AMPLIFY
liquid blackness presents AMPLIFY, a showcase and reflective discussion of GSU School of Film, Media, and Theater students' creative videos and writings.
These media objects were made in conversation with the rich tradition of black filmmaking and its intimate relationship to the politics inherent to black music and visual arts. AMPLIFY holds that current crises -- the anti-Blackness responsible for the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and many others, misogynoir and transphobia, COVID 19 and the resultant rampant unemployment -- are systemically linked. AMPLIFY grows out of a need to grapple with their root causes and in solidarity with cross-racial demonstrations. Responding to our students’ voices, AMPLIFY seeks to foster an artistic and critical dialogue concerning moving images as a tool for voices that are often invisible even though imperative to these conversations. Through students’ media production and writing, we aim to discuss the ways in which the creative process of media-making can become a tool for advocacy, protest, reflection, healing, and community-building.
A curated conversation series centered in films and writings, AMPLIFY: media arts for collective strength showcases emerging radical cinematic aesthetics which advocate, protest, reflect, heal, empower, affirm, uplift and cultivate community. Responding to our students’ voices and works, AMPLIFY seeks to foster artistic and critical dialog around systemic anti-Blackness as a site for the articulation of liberatory demands.
AMPLIFY: media arts for collective strength, is an expression of the collective work of Prof. Susan-Sojourna Collier, Prof. Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz, Dr. Jade Petermon, Dr. Alessandra Raengo, Karin Smoot, and Matt Rowles (COTA Tech)
For more information about each event, please visit:
SEASON ONE
A full review of AMPLIFY: SEASON ONE highlights here.
AMPLIFY One , a screening & conversation with films by GSU students and alum Kia Pooler, Josh Cleveland, and Amir Mubarak. Moderated by Sade Lythcott, CEO of The National Black Theatre Institute of Action Arts in Harlem USA.
AMPLIFY Two, a screening & conversation with films by GSU students and alum Zameh Omonuwa, Donovan Stanley, Taylor Dudley. Moderated by Michele Prettyman, Fordham University.
AMPLIFY Three: : liquid blackness and AMPLIFY present: Facing the Band: Elissa Blount Moorhead and the (Ana)architectures of Community Ties.
SEASON TWO
AMPLIFY: SEASON TWO call for submissions
AMPLIFY: media arts for collective strength, a showcase and reflective discussion of GSU School of Film, Media, and Theater students' creative videos and writings was born this past Summer 2020 in response to our students neglected needs in the face of social, political and institutional forms of anti-black violence.
Through its short 6-month-long history, AMPLIFY: media arts for collective strength, has already made an impact on viewers and participants both locally and nationally: our first two curated showcases of students’ work have more than 1,200 combined views; our artists have been invited to exhibit nationally and landed higher profile production gigs; our concept, ethos and praxis have been discussed in scholarly publications and forums; our partnership with liquid blackness on the research project and events surrounding the work of Elissa Blount Moorhead have been supported by the National Council for Public History and all of these events have been archived on the liquid blackness website and, hence, automatically at the Library of Congress. Our call for work and ethos has inspired original work and our commitment to social justice prompted us to partner with Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz to host a “know your rights” training for media makers.
Over these months we also spent a great deal of time reflecting on the values that birthed AMPLIFY. We are a collective of filmmakers, curators, writers, and scholars who came together to provide an alternative to institutional violence by creating a space centered in care. We demonstrate this care through a variety of commitments including exhibitions of student works that challenge anti-Blackness; public dialogue concerning the thoughtful deployment of moving images toward exposing and dismantling systemic oppressions; fostering of career pathways for BIPOC, Queer, and variously-abled filmmakers; and supporting local initiatives in Atlanta wherever possible.
For Season Two we have planned three events centered on our core values: care, community, sustainability.
AMPLIFY: CARE: Thursday, February 11, 2021 (deadline to submit: Jan 15, 2021)
AMPLIFY: COMMUNITY: Thursday, March 11, 2021
AMPLIFY: SUSTAINABILITY: Thursday, April 8, 2021
We are looking for submissions for each event. Please find additional info about dates, values and guidelines, here