“This brisk and self-searching, sharply intelligent and deeply vulnerable romantic comedy is a masterwork of reflexive construction. The young director, Terence Nance, builds the film around his 2006 short, “How Would You Feel?,” a love story in the conditional mode in which he co-stars, with Namik Minter—both playing themselves—to depict the course of their tentative relationship.”

READ MORE:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/film/an_oversimplification_of_her_beauty_nance

“Original and so much more, Terence Nance’s relentlessly naval-gazing feature debut abandons narrative for a restless, shape-shifting experiment in self-documentation…Live action gives way to dreamy animation, the personal gives way to the universal, and you will not see anything remotely like this at the PFF or elsewhere.”

To read full article, click here.

Philadelphia Film Festival Screening Times
Thursday, 10/25 at 9:45PM
Sunday, 10/28 at 7:30PM
Ritz East, Theater B
Buy tickets here

Flux  @ Caos Gallery
923 F Street NW
Washington, DC

October 20, 2012

Reception at 7PM

The nexus of mobility has been arguably actualized in the 21st century. In a societe contemporain, access to the world around us is seemingly within a click of a mouse. Whether one is booking tickets to an exclusive destination half-way around the world, or quelling a case of wanderlust with Google Earth; access to information, and more specifically, locales, is increasing exponentially with the advancement of technology.   For some, to freely move around is a treasured luxury, yet a laborious, dangerous act for others. Flux will explore the politics of passage as it relates to movement. Social mobility. Forced migration. Geographical travel. Gentrification and displacement.

As writer Richard Florida has suggested, economic interconnectivity, realized through globalization, is certainly apparent, but has not made way for equity, especially equity in access, for various demographics of our global society. Through colored lenses, the notions of travel and mobility are heavily drawn along race and class lines. The freedom to move one’s body about, around, and between is nefariously complicit with one’s standing within a given socioeconomic sphere. Access to the freedom of mobility becomes synonymous with ability, ability transforms into a longing for the lack of such, a desire of sorts.

Flux is visualization of this transformation of mobility into a matter of access. In the exhibition, five contemporary artists will challenge understandings of travel through video works. Lara Stein Pardo, Nyugen Smith, Terence Nance, Chukwuma Agubokwu, and Mandy Cano Villalobos will investigate the politics of movement as it relates to their own aesthetic concerns.

In No Ward, a short documentary film shot by critically acclaimed filmmaker and artist Terence Nance, the artist explores the devastating implications of forced migrations affecting New Orleans natives after Hurricane Katrina. Similarly, drawing upon historical memory, cultural anthropologist and photographer Lara Stein Pardo, in collaboration with Grace Sanders, attempts to parse out answers to complicated questions surrounding the relationship between migrations, the legal system and everyday life in the video work today we are leaving.  The video questions the role of regulation and movement, directly challenging the history of the  Wet Foot Dry Foot policy addressing the illegal immigration of Cubans and Haitians into Miami.

The cultural assemblages of performance artist Nyugen Smith offer a conceptual departure from other works. Smith’s video performances construct a visual framework to navigate contemporary concerns with colonialism in the West Indies and Africa. In Americans, Mandy Cano Villalobos presents a fragmented narrative of three Latin American immigrant families and their relocation experiences. Chukwuma Agubokwu’s performance in Metro-Sketch: Thank You Come Again explores movement hyper-locally; the short video piece unveils the negotiation of interpersonal relationships on the DC Metrorail system.

Flux champions the crucible of mobility and access-  technology, to magnify the bifurcated effects of globalization, regulated movement and in some cases, social stagnancy. More poignantly, Flux employs the gaze of other-ed individuals to make document existing social attitudes about the power and agency associated with physical, social, and psychological change.

For all press inquiries, please contact:

Jessica N. Bell

jessica.n.bell@gmail.com

Are you into independent films? Do you like a good romance? Sure you do!  An Oversimplification of Her Beauty will be hitting the big screen at the New Orleans Film Festival October 12th. 1,250 submissions from around the world were received and An Oversimplification of Her Beauty made the cut, joining the lineup of 203 other awesome independent films. If you live in the area (or even if you don’t and are just visiting), please show some love to Terence Nance and support this film.

