Facing global climate change and the resulting environmental disaster, humanity endeavors to colonize other planets and preserve the future of human-kind. Denise is selected to join the ‘New Gaia’ colonies but her family does not have the same fortune. Denise is now faced with a life-or-death decision: remain on Earth and see out her last days with her family or join the mission alone and help secure the future of humans.
Producer. Writer. Director. Editor.
2016
Inspired by writings from Sekou Sundiata’s only published book of poetry, Free!, break/Free! explores love, romance, creativity, and politics through our human pursuit of what we believe is freedom, in the hopes that we aren’t crushed by our journey in the process. Originally commissioned to screen at the Lincoln Center Atrium as part of the 2013 tribute to Sekou Sundiata.
Producer. Director. Writer. Cinematographer. Editor.
2013
Dave takes a dark tumble down the rabbit hole in the laundromat, following a bad break-up with his girlfriend.
Written, shot, and edited in 24 hours during the NY Film Racing marathon filmmaking competition. Participants are challenged to create a short film with this year’s theme, the number one; prop: the number one; and action: listening to music.
Producer. Director. Writer. Cinematographer. Editor. Actor.
2012
One of three short films I was commissioned to create for a Gil Scott-Heron tribute concert with performances by the Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, Brian Jackson, Vernon Reid, Nona Hendryx, Gordon Voidwell, and other amazing artists at Symphony Space.
Director. Cinematographer. Editor.
January 2014
Undergraduate thesis film.
Director. Cinematography. Editor.
May 2008
Awards/Screenings:
Best of 400 Level/Advanced, CSI student film festival (2008)
Screening, 2008 Staten Island Film Festival (SIFF)
Finalist @ the NY Emerging Filmmakers Program at IFP (NY, 2008)
Best Documentary Short semi-finalist in the Angelus Student Film Festival (LA, 2008)
Screened and permanently archived at the San Sebastian International Film Festival/Film School (Spain, 2008)
In honor of his legacy as a genius and pioneer of his art, Prince &… is a variety show featuring sketch, stand-up, improv, storytelling, short video, music, and more. Participating artists/Prince fam create original art inspired by the legend who encourages us all to set our minds free.
I met my co-conspirator quite auspiciously as we were both on a pilgrimage of sorts to Minneapolis to see The Revolution play live at First Avenue. Ana traveled to Minnie with a friend from the NY comedy scene, who also happens to be good friends with a friend of mine, who remotely set us up on a friend-blind-date. Kismet. We vowed to hang out and relive all the details of a surreal three days of living in Prince-land upon returning to NY and so a few weeks and a good, boozy brunch later, Prince &… was born.
Having a residency at The PIT Loft where we essentially let free to do whatever we want resulted in a ‘Tipper Gore’ burlesque dancer, a set by DJ Spinna, a sketch written by Donwill of Tanya Morgan ft. Quelle Chris, running trivia games and prizes, live portrait painting on stage, and video appearances by Troy Gua and St. Paul Peterson from Prince’s band, The Family, among the other madness we were able to concoct on a monthly basis.
Produced and hosted by Chinisha Scott and Ana Defillo.
Logo graphic design. Cinematography & editing.
Keeping the spirit of the word “griot” alive, The Griot Show is a bi-monthly storytelling show featuring black comedians, musicians, artists, poets, educators, and elders from around NYC. Hosted by Alexis Lambright, artists have the opportunity to share stories from the black experience, often with a comedic turn and if they’re a griot worth their salt, a healthy amount of music.
I’ve had the honor of performing at the Griot Show twice since its inception. In my first show, among the amazing storytellers was one of the last living Tuskegee Airmen, (the late) Mr. Dabney Montgomery. In the second run, which happened to be on my birthday this year, I was swindled into performing alongside some real pros including Tim Barnes (It’s All True!) and Joanna Briley. Massive fun and only slightly demoralizing being sandwiched between those two amazing storytellers.
I also am pretty handy with the Photoshop and designed the logo for the show.
The host of The Griot Show is the incredibly talented (and ridiculously brave) Alexis Lambright – a great writer and improv performer with hilarious, dry humor and a great sense of comedic timing. She has performed on some of the strongest and longest running Magnet teams in her tenure and has built an awesome portfolio of her own including her one woman show, The Alexis Lambright Tell-A-Thon: Combating Adult Virginity. The show parodies telethons, seamless pulling together storytelling from a fake memoir, short videos including man-on-the-street interviews and music videos, live musical performance, a real call-in number, and background dancers. Yes, I kid you not. I was one of them. I also had the pleasure of creating the digital elements and shooting the video components for a hilarious show that went on to play at both the NYC and Hollywood Fringe Festivals.
I have the distinct pleasure to call multi-media visual artist Michael Paul Britto a colleague, collaborator, and a friend. He is always up to something amazing, re-contextualizing pop culture and the black experience to get audiences to re-think challenging subject matter and open up dialogue around race and identity. In This Little Word of Mine, Britto remixes the church revival experience with modern hip hop, re-framing the word ‘nigga’ and forcing audiences to examine its use (and misuse). And we had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. It wouldn’t be a successful performance and project had we not had audience members walk out (which they did), viscerally uncomfortable with the juxtaposition of language and culture and very likely, uncomfortable with their own relation to the subject matter. We were privileged enough to do two runs on the show; our first run at Rush Arts Gallery where we workshop-ed the piece and a second run at The Kitchen, alongside performances by Kenya (Robinson). Below is sampling of the show at The Kitchen during a dress rehearsal.
singer. actor. performance artist.
2013
Chinisha 