LIVE SCRIPT LAB @ REGENT PARK FILM FESTIVAL

Posted on October 27, 2017 by MotionLive

For the past 7 months, I’ve been facilitating a special writing intensive with the Regent Park Film Festival- WRITING THE WEB SERIES! On Saturday Nov. 18th 2017, 2PM, five talented writers will launch their pilot episodes in the LIVE SCRIPT LAB in association with ACTRA Diversity. Come out for a 1st hear of these exciting new web series projects during the 15th Annual Regent Park Film Festival.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18 | 2:00 – 3:30 PM | THE PAINTBOX, DANIELS SPECTRUM

In collaboration with ACTRA Toronto, we present a live table read of pilot episodes from our Writing the Web Series Intensive. Five talented writers have been taking part in our seven-month intensive. See their scripts come to life.

Code Noir by Alicia Bunyan – Sampson
Tangled Roots by Elizabeth Mudenyo
Grounded by Katia Café-Fébrissy
Debtera by Lu Asfaha
Dialtone by Sajae Elder

Live Reading Director, Melanie Mah, is an award-winning director  and writer.

Thank you to our ACTRA Toronto actors who will be reading at this event!

Howard Davis
Peter Bailey
Richard Young
Tabby Johnson
Alicia Payne
Lisa Michelle Cornelius

Hosted by Motion

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MOTION, TARA CHASE, APANI SCREEN @ TIFF’S BLACK STAR

Posted on October 24, 2017 by MotionLive

Really looking forward to Toronto International Film Festival’s BLACK STAR! A 6-week retrospective honoring groundbreaking Black film, Black Star will explore over a 100 years of Black filmmakers, actors and iconic films.

On Friday November 3, Black Star opens with a boom bap tribute to Toronto, featuring Love, Sex and Eating the Bones (by director Sudz Sutherland) with a trio of T.O. Hip Hop Classics spotlighting music on video. Can’t wait to see THE TRILOGY: 3MCz featuring Motion, Tara Chase and Apani B. Fly (Blacklist), directed by award-winning director Alison Duke,  screened alongside Northern Touch (Rascalz, Kardinal Offishall, Thrust, Choclair, Chekmate, Little X) and Started from the Bottom (Drake, Director X)!

Being a movie fiend, definitely about to overdose of many film favourites, and discover some rare classics!

“TIFF’s Fall ’17 season includes Black Star (running November 3 to December 22), a groundbreaking programme, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. (BFI Black Star opened at the BFI Southbank in October 2016.) TIFF is honoured to have programmer Ashley Clark, the curator of the series, to introduce the first weekend of screenings. It celebrates the unique icons of Black stardom like Eddie Murphy, Louise Beavers (who transcended the harmful “Mammy” stereotype with her vulnerable, Oscar-nominated performance in 1934’s Imitation of Life), and vaudevillian Bert Williams (who appears in the 1913 film Lime Kiln Club Field Day, the earliest documented film with an all-black principal cast). Guest speakers will frame the discussions: writer and Cleo editor Lydia Ogwang will introduce Haile Gerima’s stark 1975 film Bush Mama, and rapper Kardinal Offishall will speak on John Landis’ 1988 culture-clash comedy Coming to America, among other guest appearances. The sidebar programme Black Star Canada celebrates Black Canadian filmmakers who choose to document their own experiences with screenings that include Stella Meghie’s 2016 intergenerational comedy Jean of the Joneses, Charles Officer’s 2002 lyrical short drama Short Hymn, Silent War, and Clement Virgo’s boundary-breaking 1995 debut Rude.”

TICKETS now on SALE

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A MAN’S STORY IN ZANZIBAR

Posted on October 24, 2017 by MotionLive

Impact Award-winning short film A MAN’S STORY had the great honour of joining films from around the world on the screens of the ZIFF (Zanzibar International Film Festival). Celebrating 20 years,  ZIFF is renowned all over the world for bringing focus to world-class African Film, Music, Art and Design.

ZIFF is the largest multi-disciplinary cultural festival of its kind in East Africa, bringing together the global film and arts industries for 9 days of immersion and promotion of the breadth of African culture.

With a film that explores the stories and experiences of Canadians with roots in Africa, our team is excited to know that A MAN’S STORY has reached the eyes of film audiences, artists and industry in East Africa and look forward to traveling to our next film festival destination in 2018. A Man’s Story: Coming to a screen near you!

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AWARD-WINNING FILM A MAN’S STORY LAUNCHED ON BRAVOFACT.COM

Posted on July 17, 2017 by MotionLive

4 Film Festivals, 1 Best Short Film Award, and an online release! You can now watch A MAN’S STORY – directed by Fernando Arrioja, written by Motion, and starring Emmanuel Kobongo – on BRAVOFACT.com! Seven CFC (Canadian Film Centre) alums – including producer Jessica Adams, editor Simone Smith, composer Ben Fox and executive producer Charles Officer – present the ReelWorld Award-winning short, A MAN’S STORY.