Last week, we shared Terence Nance and Hank Willis Thomas’ short film for the Films4Peace initiative commissioned by PUMA.Peace and curated by Mark Coetzee. Well as you know, Terence was chosen as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces” and like a proud parent, showcased his recent accomplishment in an article featuring the film along with Nance’s commentary.

On September 21, 2012 (World Peace Day), 21of today’s most innovative contemporary artists from around the globe illustrated their interpretations of peace on film via Films4peace, an annual short film commission by PUMA.Peace and curated by Mark Coetzee. Terence Nance teamed with Hank Willis Thomas to create an amazing piece for the initiative, which you can view on Indiewire and get the scoop on the  other featured artists as well. Even though World Peace Day has come and gone, it’s better late than never to share such a positive message that may just inspire one individual. So check out the video and share it across all of your social networks to keep the momentum going…Peace!

“An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” has been making its rounds on the international festival circuit and has been received with open arms, but there’s nothing like showcasing your talent with those who simply get what you’re all about and are trying to achieve. The Urbanworld Film Festival, sponsored by BET Networks, is screening “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” directed by Terence Nance on Friday, September 21st.

“The Urbanworld Film Festival is an initiative of the Urbanworld Foundation Inc., a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 by Stacy Spikes.  Urbanworld endeavors to consistently manifest its mission of redefining and advancing the roles of multicultural constituents in contemporary filmed entertainment.  By implementing initiatives that actively support and develop content creators of color, Urbanworld significantly contributes to the evolution of the media and entertainment landscape and the diversity that it reflects” (Urbanworld.com, 2012).

The festival runs from September 19-23rd, 2012 in New York City. Check out the site to purchase tickets for “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty”, festival schedule, other screenings and advance tickets, and general information.

In other news, check out this dope article in Paper Magazine to find out Nance’s thought process behind the film and how it relates to Frank Ocean’s new record, Channel ORANGE.

Welcome to the 15th edition of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” As Filmmaker is poised to enter its 20th year covering the art, business and practice of independent film, we remain excited and rejuvenated by the creative achievements and career potential of today’s emerging filmmakers. Amidst talk of collapsing business models, it’s downright inspiring to profile filmmakers whose proactivity knows no bounds. The explorations of the filmmakers on this list span their communities, the globe and the web as they find new ways to make great work as well as names for themselves. Read more…

.

The final version of the poster for “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” was designed and created by Stephanie C. Matthews and the movie’s director Terence Nance. Check out more from Stephanie C. Matthews here.

For those of you that are in the Greensboro area your chance to see the film “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” is upon you. The film will show  on Thursday, July 19, at 7pm at the Weatherspoon Art Museum on the campus of The University of North Carolina Greensboro. For more details on the screening you can visit The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s website.

Terence Etc’s ( the band of director Terence Nance) rocked the crowd at the Soul of Brooklyn (SoBK) on June 23, 2012. Along with rocking the crowd with their “sultry and classic songs” the lead singer of the band Terence Nance screened is film “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty.” For more information about the SoBK week check out the website.

As AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY makes it way around the festival circuit, people can’t help but notice the raw energy the film brings to the table…or in this instance, the big screen. But even before they purchased a ticket to a screening, what moved them to actually want to see the film in the first place? I’m sure word of mouth or press and publicity got the job done, but sometimes that just might not be enough and that is when THE ART OF THE MOVIE TRAILER comes in hand. It takes skill to condense an entire film into a visual synopsis, highlighting just enough interesting points to leave the viewer hungry for more and let me tell you…Terence Nance got it right!  If you haven’t peeped the trailer of AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY, check out this great review that gives praise to the art form (because trailers need love too) and showcases the film along with a few others that also got it right. If you like what you see, pass it along so others can be hype about it, and then go buy a ticket to your nearest screening. Don’t act as if a really dope movie trailer didn’t have you counting down the days til it hit theaters or updating your Facebook/Twitter statuses about movie plans that weekend…well let us have that effect on you too.

