Episode 19 - Lindsey Dryden & Day Al-Mohamed - “Say My Name”
Photo Credit: Rachel Ellis
[Image Description: B&W photo. Day is pictured from the torso up. She sits on the ground with her dog, a light-colored Labrador retriever named Veni. Day has a pair of sunglasses on top of her head and wears a denim-like jacket over a dark-colored top. She wears a metal necklace as she looks at the camera.]
Photo Credit: Jo Irvine
[B&W photo. Lindsey is pictured from the chest up smiling with her body turned slightly as she faces the camera. She stands in an open field, her hair blowing in the wind. She wears a dark velvet-like top.]
In this episode, I speak with filmmaker Lindsey Dryden and filmmaker, novelist, and podcaster, Day Al-Mohamed. In our conversation, we chat about Day’s advocacy work in Washington, D.C., Lindsey’s work as a producer of the film Unrest, and the organization they co-founded with the Oscar-nominated director of Crip Camp, Jim Lebrecht and Alysa Nahmias, FWD-Doc. FWD-Doc is committed to empowering filmmakers with disabilities and part of that advocacy is being bold saying the words “disability” and “disabled.” With that said and the spirit of naming what is, is, this week’s song is Destiny Child’s “Say My Name.”
Episode 18 - Chloë Walters-Wallace - “Take Me Home, Country Road/West Jamaica”
Photo Credit: Aura Aura
[Image Description: Chloë is pictured from the neck up as she looks straight into the camera. She wears a black top and black and gold earrings. Her hair is an Afro parted on the side.]
In the this episode, I speak with Firelight Media’s Manager of Artists Programs, Chloë Walters-Wallace. In our conversation, we chat about what got her started in the documentary field, her work at the Tribeca Film Institute and the New Orleans Film Society, and some of Firelight’s new initiatives for BIPOC filmmakers. Because she is originally from Jamaica, this episode’s song is Toots & the Maytals, “Take Me Home, Country Road/West Jamaica.”
Episode 13 - Denise Hamilton - “We Shall Not Be Moved”
[Image Description: Denise Hamilton is pictured from the torso up. She was an aqua colored button down shirt, tortoise-shell glasses, and a black folded scarf around her head that has white lettering and pink, blue, and yellow graphics. She smiles slightly as her chin rest on her hand.]
In this episode, I speak with educator, filmmaker and former co-chairperson of BADWest: Black Association of Documentary Filmmakers - West, Denise Hamilton, In our conversation we talk about BADWest, her latest doc/interactive project Race Relay, and what it’s like to be educating the next generation of international documentary filmmakers at the New York Film Academy. Because Denise and her family has deep ties to the Black liberation movement that go all the way to Mary McLeod Bethune, the song for this episode is Mavis Staples rendition of the gospel classic, “We Shall Not Be Moved.”
Episode 9 - Claire Aguilar - “A Meeting in the Ladies Room”
[Image Description: Claire Aguilar is pictured from the shoulders up She stands in front of a screened window and a multicolored abstract painting. She smiles.]
In this episode, I speak with award-winning film curator, film festival director and television commissioning editor and broadcaster, Claire Aguilar about her career in documentary and her recent work with the American Film Showcase Pakistan. Because we first began working together, we always seem to run into each other to and fro from the restroom, this week’s song is Klymaxx’s R&B classic, “Meeting in the Ladies Room.”
Episode 4 - Sonya Childress - “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun”
[Image description: Sonya Childress smiles. She wears a multi-colored top.]
In this episode, I speak with Sonya Childress, Senior Fellow at the Perspective Fund, about her pioneering work in the field of documentary and impact. Because in all her work, she centers People of Color and Blackness, in particular, this week’s song is the New Rotary Connection’s classic, “I Am the Black Gold of the Sun.”