paired with real talent, all we have is noise. -

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Julie Dash - 

2) Where are you from?
- New York City - 

3) What do you do?
-I'm a filmmaker - 

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- When I was a teenager I was inspired by the foreign films screening at the Studio Museum in Harlem. -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- I remain, smuggling daydreams into reality. -

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Lyndon McCray (Lyn-Don-McCray) - 

2) Where are you from?
- Brooklyn, NYC - 

3) What do you do?
- Recognizibly a film & video editing magician (by trade haha). Often credited as a producer. My background and bachelors degree is based on my achieviments as director (as well as the other culminating factors of filmmaking). Recently discovering my niche as post producer of mid-higher end short form video presentations such as demo/sizzle reels, trailers and journalistic segments. McCray Media + Co was a company I established to focus soley on that end of the film broadwalk. Let's see where it leads... -

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- My lust for not only art in general but the celebration and integration of other artists and artforms. I've considered my work a network. A hub to either combine my vision with the work of others, or as a plaform to showcase and highlight the works of others. We're living in technologic times where we all need an image (biggest to smallest) representing ourselves and our efforts. Everyday I aspire to creatively play a major, advocate role within that process. -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- Hmm the state of the arts... I appreciate the democracy despite the number of bullshit politicians haha. The playing field is undoubtedly more level than ever (#DOPENESS), however we've got a lot of quality players sitting on the bench while nonsense runs the caucus race (#Wonderland) and is getting rewarded. It's temporary, thank goodness, we're figuring it out. All and all I've had the immense honor of not only working with phenomenal people, companies and orgs, but I've also hand selected filmmakers on the brink to participate in online platforms, international film festivals and local series'... I can personally vouche that there's more beauty in the art world than most of us fans are even aware of. We've just got to keep up the good hustle and play our respective parts. That's my Jerry Maguire speech, now show us the money! -

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Andrew Burroughs - 

2) Where are you from?
- I was born in East Orange NJ but I grew up in Plainfield NJ. - 

3) What do you do?
- I am a filmmaker/entrepreneur - 

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- My movie experiences as a kid. My father taking me to see the 1st Superman movie (blew me away) -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- I feel that the arts are in a good state. With all the new tools and technology the arts will continue to thrive -

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Mark Harris - 

2) Where are you from?
- Chicago - 

3) What do you do?
- Film Producer - 

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- Wanted to reach the people with telling the man stories I have to tell -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- The state of the art can be descrbibed in one word:dead -

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Edwin Pagán - 


2) Where are you from?
- Born in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1963 of Puerto Rican parents and subsequently raised in the South Bronx. Currently residing once again in the ever transitionally-transforming East Village. -

3) What do you do?
- Work professionally as a filmmaker, cinematographer and producer. Manage and edit an online portal (www.latinhorror.com

) dedicated to the genre of horror, particularly the work being made by Latinos across the globe. Pushing "Latin horror" to be a recognized genre in its own right. Mentor emerging filmmakers, particularly media-makers of color. -


4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- I got involved in the arts as a member of the Boys Club of America at the Hoe Avenue Clubhouse (now ) at the age of 10 when I became involved in a photography class being thought there under the mentorship of club's art director, Ernesto Lozano, who taught me to develop black and white 35mm negative film, a hobby that eventually became a professional vocation and lead the way to working in film as a lighting cameraman and cinematographer. Looking at my own South Bronx community through the lens of a camera in the 1980s allowed me to later envision the world beyond those borders in a unique and profound manner, both socially and geopolitically.


One of the six exclusive members of the prestigious SEIS DEL SUR (http://www.seisdelsur.com/

) photo collective, who are having a major retrospective of photos of the South Bronx (70s-90s) in September 2012 at Bronx Documentary Center. -


5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- The arts are at a crucial crossroads today. While the arts are experiencing substantial reductions funding in schools and community-based organizations, they are are exploding in an organic way on the streets and via the Internet where expression cannot be negated. These two intersections are inspiring the artistic community and upcoming generation of expressionists to flesh out a new visual aesthetic and language composed of a variety of art-forms and mixing them with the new tools born out of the digital technology that has become ubiquitous. I am hopeful that this moment in time is creating the grand masters of the 21st century. I'm certain of it. -

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR THE ARTIST

1) What is your name?
- Nicole Franklin. - 


2) Where are you from?
- I am from St. Louis, MO but I was born in Montclair, NJ while my father, Donald E. Franklin was on a journalism fellowship at Columbia University. - 


3) What do you do?
- I'm a Filmmaker and an Educator. My company is EPIPHANY Inc. and I am the Communications Instructor in the Division of Humanities at Bloomfield College (NJ). I also spent 20+ years as a daily hire news editor for all of the network news broadcasts on both the East and West Coasts and a few independent news broadcasts in Los Angeles. -

4) What inspired you to pursue your creative career?
- My love of storytelling and the lack of positive Black characters in media inspired me to pursue my creative career. I also loved the rush of emerging from the wings in costume and full makeup from my days as a dance student turned showgirl. -

5) What is your view on the state of the arts?
- The state of the arts is strong. No matter how much funding is denied the number of artistic projects that are birthed have multiplied. Artists are unstoppable. Art is life. -

2012 3D Animation Reel of James N Bowman

If a Movie is created and not shown, does it exist.......