The University of Iowa’s screening of An Oversimplification of Her Beauty on Saturday, July 7 was a success as expected. Terence Nance and James Bartlett went back to their roots as alumni to the University and its Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) and McNair Scholars Program to present the film, share in a public discussion, and take a stroll down memory lane with Horace Porter, F. Wendell Miller Professor of English and American Studies and Departmental Executive Officer of African American Studies, Diana Bryant, Director of SROP and McNair Scholars Program, and Richard Brent Turner, Professor of African American Religious History.

“An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” will be shown at the University of Iowa’s Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) and McNair Scholars Program. It will be a free screening on this Saturday, July 7 at 4:30pm. Director Terence Nance and Producer James Bartlett are both alumni of the SROP program. For more information on this screening check out the University of Iowa’s site.

Recently Shawn Peters – who has collaborated with Terence Nance on different works such as Blitz The Ambassador’s “Something To Believe” video, “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty,” and more recently “Triptych for Afropunk Films” — talked with Life and Times (Jay-Z’s website) on his career and some of his upcoming work. Check out the Life and Times interview here.

Missed your chance at a sneak peak of “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty”, the debut feature of the Brooklyn-based up and comer Terence Nance? Well, not to worry…Thursday, August 9th, 2012 at 7pm, The Brooklyn Museum is hosting a film screening of the innovative, live action/animation mixed take on his somewhat complicated love story. For more information about the event and everything Brooklyn Museum, check out the site (simply because it’s a dope venue…especially on Target First Saturday) and we’ll see you there! 

Click here to view the embedded video.

An Oversimplification of Her Beauty will be showing at the Traverse City Film Festival in Traverse City, Michigan. The Film Festival described the piece as “discover[ing] cinematic nirvana” and the director  Terence as “wholly original” and “insightful” and crediting him with the ability to “restore your faith in the idea that both art and storytelling capabilities of the cinematic medium have yet to be fully explored.”

The film will play at the Dutmers Theatre from August 3, 2012 – August 4, 2012, the times are 12:00pm and 9:15pm on August 3rd and 9:30pm on August 4th. For more details visit the Traverse City Film Festival website.

Terence Nance is in L.A. for a hot minute: the LAFilmFest is screening his elaborate, soul-searching feature debut An Oversimplification of Her Beauty. He looks like a party with his chunky fro, bold fashion risks and lethal-distance smile. But there’s something reserved about him—his choice of words is often bookish and there’s a sense that he needs to push through a certain shyness to confide his thoughts about himself and his work. Read more here…

“Terence Nance’s debut narrative “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” has impressed film festival audiences for its similarly low-budget animation used to reflect his inner feelings about a decaying romance.” – Indiewire

Visit Indiewire to read more about the new era of Pixar and the responsibility of independent animators to keep animation alive.

“Popping off the screen with explosive style and energy, director and star Terence Nance adapts and expands his previous short film like a musician remixing and improving a classic song.”

See the LA Film Fest’s write up on “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” and other great films worth checking out here.

“I don’t know if I should call it his (Terence Nance’s) *next* film, or his follow-up to his feature film debut, An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty, but I’ll say that if you live in New York City, you should be all over this, tomorrow night, at the Brooklyn Museum. The gist: On MAY 24th @ BROOKLYN MUSEUM, Afro-punk pictures presents The Triptych (Dir. Terence Nance, Dir. of Photography Shawn Peters, Co Dir. Barron Claiborne), in association with Weeksville Heritage Center.” Read more here…

JOMO FRAY JOINS THE @OFHERBEAUTY TEAM!

Today, we welcome Jomo Fray - a new addition to the production team here at Media MVMT. Jomo was born in Worcester, MA and graduated with honors from Brown University earning his degree in Africana Studies and Political Theory. He has worked in various areas of the entertainment industry – from entertainment law to broadcasting. His film “Brixton Shepshed: Behind the Lens” was awarded best writing in the 48-hour Ivy Film Festival and his documentary “Freedom is” meditates on different conceptions of freedom and was accepted for the Red Carpet Film Festival at Chapman University. He is currently living in Brooklyn, NY. Welcome Jomo!

STILL WANT TO SUPPORT?

