SYNC UP | The Series

 

SYNC UP Cinema and SYNC UP Seminar are presented by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation in partnership with NOVAC, with primary sponsorship by Film New Orleans and supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

SYNC UP Cinema and SYNC UP Seminar are seasonal events designed to connect local independent filmmakers and audiences with industry insights, works in progress and networking opportunities. These events are free and open to the public.

For SYNC UP Cinema, NOVAC spotlights the work one to two projects. We screen shorts, or clips of longer projects, followed by discussions with the filmmakers and an audience q&a.

For SYNC UP Seminar, NOVAC hosts a film professional to present their experience, insight and curate a discussion on the topic of their expertise.

Previous Episodes

NOVAC and Film New Orleans present SYNC UP Cinema: In the Mood for Love.  Featuring short films selected from an open call from Louisiana filmmakers whose films explored themes around love. 

NOVAC and Film New Orleans present SYNC UP Cinema: Empowering Storytellers.  Made with support from NOVAC, these short documentaries by first-time New Orleans filmmakers explore the question, “What is home?”   

NOVAC and Film New Orleans present SYNC UP Seminar: Styling and Wardrobe in Film. Join us on Sunday September 18th from 3-5 PM at Gallier Hall for a panel discussion with local industry professionals in wardrobe and styling to discuss how working in styling and wardrobe intersect, the highs and lows of each industry, and how the work contributes to storytelling in television, indie, and studio films. 

“CANS Can’t Stand,” directed by Matt Nadel and Megan Plotka and produced by Matt Nadel and Wendi Cooper, is a documentary that highlights how police have weaponized Louisiana’s Crime Against Nature by Solicitation (CANS) law to terrorize queer/trans Louisianians since 1982. “CANS Can’t Stand” follows a group of Black trans women in New Orleans who are fighting to repeal that law—and advance trans liberation statewide. The cast includes Wendi Cooper, Milan Nicole Sherry, and CANS Can’t STAND Activists.

 

For this special edition of Sync Up Cinema, NOVAC is excited to showcase the work of three groups of young Louisiana filmmakers. These short films were written, produced, and screened this past spring as a part of the Film Prize JR. competition. The artists had the added challenge of balancing their film productions with hybrid and remote high school. From visual poems to supervillain origins and personal documentaries, these films portray a diversity of voices and a shared re-imagination of cinematic storytelling. 

 

Ideal for indie filmmakers, this Zoom lecture will provide attendees an overview of the elements they need to get in place prior to commencing their fundraising efforts.  We will cover corporate structures, business plans, tools for making your deal more attractive, and tips for building long-term relationships with financial partners.

 

In this Sync Up Seminar, Production Designer Ina Mayhew discussed:

  • Departments within the Art Department
  • The process from pre-production to production
  • Relationship with the director
  • Films vs Episodic vs Mini-Series
  • Sets vs Locations
  • Creating a time period
  • Prepping for challenging episodes and scenes
  • Sketches, models and color palettes
  • Collaboration with VFX
  • Skills needed
  • Pathways

 

This episode focuses on the grace and strength of Southern Women, and the complexities that shape who they are within their families and communities.

Maternally Yours

In this dramedy mini series, 20-something year old Sheena is ready to move on from her small city of Alexandria, Louisiana and head to New Orleans. She has a great relationship with her cousins, Ayana and Giselle, with whom she lives with. Her parents, Darnel and Niecey, have been married since she was born and from Sheena’s perspective, they are the epitome of a loving relationship. Everything is on track until a blow up between Darnel and Niecey occurs at her little sister Ainsley’s birthday dinner. Later, Niecey reveals that they’re getting a divorce. This news unlocks an old memory that sends Sheena on a journey of self-discovery. Niecey and her mother, Hazel, are also forced to revisit the past as information is unveiled; sending Niecey on her own journey of self-discovery. Sheena’s family isn’t who she thought they were and now she’s left trying to put all the pieces back together.

Watch the trailer here.