I often think about the many hurdles, creative people have to jump, in order to make it. This comes to mind as I think about the excitement, and in some circles, controversey, revolving around the movie, Red Tails. It's not surprising (at least not to me), that it took a White, male, billionaire filmmaker to point out how difficult it is to fund, produce, and distribute a film by, starring, and about African Americans. This whole chapter brings to mind my own struggles as a filmmaker and animator. It also makes me think about those friends and acquaintances of African decent, who also strugglrein this cinema fraternity.

It's hard to believe that I have been in and around animation and film making for nearly twelve years. And at no time during this period have I ever felt that I've made it, or that I am secure where I am. Within the first year and a half after coming out of graduate school, my first film was in four film festivals, but I was sleeping on a air mattress on the floor of a friend in Harlem and then the home of a friend of a friend in Jersey City. Although during that time, I was only able to find work as a TA at NYU, I thought I was about to make the big time, by having my film seen in New York and LA.

Little did I know during my first year and a half out of school, that my education would continue, in a very real way. I was applying, in person to studios for 3D animation work, and not even given a chance. But I remember after a screening of my film at the Urbanworld Film Festival, I thought my fortune was about to change. I was approached by the owner of a distribution company, who was very interested in my film. This company will remain nameless, but it has been responsible for putting many African American films on TV.

I received the paperwork for an offer from this company, not too long after the film festival. This is where another class in film making was about to take place. I reviewed the offer/contract, and was shocked to see how much power I would have to give up, in return for so little money. The offer was a exclusive license of my film, for a period of five years, where I could not sell, could not exhibit, could not put my film online, and could not distribute this film for employment purposes. All of this for the grand, handsome price of $1000. My film would have been shown during Black History Month as a syndicated program of films, shown on Saturday afternoons on network TV.

I heavily pondered this offer, but could not get past how little I was offerred and how little control I had over my own work. I thought, one year of work for $1000. I couldn't even pay rent and eat off of that for one month in New York. I didn't respond for two weeks, when another offer of $2000, came to me. It was then, that I wrote back that I could not accept this offer. I though of this as a slap in the face, for one year of work, that I completed on my own. Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way, was that this was a White owned company, solely acquiring African Produced films.

Now, before anyone gets offended by the last sentence, understand where I, and many African Americans come from, in our suspicion and even anger. The goal of creating films is to have them seen, and hopefully to the largest audience possible. But just as important, is that we can make a living from all of the education and hard work that we have put into our creation. African Americans have very few outlets for financing and distribution. And most, if not all outlets to have our works seen, are through entities that are White owned. 

It's difficult to explain to anyone, what racism and discrimination are to those who have never and will never experience it. Many African Americans complain, that their images are not seen, or even seen truthfully on mainstream television or on the big screen. I don't want my work relegated to 1pm on Saturday afternoon, with little marketing, and few people in front of the TV. If I had accepted that deal, few people still would have seen my work, and I would have only had $2000 to show for it, while the distribution company had full control over my work, without my say so. 

I have seen so many great short and feature films by Black people from all over the world. The problem is that many millions more will never see these great works. It's sad to say, but until I became an animator, I never even though about going to film festivals where these great works are screened. And many of these great works are relegated further, to only being seen at African or African American film festivals. I witnessed sci-fi films, action, drama, and experimental film, most of which I have never seen again. 

I hope that the publicity of Red Tails will open some doors for some of the great films I've seen and those yet made by African Americans. I want to see films by African Americans and all peoples on over 2000 screens like any other major or blockbuster film. I want to see creative people, from writers, crew members, directors, animators, actors, and the like, making a good living at entertaining and educating all of us. I don't want to see people of color having to accept being taken advantage of, in order to have their works seen.

I applaud George Lucas for enlightening the world, to the plight of the African American filmmaker. I challenge more Whites to confront the innequality that we as people of color face,  not only in the film industry, but within American life in general. I challenge the African American community to pool our resources to create distribution companies, own movie theaters, and promote our films. All people have a right to create and have their voices heard and images seen. We all have stories to tell, and it is the responsibility of all of us, to make sure that these stories are told, and that the creators can make a good living by creating them.

James Bowman

Artist, 3D Animator, and Arts Educator

EXpedition Status Report 9: Humor Clause

Over the last week I came across Illtown215 A series of ill-gotten, ill-affected and ill-mannered comedic sketches that's from the mind of one of the Whaaaaaassup Guys Philly native Fred Thomas Jr. These sketches are satirical so they aren't just the senseless random type of comedic jib jab that pollutes the internet. The other piece that I appreciate is that Mr. Thomas is writing, producing, and directing these shorts himself!

Check it out!

Keep Sharp
A.M. Frasier

Illtown215: Using Your Resources - watch more funny videos

Monkkey, Episode 2 is now ready

Indeed it has been a long time since the last chapter. However it isworth the wait. Many obstacles bring fourth well inspired material.Thanks to all of those who enjoyed the last chapter and checked inwith me from time to time to see when the next chapter was coming out.Thanks to those w......ho simply enjoyed the last episode!This chapter is in stereo. So plug in your headphones or speakers and subwoofers so you don't miss the little nuances. The Monk's tale continues. Enjoy

Please take time to view it at http://www.monkkey.com/

A.M. Frasier