Think you missed the chance to support our Kickstarter campaign? We’re still accepting donations to cover festival submission fees and travel costs for cast and crew to represent the film. Support us here by donating to our Paypal account using the following email address: media@mvmt.com. If you can’t support monetarily, we accept well wishes, words of encouragement, and hugs. Don’t forget to share our good news with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter!

Thanks again for your ongoing support. More updates to come!

In Solidarity,
Chanelle Pearson, Associate Producer
“An Oversimplification of Her Beauty”
Media MVMT + Team

“If you don’t believe in magic after watching these three previews, go see your doctor.”

To read more on the series please visit ACCRA [dot] ALT.

“Traveling through the layers of the heart, peeling back the dizziness of lust, catapulting you into the cauldron of desire and of heartache, and ultimately; obsessively exploring the self-reflection that grows and spreads like wildfire as Terrance falls in love with his brilliantly bold friend Namik, who for reasons of fateful circumstance will never be more than an enigma, this is a film bursting with inspiration and passion.”

To read the full article please visit Socially Superlative.

KALW contributor Kevin Robinson sat down with Terence Nance to discuss How Do You Feel, the short film that lead to to feature An Oversimplification of Her Beauty.

“The movie is goddess worship in a certain way. It is a celebration of the women in my life and how they have shaped me. It is how they have shaped the women in my future, the women that will be in my life. I think that is important in your emotional development as a male.” – Terence Nance

To read the full article and/or listen to the interview please visit the KALW’s website.

“At once intimate and publicly self-aware, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty uses editing to emphasize the introspective nature of the film’s message.”

Read the Baristanet article about the An Oversimplification of Her Beauty screening at the Montclair Film Festival.

The Bold Italic – San Francisco asks director Terence Nance a few questions before he makes his way to the Bay for the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival. Check out what he has to say here!

Pamela Cohn interviewed Terence Nance for Still in Motion. She wrote:

“His debut feature is about a young man’s love for a young woman, a woman who also happens to be his very close friend—a vérité documentary-feature narrative-animation-film-within-a-film (got that?).”

Read the full interview here.

Terence Nance introduces An Oversimplification of Her Beauty at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.  An Oversimplification of Her Beauty also screened during Sundance London. 

Photo via Sundance Institute Archives 

“Visually, this film is stunningly beautiful. The cinematography of the live action is intimate as the relationship depicted hopes to be. The animation is a gorgeous and colorful cornucopia. You can see the vulnerability of the hopeful lover and his charming sense of humor at the scenario.”

Visit Lite 103.7 to read the complete review.

Shadow and Act interviewed Terence Nance as part of the “Finding the New Black” series. Read Terence’s reflections on making the film, black masculinity, his expectations for the film and future projects featuring “The Swarm” here.

On Saturday, 4/24 AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY had its New York City premiere at the prestigious film festival, New Directors New Films. Screenings took place at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center and at MoMA. The venues were packed and there was nothing but love for cast and crew. Brooklyn, we saw you.

Here are a few pictures from our special night at MoMA, including the Q&A session  with writer and director Terence Nance.

If you have any pictures from either screenings, share them with us at media@mvmt.com!

A DALLAS SON COMES HOME +

NEW YORK CITY PREMIERE

Family! We have so much exciting news to share with you! Our work certainly didn’t end in Park City, UT at Sundance. The production team has been working 24/7 trying to get as many people as possible to experience this film. All of our hard work and your unwavering support continues to pay off. We are extremely proud to announce that “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” will screen in 5 American and 2 International cities – all in the next 6 weeks!

Beginning this Saturday (3/24), “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” will have its New York City premiere at New Directors / New Films followed by the 36th annual Cleveland International Film Festival. The film then heads West to screen at the Ashland Independent Film Festival in Ashland, Oregon.

