The AAFCA Podcast

Music, for most of us, it’s an integral part of our lives. Whether singing along to your favorite jams in your car; or comforting you in times of need. And for film, it’s no different. Film scoring is an integral part of the cinematic process—it’s the undertone that sets the mood and energy for both film and television. To get a good understanding of what goes into film scoring I only had to reach out to one person, the amazing Kathryn Bostic.

The award-winning composer and songwriter lends her talents to a number of films, television shows and theatrical productions over the years including the documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Where she not only composed the score, but produced the original song – High Above the Water

I spoke with Kathryn recently via skype to understand her process, her inspirations, and her recent projects. 

"Clemency" directed by Chinonye Chukwu and stars Afrie Woodard and Aldis Hodges is currently in theaters so check your local listings, and you can see "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am" on Amazon Prime Video.

If you didn’t know, every lamp, curtain, wall color, car, and fixture is selected by the production designer and team. It can be as small as finding the right rural home in the case of Dark Waters, or building a fictional country and every single element within it in films like Black Panther. Every visual in this exercise was created by production designer Hannah Beachler.

Beachler has been building worlds like this for over a decade with movies like Creed, Moonlight, Black Panther, Beyonce’s Lemonade, and her latest film Dark Waters to her credit.  Now to get an understanding the anatomy of her process and design principles I had a conversation with Hannah via Skype for this informative masterclass about her creative process and inspirations. 

In the film "The Obituary of Tunde Johnson," the audience is exposed to final day in the life of a young, middle class, Nigerian American man, coping with the issues that affect his movements leading up to his death. But the film flips the script and Tunde must relive this tragedy over and over again. This "reset" theme is not uncommon in Hollywood, no. But writer Stanley Kalu's fresh approach to dealing with self acceptance and self value are a refreshing spin to the trope. 

"The Obituary of Tunde Johnson" was directed by writer, director, and producer Ali LeRoi. Known best for his award-winning sitcom, "Everybody Hates Chris," LeRoi offers a surreal lens to this gripping, fantastical, coming-of-age film.  "The Obituary of Tunde Johnson" stars Steven Silver, Spencer Neville, and Nicola Peltz.

When it comes to who’s who in Hollywood, there is one producer that comes to mind – Debra Martin Chase. Debra is one of the most successful producers in the business with a filmography of box office wins for over 20 years. Films like “Courage Under Fire”, “Just Wright”, and “The Princess Diaries along with TV film phenoms like “The Cheetah Girl” franchise are just a few of her projects. She talks to me about her work and her latest film, "Harriet".

Imagine if you will, you are watching kids shows on television with your children and after a while you notice something is missing. You don’t see a lot of girls in kids programming. So, you start counting, and quickly realize kids programming lacks representation. You continue your research only to discover this omission of inclusion is consistent across the spectrum in both television and film. Well that’s exactly what Academy Award-winning actress Geena Davis did. After discovering this lack of representation in kids programming, she decided to do something about it and launched the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2004. 

This episode of the AAFCA podcast we speak with Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media And leads the Institute’s strategic direction. Madeline has over 30 years of experience in media marketing and business development in non-profit, entertainment, digital media, and consumer goods. She has worked for media companies including, Anchor Bay Entertainment, Starz Media, Nielson EDI, the Hallmark Channel, Universal Studios Home Video, and ABC Television to name a few.

Madeline was the keynote speaker at AAFCA’s Celebrate Women in Media event at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta, Georgia. The Geena Benchmark Report is available to download on the institute’s website (http://seejane.org). 

“The Burial of Kojo” is an independent film that has critics buzzing around the world. It is also a New York Times critics pick, and will be available for streaming on Netflix starting March 31st. The film is a story of two Ghanaian brothers, wrapped in an intricate dance of revenge, remorse, survival, and hope. This film is a visual spectacle full of fantasy, social commentary and national pride. 

This film marks the directorial debut of Samuel Blitz Bazawule a.k.a. Blitz the Ambassador, a Ghanaian artist in every sense of the word. Blitz has been speaking his truth for some time with four albums and four eps under his belt. On top of that he designs his own covers, directs his own music videos, and has created two short films: “Native Son’ in 2011 and “Diasporadical Triologia” in 2016. 