“A sparring match takes an ugly turn when jarring memories of a traumatic childhood force young Kam Eganda to face his father, and the disturbing notions of manhood that they have both inherited.”

Director: Fernando Arrioja Writer: Wendy Motion Brathwaite
DOP: James Klopko  Editor: Simone Smith Composer: Ben Fox
Kam: Emmanuel Kabongo Father: Lucky Ejim Mother: Kim Roberts
Coach: Pedro Miguel Arce Young Kam: Thamela Mpumlwana
Producer: Jessica Adams Executive Producer: Charles Officer
Production Company: Arrioja Films Inc.
BravoFACT

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POETS ACTIVATE BAND19 GALLERY WITH SPOKEN WORD

Posted on July 11, 2017 by MotionLive

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ACTIVATE! SPOKEN WORD at #BAND19 July 7th 2017

Posted on July 6, 2017 by MotionLive

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MOTION TALKS BALDWIN & EALEY-RICHARDSON ON CBC’S THE NEXT CHAPTER w/ SHELAGH ROGERS

Posted on May 10, 2017 by MotionLive

Motion talks about the similarities between James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the Mountain and Jael Ealey Richardson’s The Stone Thrower. (photo\Zahra Siddiqui)

The layers of Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (exerpt)

“What I love about this work, particularly, is that we go so deeply into their personal selves. We see how race and racism has affected them, we see how they are trying to break out of the chains of segregation. He even travels us to when the great-grandmother of John Grimes leaves the plantation to find a new life on the day when the emancipation proclamation is signed. We see not only these historical things going on, but also how deeply personal the struggles and the fight and the redemption of each character is taking place within them.”

LISTEN to the complete Review on The Next Chapter w/ Shelagh Rogers on CBC Radio.

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50in50: WRITING WOMEN INTO EXISTENCE in NYC!

Posted on April 25, 2017 by MotionLive

SOCIAL MEDIA POST

 

 

 

 

Really EXCITED to join 50 Black Women Writers for the internationally curated 50in50: WRITING WOMEN INTO EXISTENCE!

This special event featuring an esteemed collective of women actors takes place on Sunday May 14th, 2017 in New York City, at the legendary Billie Holiday Theatre – 1368 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NY. Showtime: 3PM.

Curated by acclaimed playwright Dominique Morriseau

Fifty writers have had their say,  in response to the powerful statement shaped by curator Morriseau which partially reads, “As Black Women writers, we fulfill a unique and un-duplicated role in theatre. We are telling the stories that represent us with balance and complexity and illuminate our side of the human experience.” Join us for a groundbreaking event that places the diverse, rich and challenging perspectives of women and girls from all walks of life at the center. These stories will be read by an ensemble of women performers in an astounding 90-minute journey of truth, humor and strength.

Cast: Simone Missick ( Luke Cage), Pauletta Washington ( Beloved, NY Premiere of Autumn), Phyllis Yvonne Stickney (How Stella Got Her Groove Back), Marsha Stephanie Blake (Getting On, Orange is the New Black) and more.

And joining the 50 women writers, Toronto’s-own playwrights MOTION and Meghan Swaby!

A partnership with Frank Silvera Writers’ Workshop and the Billie Holiday Theatre.

BUY NOW | Tickets: $15

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TORONTO HIP HOP CELEBRATES DJ RON NELSON!

Posted on March 29, 2017 by MotionLive

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Walking on #CollegeStreet, bumped into #streetpromo for Thursday Nite’s #iwasthere event! Celebrating #Toronto #HipHop #radiohost #promoter and #pioneer DJ RON NELSON! Hosted by Theo3 & Motion >> See you there! #fantasticvoyage #CKLN881 #hiphopradio #ourstory

FOLLOW @motionlive and #motionliveeye on Instagram

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YORK U. STUDENTS STUDY THE POWER OF SPOKEN WORD

Posted on March 25, 2017 by MotionLive

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GRIOTS TO EMCEES: Spoken Word, Culture and Performance returns to York University this Spring, 2017. 

During the 6-week credit course, York U. students explore the form, function and content of Spoken Word through the Diaspora – from language to rhythm, historical developments, social-political contexts, as well as key artists of poetry, rap, dub, slam, lyricism and spoken word as live and direct purveyors of culture.

By examining performance as text and artist/creator narratives, commentaries and cultural discourse, students survey the continuum through African storytelling traditions to contemporary global evolutions of lyricism and spoken word. Students explore the varied modes of oral/aural dissemination – including the stage, the page, audio recording, theatre, film and digital media – and analyze orality and voice as tools of cultural affirmation and resistance. The course includes a writing/performance intensive component.

SPACE LIMITED – INFO & REGISTRATION for AP/HUMA 3165 3.00 Griots to Emcees: Examining Culture, Performance & Spoken Word HERE.

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