Writer, director, and lead actor Terence Nance comes home to represent the film at the 2012 Dallas International Film Festival before going overseas for the Sundance London Film and Music Festival. The team screens the film at another American and European film festival but we can’t announce which ones just yet. But know this – they’re pretty major. Check out the festival details below:

New Directors / New Films - New York, NY
March 21 – April 1, 2012
Buy tickets here: Saturday, 3/24 at 4:15PM
Buy tickets here: Monday, 3/26 at 9:00PM

Cleveland International Film Festival - Cleveland, OH
March 22 – April 1, 2012
Friday, 3/30 at 9:00PM
Saturday, 3/31 at 2:15PM

Ashland Independent Film Festival - Ashland, OR
April 12-16, 2012
Thursday, 4/12 at 12:10PM
Friday, 4/13 at 9:40AM
Saturday, 4/14 at 3:10PM
Sunday, 4/15 at 6:10PM
Monday, 4/16 at 9:10PM

Dallas International Film Festival - Dallas, TX
April 12-22, 2012
Screening Times – TBA

Sundance London Film and Music Festival - London, United Kingdon
April 26-29, 2012
Screening Times – TBA

INTERNSHIP AVAILABLE!

The production team for “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty” is looking for a dynamic intern to support the film with design and administrative responsibilities. See the full internship description here.

STILL WANT TO SUPPORT?

Think you missed the chance to support our Kickstarter campaign? We’re still accepting donations to cover festival submission fees and travel costs for cast and crew to represent the film. You can still support us by donating via Paypal account. Simply click here, follow the 3 easy steps, and donate to the following email address: embassy@mvmt.com. If you can’t support monetarily, we accept well wishes, words of encouragement, and hugs. Don’t forget to share our good news with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter!

We truly appreciate your support and we’re so excited to have you with us on this amazing journey. More updates to come!

In Solidarity,

Production Team

“An Oversimplification of Her Beauty”

For years, the Cleveland International Film Festival has spotlighted diversity through a wide array of films about minorities, gays and lesbians, oppressed women and people willing to stand up for social-justice causes. Starting Thursday, as the 36th festival kicks off at Tower City Cinemas, the emphasis will be on filmmakers.

Thanks to a three-year grant of $150,000 from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the festival has an expansive series focusing on the African diaspora with nine directors representing African-Americans, Africans, Afro-Europeans and black Canadians. Read more…

Media MVMT is looking for a dynamic intern interested in various aspects of media production. Media MVMT is a Brooklyn-based film production company focusing on both short and feature-length projects. The intern will be assisting the Design and Production Coordinator with various administrative and design responsibilities including, but not limited to: website maintenance, graphic design, transcoding, filing, and day-to-day company errands.

The intern will be part of a team working on “An Oversimplification of Her Beauty,” a feature-length narrative film that has premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and will screen at several other domestic and international film festivals. We are seeking candidates who are problem-solvers, independent workers, and who can learn new technical skills quickly and efficiently. Familiarity with one or several of the following programs is highly preferred: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, WordPress, FinalCut Pro, After Effects.

This is an unpaid internship. School credits available. 10-15 hours per week.

Please send a resume to media@mvmt.com.

Imagine a self-indulgent, self-conscious, live-action romance exploring the pangs of unrequited young love in Brooklyn today. What a lame premise. Now imagine it deftly executed through animation, claymation puppetry, cut-cut paper sculptures, and a slew of other visual techniques by a filmmaker who possesses both the playful artfulness of Michel Gondry and the formal aestheticism of Milton Glaser. Oooh, there’s a combination of talents you couldn’t have predicted would fuse in a bluesy, free form, full-tilt, gabby-to-the-point-of exasperating and utterly original movie-movie. You don’t get David Foster Wallace but you get echoes of William Faulkner and a healthy dose of Louise Erdrich with passages read from her novel [Bingo Palace]. Read more…

You’re not supposed to begin an essay with a digression, but since the film I’m about to write about is a deceptive concatenation of digressions, it somehow seems appropriate to break the unspoken rule. Read more…

Check out our first round of photographs from Sundance FF by Terence’s Instagrammy iphone:

I’m back and armed with memories of the moments my life got changed. Will you indulge me as I address the highlights? I’ll actually focus on one day, because during this day there was an odd series of highlights that scrambled my grey matter and re-made me into a whole – new – guy.

