Sexual Assault Documentary Featured On WBAI, New York

On Monday, April 7, 2008 Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Kevin Powell were featured guests Wake Up Call with host Esther Armah on WBAI, 99.5 in New York to promote the screening of NO! at Browne Memorial Baptist Church. It was a wonderful turn-out and an amazingly intense evening. There will be additional posts about that powerful event soon. Please download the audio or listen to it, here on the blog.

length – 37 min

right click to download here

Violence Against Women Documentary Featured on Joy of Resistance Program on WBAI Pacifica Radio Network | Women’s History Month

On Thursday, March 27, 2008, NO! The Rape Documentary and Aishah Shahidah Simmons were featured guests on Joy of Resistance Multi-Cultural Feminist Radio, WBAI Pacifica Radio Network in New York, with co-hosts Fran Luck and NOW-NJ President, Maretta Short, to raise awareness about rape, other forms of sexual violence, healing and feminist activism during Women’s History Month. Monica Dillon’s powerful song “No,” which is a call to action to end violence against women is featured throughout the program. Please download the audio or listen to it, here on the blog.

length – 61 min

right click to download here

tiona m.’s ground-breaking, revolutionary, feature-length documentary black./womyn.: conversations…, which features the voices of over 50 lesbians of African descent throughout North America including featuring powerful voices such as Def Poet Staceyann Chin, poet/activist/scholar Cheryl Clarke, and filmmakers Aishah Shahidah Simmons and Michelle Parkerson will have it’s New Orleans premiere at the Fifth Annual New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival. Scored by New Orleans-based musician Monica Dillon, the screening and discussion with tiona m., Monica Dillon, and Aishah Shahidah Simmons will be held on Sunday, April 13, 2008, 4pm, Zeitgeist – 1618 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard.

May 1-4, 2008 in Philadelphia

CALL FOR FILM + VIDEO SUBMISSIONS

PRIORITY DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS DECEMBER 1, 2007
Late deadline is December 31, 2007

The 2008 Black Lily Film & Music Festival (“The Lily”) is a film and music festival wholly focused on the contributions of women. Recognizing the parallels between the music and film industries—both male dominated fields in which women continue to strive for the acknowledgement and recognition often taken for granted by their male counterparts, this international, multi-racial, non-competitive festival seeks to highlight groundbreaking women filmmakers and musicians.

OPEN CALL

The films may be short-form (0-30 minutes) or feature-length (31-90
minutes) in any of the following genres:

Narrative Films
We are accepting works of fiction that deal with any topic or theme, provided that the work is directed and/or produced by a woman. Preference will be given to recent works, but it is not mandatory.

New Media/Experimental
We are accepting works that don’t fit into the narrative/documentary binary. Works that employ alternative technology and/or structure are encouraged to submit to this category.

Unfortunately, we do not have the capacity to mount video installation, so please only submit works that are meant to be screened in a theater.

Documentary Films
These works may include shorts and features from 0 to 90 minutes. Works not originally produced in English must have English subtitles.

Music Videos
These works may feature artists that are signed or unsigned as long as the director has festival rights to screen the work. They should not exceed 5 minutes in length.

PRIORITY DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS DECEMBER 1, 2007
Late deadline is December 31, 2007

Please mail submissions (and a postage-paid return envelope if desired)
to:

Black Lily Film & Music Festival
c/o Penn Women’s Center
University of Pennsylvania
3643 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6230 USA

Submission fees must be made out to Black Lily, Inc.

For updates and more information, check out
blacklilyfilm.org and myspace.com/blacklilyfilm

black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent, an important and ground breaking two-hour documentary that was produced, directed, photographed, edited, and predominantly funded by Tiona M., a Black lesbian video and filmmaker, originally from Greenville, South Carolina and presently based in Philadelphia.

I had the opportunity to meet and work with Tiona, in 2005, during my artist-in-residency at the Digital Moving Image Salon at Spelman College. Since that time we developed a friendship and camaraderie, which includes her working as 2nd camera woman and graphic designer for my next project, which is a global documentary by and for women of color in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe affected by Violence Against Women (VAW) and HIV & AIDS.

Tiona began working on black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent five years ago in 2001 when she was 21-years old. Since that time she has traveled and filmed over 50 Black lesbians who are based across the United States and in Canada. Her interviews feature a wide array of diverse Black lesbian voices including Poet/Author Cheryl Clarke, Poet/Author Staceyann Chinn, Filmmaker Michelle Parkerson, and Author Fiona Zedde.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a moving image is worth a million words. I invite you to please visit www.myspace.com/tionamproductions to view the 40 minutes worth of clips, some of which are featured in the documentary but most of which are a part of the raw footage that will be featured in the DVD extras.

When I asked Tiona why was she “giving” some of her footage away for free on myspace when she needed money to get the documentary across the finish line, Tiona shared with me that she believes she has a social/political responsibility to make some of her raw footage accessible for free. This belief is underscored by the fact that Tiona consistently receives emails from lesbians of African descent from across the globe who’ve shared with her how just viewing the featured clips has literally saved their lives.

With the exception of a critically needed and well deserved 2007 $2500 Leeway Foundation Art & Change Grant, Tiona has self-financed this documentary which is both a labor of love and a commitment to making visible the invisible. She is now in need of $5000.

As someone who wouldn’t have been able to complete NO! without the support of countless women and many men across the United States and internationally, I know the importance of grassroots fundraising for social change documentaries.

Unfortunately, for too many Black women filmmakers, it literally takes a village to make a film that doesn’t stereotype, castigate, degrade, or malign Black women…

Your donation is not tax deductible. However, it is life sustaining for all Black lesbians who very rarely have the opportunity to see images of themselves or of lesbians they know. It is also an important documentation for non-Black lesbians to hear some of our stories and perspectives on our lives in the absence of racist, sexist, heteropatriarchal stereotypes.

black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent is not a Hollywood fabricated fantasy. It is also not a representation of every single Black lesbian. However, Tiona has dug well-beneath the surface to begin this long overdue audio/visual conversation by creating the space for the featured interviewees to speak in their own voices.

Your donation of $100 or more will guarantee an autographed copy of the deluxe DVD, which will feature extras. If you make your contribution by December 25th, 2007, you will also receive a special on-screen credit.

NO DONATION IS TOO SMALL. All donations received by December 25th, 2007 will be acknowledged with an on-screen credit.

You may make your donation two ways. Through her safe and secure paypal account, which is accessible via www.blackwomynconversations.blogspot.com and www.myspace.com/tionamproductions. You may also write a check. For more information about writing a check, please email tionamproductions@yahoo.com

For very detailed information on black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent, please read the downloadable pdf black./womyn press kit.

If you know of other people (regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity) who you think would be interested in supporting Tiona, please do share this post with them.

Thank you for your time and attention to my request. I look forward to your joining me in financially supporting black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African descent.

In Solidarity and In Struggle,
Aishah Shahidah Simmons
www.AfroLezProductions.com/blog

I, a daughter of an African-American feminist mother and an African-American pro-feminist father, began identifying as a feminist in 1979, when I was ten years old. Ms. Magazine was a part of my household throughout my formative years into womanhood. I was and am very thilled…elated to have NO! reviewed in the foremost, long-standing feminist magazine in the United States. You can read my blurb, which joins the chorus of feminists who share about how Ms. Magazine has impacted our lives over the past 35 years of its existence by clicking here.