Raise it up for Liberty Travel!!

I have some incredibly exciting news. I almost can't believe it myself! Last week I had the pleasure to meet Billy McDonough,the President of Liberty Travel. My good friend Alexandra Barker, Specialist Business Leader of Liberty Travel was dining with him and she mentioned that I was working on my first feature. Of course I had some postcards on hand that I passed around and we started chatting about the progress of the film. I explained to them that I was fundraising to secure the funds to travel to Detroit and hire a crew to finish shooting the trailer so i could come back and raise the rest of the money to complete the film. Billy started asking me some very pointed questions and less than five minutes later informed me that Liberty Travel would be providing me with travel sponsorship to and from Detroit! I honestly couldn't believe it, it all happened so quickly that I thought maybe I was dreaming.

Until today when I got an email from Alex confirming that Liberty Travel is more than happy to donate my airfare and hotel accommodations. I was honestly floored and thought this meant that they would take care of my travel needs for one trip to go to Detroit and finish the trailer...and then they informed me that they would be sponsoring my travel for more than one trip! I truly feel as though I have hit the lottery! I have said it a million times but I have the best friends and support system that anyone could ask for! So from the bottom of my heart I just want to say Thank You one more time to Alexandra Barker and Billy McDonough. I am not sure what I have done to deserve such an incredible gift but thank you.

And on behalf of Ma Dukes, let's Raise It Up for Liberty Travel!!

With a little help from my friends...

Tomorrow is the big day, RAISE IT UP FOR MA DUKES officially goes into production and thanks to my incredible roster of friends I have assembled a fantastic crew for the first shoot. I feel honored to have so many great people on my team! Greg Boas and Peter Lau will be shooting the event, Jenile Brooks will be help out as a production assistant and task will be taking still photographs. Ma Dukes will be introduced at midnight, the anniversary of Dilla's birthday, and Questlove will perform immediately following her introduction. There are a lot of great people who will be surprising everyone by stopping through and it should be a really amazing event. Oh yeah, and Jimmy Fallon is shouting out the show tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon so I am pretty sure there will be an enormous turnout. Anyway thanks family for all of your support...I couldn't have done it without you.

Raise It Up For Ma Dukes

I just finished building a new website for the film so please check it out and spread the word! www.raiseitupformadukes.com I was fortunate enough to have some great friends help me out in the process, proofreading and editing the film description on the site. While a very special friend of mine task created a fantastic original graphic for the site and the marketing materials. We will be working on some original merchandise to use to help raise money to make the film, and I will have more to come on that soon. For now, thanks for all the support and please spread the word about the film and the website. I begin production on Saturday so hopefully I will be able to upload a clip for everyone to see in the next month.

Ma Dukes

For those of you who have never had the privilege of meeting Ma Dukes and who may not know how incredibly amazing she really is I thought I'd post one of Dilla's videos that she appears in. The video was shot only a few months before Dilla passed and just a few days after he was released from the hospital. Ma Dukes was never far from Dilla's side and at the time this video was created he was in rough shape. She was sitting on the bench keeping him company until his part was to be filmed and when it came time to shoot he told her to stay put...

The J Dilla Foundation

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As many know, Ma Dukes has withstood a long, frustrating legal battle with the Dilla Estate, administrated by a Los Angeles law firm, fighting since the Fall of 2006 for rights to her own son’s name and likeness, even for non-profit projects (the original incarnation of the J Dilla Foundation was forced into hiatus just months after its inception in 2006, the same year as his death). Finally, more than 3 years later, the Yancey family is pleased to report the re-structuring of the Dilla Estate with a new legal consult head in Los Angeles, and full cooperation of the Estate with the Foundation. In addition to suffering the stresses of the Estate and Foundation battles, Ma Dukes herself has been struggling physically with the same disease, Lupus, from which her son fell to, so this victory for her and the entire family is twice a relief.

The J Dilla Foundation will be comprised of a qualified and diverse team executing a range of both community and youth music programs, mentorships, partnerships with accredited music curricula with focus on Hip Hop, as well as a scholarship program. Parker states that there will be an annual university music scholarship awarded to one or more students attending schools with progressive music programs such as Berklee College of Music, Columbia University and the University of Michigan, among others.

The J Dilla Foundation also has an amazing Sound Board consisting of the cadre of musicians, producers, MCs and DJs that worked closely with Jay Dee over the course of his shortened, yet prolific, career. Not only will this crew provide insightful and inspiring sound bites about the music of J Dilla, but they will also serve as the other half of the committee that will judge J Dilla Foundation music scholarship submissions from applicants. This aspect of the Foundation indeed makes for a truly interactive operation, bridging the gap between the “real” or “street” sector and academia in music development. Notable members of the J Dilla Foundation Sound Board include acclaimed artists such as ?uestlove of The Roots, Erykah Badu, Q-Tip & Phifedawg of A Tribe Called Quest, Busta Rhymes, Pete Rock, Dwele, T3 of Slum Village, Big Tone, Madlib, DJ HouseShoes, J Rocc & Rhettmatic of The Beat Junkies, Peanutbutter Wolf of Stones Throw Records, the Mochilla crew, and more.

It's been a long time...

(copyright photo by Amy Peck)

A lot has happened since i posted my last update. Back in June I participated in a panel discussion for New York Women in Television and Film and Women Make Movies. The comprehensive, all-day seminar explored the diverse sources of funding available for independent film and video makers, including grants, television pre-sales and on-line communities. It was a great experience and I met a lot of really talented filmmakers. I also got some great ideas about fundraising from some of the incredibly talented filmmakers who participated in the event. After the panel I spoke at length with Women Make Movies founder Tracy Holder and coproducer of an American Masters biography of theater producer Joseph Papp. She raised $10,000 for her documentary by selling buttons. Needless to say I am now working with a very talented graphic designer who is helping me to design original merchandise to help fund my first feature documentary. More to come on that soon...

Just this month my fellow Profluence filmmakers received some excellent news regarding our first film Blind Faith: A Film About Seeing. The film won the honourable mention award at the 2010 Picture This Film Festival. The film will screen at the festival in Vancouver this February. This is our second award for the film, which won Best Soundtrack at the 2008 Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto. Blind Faith is actually available for viewing in it's entirety at Snag Films, an affiliate of IndieWIRE. Check it out here and please feel free to leave a comment and a rating! One of our subjects, Victorine Fludd, had her artwork featured in a recent exhibit at the University of California, Riverside and in a related Time Magazine article. You can view an online selection of some of the featured works from the exhibit here.

Finally, the photograph I included above was taken by a very talented photographer, Amy Peck, whom I met while filming at the United Nations. We were both there for the 15th Commemoration of the Rwanda Genocide. To date it was the most emotional shoot I have ever done. There were no dry eyes during the ceremony and many of the UN representatives broke down when addressing the crowd. UN Ambassador Susan Rice concluded her remarks by saying "We bow our heads to mark the memory of those who were slain. And we bow our heads to mark the sorrow of all who stood by."

Shadows of Guilt now playing online