January – twenty – seventh was an early morning because I was invited to sit on a Cinema Café panel moderated by John Nein, with fellow filmmakers Benh Zeitlin and Marialy Rivas. Ben made Beasts of the Southern Wild, which literally jumped inside my left ventricle and made my filmmaking heart continue to beat.

Marialy made Young and Wild, which aside from making want to be a teen girl in Chile, excited me in ways that are probably not super appropriate to talk about on this blog. I can’t really get into the details of the panel because hopefully Sundance will post video of it soon. What I am very excited about is the fact that I now know these two artists and we know each other’s work. I’m in debt to the festival for fostering an environment where artists can walk away with new artist friends.

AFTER THAT I went to the Sundance ASCAP Café, Sundance’s premiere music venue. I was lucky enough to perform my music there a few days before. I went back to the green room during the lineup on the 27th, my plan being to meet one of the musicians performing that day. I was trying to meet Flying Lotus, my favorite musician right now. Myself, my brother Nelson – Mandela, and one of my DP’s Matthew Bray were successful. It was great connecting with – let me re-iterate – my favorite musician since Stevie Wonder. Ironically his name is also Steve.

(Random thought: The score from Beasts of the Southern Wild was perfect, but I want to curate a “Cine-Concert” during which Flying Lotus does a live score for the film. I’d love to see what he brings to it.)

I didn’t see many movies at Sundance but the ones I saw changed my life, each in a specific way. I saw Middle of Nowhere after leaving the music café. I can’t express how proud I was of Ava after watching the film. It is truly an accomplishment and like Beasts an EXTREMELY refreshing look at Black culture. I was lucky enough to meet Ava at the festival and this triumph couldn’t have happened to a more gracious, deserving, and hard working woman.

January 27th 2012 may go down as the greatest day of all time. I may have to wait for marriage or some children to top it.

I screened my film for the last time at Sundance on the 28th, It was the end of a great run and the audience response was maybe the best of the festival. I must thank Sundance for the opportunity that changed everything, especially the programmers, coordinators, and volunteers. It was a great way to introduce my first feature film to the world and I will never forget the experience.

I also MUST thank Filmmaker Magazine and IFP. I am a proud alum of the IFP Narrative Rough Cut Lab and without the Lab experience I would not have finished the film. There would be no Sundance, Rotterdam, or subsequent release, just some video on a few G-RAID’s so thank you Amy, Rose, Scott, Gretchen, and all my fellow ’08 alums for your support in the long road to getting this thing done.

Also I’d like to thank my wonderful cast and crew: Cat Miles, Chanelle Pearson, James Bartlett, Nelson-Mandela Nance, Andrew Corkin, Matthew Bray, Shawn Peters, Hannah Buck, Namik Minter, Talibah Newman, MoCADA, Shanté, Shantrelle, EVERYBODY love ya’ll.

Till the next time. ONTO ROTTERDAM! (who has the greatest logo/laurels of all time)

Roya Rastegar at the Huffington Post lists An Oversimplification of Her Beauty as her #1 film at the Sundance Film Festival this year! “Selected from over 2,000 submissions, this year’s American fiction films not only gauge the vitality of independent filmmaking in the U.S., but also act as a barometer for our national mindset. In current times of civil unrest, economic injury, and political failure, we depend on love — in all its complexity and even through untenable circumstances — to keep ourselves human. Here are the top 10 films that cannot be missed in the coming year.” Read more…

“It’s officially Oscar season in America and as a guy with an intense appreciation for film, I can’t help but be a little reflective around this time. Recently, “black cinema” or movies that feature stories with predominantly black casts, have been the talk of Tinseltown. Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are gracefully making their award show rounds for their work in The Help. George Lucas & co. guilted us all into seeing Red Tails under the premise that the future of black cinema rested upon its success. And then there’s An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, an independent film by Terence Nance currently making its way through the indy film circuit, receiving rave reviews along the way. Of all the films I’ve seen over the past twelve months, The Help was the most insulting, Red Tails was the most entertainingly disappointing and An Oversimplification of Her Beauty was, by far – the best. All of this brings me to the nagging question I’ve had as conversations around these films have raged all year: What’s wrong with black cinema?” Read more…

Check out this Santa Barbara Independent interview with director Terence Nance!

