Smithsonian
Folklife Festival

The Black Girl

Hand Games Project

Created during the 2019 Folklife Festival, I created this piece with a 2 person team underneath me that helped showcase the message of the project. The Black Girl Hand Games Project started and co-founded by Onrae LaTeal, hopes to create safe and inclusive spaces for black women in DC where they can learn concepts like safe touch and identity by using hand games from our childhood. Filmed with a Sony A7, Canon T2i and a Canon C100, I was able to color match and color correct the color variance between these three models. This was edited on Adobe Premiere and the entire piece was shot in a single day during the festival. Audio had to be heavily mixed to reduce and remove a large scale Go-Go music workshop in the background of the interview. The final product became the most viewed video for 2019’s Folklife Festival created by MCTV.

Malick “DOPE” Drummer

Drumming and Percussion are a personal interest of mine and I was excited to produce this piece for the 2019 festival. Malick “DOPE” Drummer has been a Washington D.C. staple for more than a decade. This piece was filmed on a Canon C100, Sony A7 and a Canon T2i. This piece highlights both the importance of keeping cultural Go-Go spaces and the importance of imparting that knowledge on the youth. Malick “DOPE” Drummer has gone on to tour the world with performances in Japan, Europe and has appeared on America’s Got Talent.

Ruby Ibarra

Racial Reflections and Persistence

I was lucky enough to work with the talented Ruby Ibarra on why she writes her music and her call for more diversity in all forms of music. This conscious, proud Filipina hip-hop artist shared what drives the messages in her music. I provided the B-roll shots for this piece and ran the cameras during the interviews. I worked closely with the producer to execute the vision and impression the producer wanted to impart on the viewer. Filmed on a Canon C100, Sony A7 and a Canon T2i.