To bring his vision to screens around the world, Blitz used his own money from his music career and ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to complete his film.

“The Burial of Kojo” stars Joseph Otsiman, Kobina Amissah-Sam, Joe Addo, and Ama K Abebrese .   

 Links:
"The Burial of Kojo" soundtrack on Soundcloud
Blitz the Ambassador on Twitter (@BlitzAmbassador)
Array Films official website
Africa Film Society website
Africa Film Society on Twitter (@AfricaFilmSoc) 

When we think of silent film, it is easy to point out the works of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Erich Von Stroheim, and DW Griffith. Their collected work delighted audiences around the country and helped shape the story and spirit of America  From a white male point of view that is. 

In this episode we speak with producer, Bret Wood on his two collections: Pioneers in African-American Cinema, and Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers. Each collection contains over 20 hours of rare movies, film clips, interviews, and commentary about the diverse people who chronicled the history and creative spirit of Americans. 

Learn more about Kino Lorber by visiting their website: http://kinolorber.com.

"What Men Want" is not a sequel but it is loosely based on the film “What Women Want” from 2000 that starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. In that version, Nick, played by Gibson, is a chauvinistic ad executive who is struck by electricity and gains the ability to hear what women think. But In this smart, updated, and more diverse version, it’s the women’s turn to uncover what goes on inside a man’s head. In the film, Taraji P Henson plays Ali Davis, a winner-take-all sports agent who gains the ability to hear men’s thoughts and uses that ability to her advantage in a male-centric profession. It is not until she meets Will (Aldis Hodge) that she learns to let down her guard and listens to what they are truly saying. The film was directed by Adam Shankman who has directed romantic comedies like "The Wedding Planner" and "A Walk to Remember," but also musicals like "Rock of Ages" and "Hairspray." 

"What Men Want" is another project from powerhouse producer, Will Packer. Packer is behind some of Hollywoods most successful afro-centric films to date. According to his bio, he is one of the only African-American producers to have eight film open at number one at the box office. His hits include "No Good Deed, "Takers," the "Think Like a Man" franchise, the "Ride Along" films, "Straight Out of Compton", and most recently "Girls Trip, "Night School,' and "Breaking In" just to name a few of the projects he’s brought to the big screen. On top of all that, Packer has produced television projects as well including "Truth Be Told" and the "Roots" television miniseries.

AAFCA member Justin Key had a chance to sit down with Will Packer during a recent "What Men Want" press tour and provided the interview for this episode. Enjoy!

"What Men Want” stars Taraji P. Henson, Aldis Hodge, Josh Brenner, and Richard Roundtree, and Tracy Morgan. In theaters Friday, February 8, 2019. 

This episode Ed Adams wraps up the year with a discussion about the phenomenal year in film for people of color with AAFCA co-founders Gil Robertson and Shawn Edwards. We also breakdown the winners of the 10th annual AAFCA Awards celebrating the best performances and films of the year. 

The AAFCA Awards gala will take place on Wednesday, February 6th at the Taglyan Complex in Los Angeles. You can find the complete list of winners on the AAFCA website. 

Links:
AAFCA Awards press release and complete list:
http://www.aafca.com/pr-top-ten-2018

CNBC: "Record number of black directors among 2018's top films, earning $1.6 billion at the box office"
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/04/record-number-of-black-directors-among-2018s-top-films.html

USC Annenberg Report: Inclusion in the director's chair: Gender, race, and age of directors across 1,200 top films from 2007 to 2018
http://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inclusion-in-the-directors-chair-2019.pdf

Full list of Top Facebook Watch Original Shows (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_original_programs_distributed_by_Facebook_Watch

In this episode of the AAFCA Podcast, host Ed Adams speaks with George Tillman, Jr. producer and director of the film, “The Hate U Give.” Tillman has been writing, directing, and producing stories about the black experience for over a decade. His body of work includes both film and television with notable box office hits like “Soul Food” and the “Barbershop” movies. Tillman has also directed episodes on several hit television series including “Power,” “Luke Cage,” and “This is Us.”

"The Hate U Give" is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Angie Thomas. The film stars Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Anthony Mackie, Issa Rae, Common, Algee Smith, and Lamar Johnson.