“This multimedia feature mixes film, animation, puppetry, home video, Japanese carpentry, book reviews, and more to explore loves both lost and could-be. Along the way, it seriously messes with linear storytelling, turns honest self-analysis into public display, and sets a new bar for what the next generation of “art” films might be” Read more…

Sundance 2012 is in the wind, but Stephen and Patrick from the National Film Society are back with another interview they filmed during the festival. This time out, the duo sit down with director Terence Nance (An Oversimplification of Her Beauty) and actress Namik Minter. Minter and Nance, who spent over half a decade readying Oversimplification, are good sports, answering Stephen and Patrick’s questions about their favorite part of being in love, their least favorite part of being in love, and how to get into Sundance parties. Watch video…

‘An Oversimplification of Her Beauty’ featured in Vulture Magazine’s Day Seven list of Sundance 2012 Films: “One of the smallest films at Sundance this year is also one of the best. A stunning meditation on the way we fret and obsess over the details of a relationship — whether it’s in its nascent stages, at its height, or has already ended – Nance’s film is a heartbreaking, mesmerizing journey through the romantic mind. At times highly structured, at times seemingly wild with stylistic abandon, it’s an intoxicating recreation of what it feels like to be in love. See it, but beware: It might rip you apart.” Read more…

The Sundance Project 2012 continues with an interview with Terence Nance and Namik Minter, the director/actor and actress behind AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY.  The film uses live action and animation to tell the story of Terence and Namik’s relationship.  The thing is – Namik didn’t know that’s what the film was about when they were filming. Watch the video here…

Watching Terence Nance’s Oversimplification Of Her Beauty is like being talked through the contents of a shoebox, each item another memento of The One That Got Away. Live action, animation, claymation reenactments, direct-to-camera address by him, on-camera interviews of her by him, blurry, amateur footage shot by her of him, all guided by a formally written voice over, delivered with somber, staccato clarity by an anonymous older man. Descriptions and depictions of other girls slide in and out of the narrative, intercut with shots of The One, whose name is Namik. Read more…

The Sundance Institute will, for the first time, present live music nightly in the Park City, Utah, art gallery space converted into the ASCAP Music Café concert hall for afternoon performances. At least two musicians will perform nightly, a mix of singers with music in films being shown at the festival and composers. Read more…

It’s interesting how something like break dancing has made it’s way into something as western as American Apparel.

Movie Review Commentary: Beats, Rhymes and Life the Travels of a Tribe Called Quest

I saw Beats, Rhymes and Life the Travels of a Tribe Called Quest and I realized that what is passed off as a documentary has become so formal and thus formulaic that the whole paradigm of what one should expect from a documentary, photographically and narratively has got to be changed. There was no reason for such positive Black story to be so mishandled (from an aesthetic perspective– not even getting into how Michael Rappaport did them dirty on the business side).

A Tribe Called Quest is one of the Black community’s cultural treasures and it was sad to see them treated as if they were only worthy of a soap opera that didn’t even go in depth into what makes them important– THEIR MUSIC. Literally half the movie was about the beef between Phife and Tip, which doesn’t even seem to exist anymore. Plus it looked like it was shot on a phone.

The animation was dope though, so props to whoever did that. This film was also an excellent reminder of ATCQ’s genius and a reminder about how we don’t have anything like that anymore in Black music from the male perspective. We don’t have male Black musicians pushing the FORM en masse like it used to be.

Gotta push the form

I recently watched Art 21, a show about contemporary artists. William Kentridge was on and he was talking about how he decided never to write a script or storyboard or really prepare in any formal way for making his films (they are animated) and I thought about how much preparation, planning, scripting, concepting, story boarding and just life and creative energy has gone into HWUF. On the other end of the process, when the art is done, you can’t actually feel any of that preparation. No one knows or cares…you as the artist don’t even care.

So I think after this film is done I’m gonna improvise a feature film, shoot it on film and do all the edits in camera. What you will see, is the film played out as it was shot, the way William Kentridge approached the animation. I’m pretty sure I will do that, it will take about a month I think.

I’m now hyper interested in working fast.