A Fine Girl: Documentary Short

Produced and Co-Directed by Darcy McKinnon, Co-Directed, Filmed and Edited by Biliana Grozdanova

A FINE GIRL is a documentary short following Brandi Jarrow, a transgender woman of color in New Orleans. At 27 years old, Brandi is a successful hairstylist, a woman of faith, and a valued member of her community. She holds an active role in her community despite being a Black queer woman. While many documentaries focusing on queer people revolve around the trials and tribulations of being a LGBTQ POC, A FINE GIRL is an optimistic portrait of a thriving woman in a Deep South community that embraces her. We meet Brandi as someone who is essential to the community in which she lives, and the film then poses the question, what could we be as a community if we extended the same grace to everyone regardless of their identity. The film follows Brandi as she works to open a luxury salon in New Orleans and build her brand as a hairstylist, and through that journey we will see her move through the various communities to which she contributes daily. A FINE GIRL won the Reel South Award at the 2020 New Orleans Film Festival.

Todd will discuss his own pathway and experience, as well as some of the biggest challenges for a producer, including scheduling and budgeting for a blind script, putting dollar amounts on assumptions before concrete decisions are made, like choosing a director and locations, and actualizing assumptions once production begins.

 

SYNC UP CINEMA, EPISODE 7: BLACK LIVES MATTER

GROWING UP BLACK in NEW ORLEANS

 

VH1’s GROWING UP BLACK, from Heather Lynn Haynes, is a digital original video series where local natives are interviewed to explore their personal experiences around systemic racism, what it is like growing up Black in America, and explore their feelings/experiences of the Black Lives Matter movement. The pilot episode takes place in New Orleans and features a range of talent discussing the uniqueness of New Orleans culture and how it relates to their identity of Growing Up Black. Featured talent includes Civil Rights Activist and Freedom Rider Jerome “Big Duck” Smith, visual artist Brandan “B Mike” Odums, and former police chief of New Orleans Warren Riley amongst others. This episode was Directed and Produced by New Orleans native Heather Haynes, and shot by New Orleans native Edward Buckles and crew.

THE BURKES

 

From Jana Godshall and Trian Long-Smith, THE BURKES tells the story of a day in the life of Teddy Burke. Following Teddy through the course of her day, alternating realities as a white woman and as a black woman, we see how even the most routine activities have privilege.

FILMMAKING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE SEMINAR

 

In this interactive seminar, filmmaker Marta Cunningham (VALENTINE ROAD) cuts straight to the heart of filmmaking. She’ll pose questions about fears, hopes, obstacles, passions and purpose. Attendees will be placed in breakout rooms to discuss their answers with other filmmakers, and then discuss their answers within the larger group. The purpose of this seminar is to help both filmmakers and aspiring filmmakers break through the blockages that hold them back, whether that be starting their project, or working through obstacles or unknowns in their current project.

SYNC UP CINEMA, EPISODE 6: REEL JUSTICE

The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, and Louisiana incarcerates more people than any other state in the country, giving it the notoriety of being the prison capital of the world.

 

For this episode of Sync Up, we’ll put a spotlight on two local filmmakers who are also taking the deep dive into our criminal justice catastrophe. We’ll view clips from their films and discuss the harsh realities of this complex and heavily monetized system. Reel Justice presents filmmaker Nailah Jefferson with her film COMMUTED, about the life of Danielle Metz, an African American mother of two whose sentence of triple life plus twenty years for nonviolent drug offenses in 1993 was commuted by the Obama Administration, and JUSTICE, INC, a documentary series investigating the New Orleans Criminal Justice System by a local filmmaker who requires an anonymous online presence for the duration of production.

SYNC UP CINEMA, EPISODE 5: TRIBECA

Episode 5 of Sync Up Cinema is Friday, September 20th from 6-8pm at the George and Joyce Wein Jazz and Heritage Center, 1225 N. Rampart Street. New Orleans made waves and history at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival, so we’re going to sit down with these filmmakers, watch some clips, and hear all about their films and their festival experiences.