Look into Darkness:"Cornbread for Dessert"

This scene from my new feature film written and directed my Stephen Mitchell Look into Darkness has me matching wits with a formidable adversary played by actress Tammy Rogers.

Dancing in Person-to-Person

Dancing with Kristine Letschin on Stephen Mitchell's movie Person-to-Person.

Antoinette Greene Person-to-Person

This is a teaser scene from Stephen Mitchell's feature film Person-to-Person in which I am a co-lead.

The Magistrate on Amazon Prime Video

Watch The Magistrate on Amazon Prime Video.

Selma

I first heard Ava DuVernay's name after her film Middle of Nowhere won the Best Director award at Sundance. I believe I finally saw the film on cable and could see from the film why her name had been circulating. I was in a Howard University student film and the director was so excited that Ava DuVernay came to speak at the school. He spoke so highly of her, I was sorry I didn't attend that lecture.

It was refreshing to hear about a woman and an African American woman being talked about in such glowing terms. It has been an all too rare an occurrence. Then she was going to be doing Selma. I wondered what to expect hearing a woman's voice tell the tale of her people--with a $20 million budget, no less.  The film industry is such a male dominated industry and I could only wish the best for her and hope that she had good people behind her so her vision would make it to the screen. And what better backing than Oprah as producer and as an actress!

                                                       Antoinette with David Oyelowo

In viewing Selma, you see the pride the actors had in telling and reliving the story of the people, their struggles, their conviction, their victory.  How powerful! It gave the history and hope for the next generation.

David Oyelowo's portrayal of Dr. King was on point with look and attitude. Even without the speeches (King's Estate didn't give permission to use his words) you felt his presence, his strength and his righteousness to overcome adversity.

Selma was nominated and won a slew of awards. I know there was controversy about the film not being nominated for the Academy Awards. It won an Oscar for  Best Achievement in Music written for Motion Picture.  I guess it matters but it didn't matter to me. Selma won for me with its story, acting, and knowing that this woman who was entrusted with telling this story fulfilled her dream in so many ways.

A Matter of Worth

I just finished a play A Matter of Worth for the Women Voices Theater Festival at the Silver Spring Black Box Theater. Here are two reviews on the play.

http://dctheatrescene.com/2015/09/21/a-matter-of-worth-live-garra-theatre/

http://dcmetrotheaterarts.com/2015/09/17/the-womens-voices-theater-festival-a-matter-of-worth-at-live-garra-theatre1/

Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival

 

 I have always wanted to visit Martha's Vineyard for some reason. But coming from New York  I never really understood why I would go north to go to the beach. So, when the short film Jump that I was in, was picked to be in the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival. I jumped at the opportunity even though it was a toss up between going to the National Black Theatre week in Winston Salem the prior week. The Vineyard won out because I went to that event the last time. There was some maneuvering to make this trip and I got to stay with the granddaughter of W. Montague Cobb. I drove up with a Sowande who had a film that he had produced in the festival.

We left at 9:30PM and arrived at the ferry at 6AM and got on the island at 7AM. After dropping off our bags at the places that we were staying and freshening  up a bit, we went to breakfast at Linda Jean's. Sowande, who is a Howard University graduate, and I were introduced to Floyd Rance, the husband of the husband and wife team who are the founders of the film festival. Floyd is also a Howard University graduate and this kind of introduction happened throughout the week: it seemed as though everyone I met was a Howard University graduate. The director of the film that I am in Anthony J. Harper (also Howard University Graduate) could not attend and it was thanks to him I got a pass for the week of films and lectures.  We went to see the feature for that day Somewhere in the Middle at the theatre in Edgartown.

The next morning we went to breakfast at Biscuits with more Howard alumni. After breakfast, we went to the MV Airport to pick up Sowande's producing partner Darnley. The rest of the films were showing at the MV Performance Art Center where we picked up our credentials. There were 3 shorts showing and they were all good and informative. One of them was Karen Parsons' animation Dancing in the Light: The Janet Collins Story. Karen was the older sister in the show The Fresh Prince. Sowande and Darnley's film The American LOWS left you wanting more. Another of the films showing that was done by a woman with whom I had done a photo shoot, The Little Light of Mines: The Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer was great. We left to get some dinner and returned to see the feature Althea. Fantastic film! I never knew she sang and made an album. Then we headed to the night spot Lola's to end the night.

Thursday it was breakfast and back to the Performance Center to see the feature Forgiveness and hear the director speak.

We left to go out to the Wampanoag reservation to see the light house, do some shopping and have lunch. Later, after taking Darnley to the Airport, we went to dinner in town ran into some friends who joined us and relaxed some. Sowande wanted to try the donuts at Backdoor Donuts.

Friday was my day. After breakfast went to the Performance Center where Jump was showing. After it screened and since the director wasn't there, I spoke and answered the questions that I could. The audience seem to enjoy it. 

I talked to a lot of the directors. The two main sponsors of the Festival were HBO and SAATCHI & SAATCHI met and spoke with them. It was a busy week on MV; the President was there with his family. There was going to be a 5k run that Sunday that was just making the ferry schedule crazy. I finally secured a 6AM ferry for Saturday morning, which allowed us to go to the CHI-RAQ discussion with Spike Lee, Nick Cannon, Teyonah Parrish and Father Michael L. Pfleger. It was a full house and, as with everything that I attended at this event, was run very well.

To end the evening, we went back  to Lola's for the Summer White Party  This ended my stay on MV. I got up at 4:30AM and boarded the 6AM ferry and headed home.