Filmmaker Showcase: Saturday Documentaries_March 9

FILMMAKERSHOWCASEOPENSCREENING

DOCUMENTARY ProgramGuide

March 9, 2024

Screening 1: 12P |

Screening 2: 2P

The Nō Studios Filmmaker Showcase is an opportunity for local andregionalfilmmakerstoscreenatNōStudiosfreeofchargeas well as a chance for audiences to witness work that might not otherwise be available for viewing. In addition to the screenings, filmmakerswillintroducetheirfilmsand answerquestions

The Showcase will coincide with our annual Oscar Night Watch Party scheduled for Sunday, March 10th. Films will be screened in the days leading to Oscar Night and we are inviting filmmakers to joinusforthewatchevent,

AUDIENCE DISCLAIMER

The Nō Studios Filmmaker Showcase is an open call platform. NōStudiosisnotcuratingthisprogram.

Giventhecomplexityoftheprogram,therewillbenorefunds forticketsales.

Theremaybechangestotheprogramschedulepriortothe event.

TheShowcaseisnotafilmfestival.Thereisnojuryoraward system.

NōStudioshasmadeadeliberateefforttobeinclusiveby welcomingfilmmakersofallbackgroundsandexperience.

Thefilmsincludedinourprogrammaycontainmaturesubject matterordifficulttopicsthatmightbetriggeringoroffensiveto some.

Theparticipatingfilmsandfilmmakersdonotnecessarily representtheviewsofNōStudios.

Documentary

Wang

1hr4mins

PARTICIPATING FILMMAKERS

+ FILM DESCRIPTIONS

MARY FREEMAN

Zorba The Buddha

RT 17:00

GENRE: Documentary

Mary Freeman is a devoted student of Ashtanga yoga and a Magdalene Priestess of the Rose Lineage She is a mother, artist, entrepreneur and human rights activist She is the founder of the Milwaukee Yoga Movement and the GRLSociety org, a society dedicated to supporting Divine sacred feminine power.

I wanted to explore a motif that triggers universal stress, Zorba the Buddha was filmed over a decade ago in Milwaukee, documenting the racial discrimination, and the use of the Cannabis plant..

WARREN MATSON

A Song Can Change A Life

RT: 28:20

GENRE: Documentary, Music, Diversity

Warren Matson is the City Producer of the Milwaukee 48 Hour Film Project. He Is saxophonist, preacher, father, realtor and filmmaker. Warren's passion of storytelling in all these endeavors is aimed at inspiring people with hope

WARREN MATSON

Every so often, an unexpected encounter occurs in our lives that lead to a bond of friendship that is “something other.” Meeting Joe West in September of 2017 performing at the Nashville Airport has been just that for me.

After finishing a set, Joe shared with me how his mom and dad were the first Black Country Western Duo. They recorded a couple of songs with the Bandsmen of Charlie Pride in 1967.

At 12 years old, Joe remembers going to a gig with them to Harrison AR which was notorious for KKK activity. He described how tense the atmosphere was when they first arrived to a surprised venue owner and audience who didn’t realize the recordings they heard on the radio was made by this young African American couple. Young Joe was shocked to see people at the end of the night hugging his parents and thanking them for their wonderful music. That experience helped in his formation of understanding how powerful music can be

A few months after our meeting, Joe shared with me the rest of the story. “My father and I were estranged from each other for many years” Joe recounted. “There were some hurtful things that happened that were hard for me to get over.” A growing conviction to forgive his father led him to write a song called Daddy. Going back home to Arkansas on vacation, Joe sang this new song. There was not a dry eye in the West house that day. “After I had finished, my father and I embraced each other and said for the first time as adult men, ‘I love you.’”

”A Song Can Change A Life” offers a universal call for reconciliation of broken relationships; from ethnicity to different ethnicity down to the intimate and personal level of father & son.

YINAN WANG

Decoupling 脱钩

RT: 1 hr 4 min

GENRE: Documentary

Yinan was born and raised in Beijing. After working on a number of ethnographic works in China he moved to the United States and spent a number of years in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Yinan is a filmmaker and photographer, working at the intersection of Chinese and American cultures His works always deals with the uncertainty and liquidity caused by his identity

As a transplant, continuously adopting, absorbing, and adjusting between where he grew up and where he is living generate an energy. This flux energy constantly sparks interests for his filmmaking and the way he is observing his immediate surrounding.

His works have aired on PBS and played at various venues including United States (US), Austria, Slovenia, Spain, and China. He was awarded the Cream City Cinema Emerging Voices Award by HBO in 2018. He was a fellow at the 74th University Film and Video Association 2020, and 67th Flaherty Film Seminar for 2022.

Still from Decoupling 脱钩

Y I N A N W A N G

This film centers on my mother, my daughter’s mother, and me. Decoupling is the story of a “Chinese” father as he navigates the breakdown of relations between China and the US and what that means for his own family. His trip to China is driven by the need to bring back his 3-year-old “American" daughter, who has been stranded in Beijing as a result of the recent separation – "decoupling" is the formal term – of the two countries.

In the course of his trip and its aftermath, this Chinese native, now residing in the American Midwest, reflects upon his personal journey as a member of a transnational migrant family Delving into the intricate challenges posed by questions of cultural identity, rising nationalism, and geopolitical tensions, Decoupling explores the profound distress experienced by families like his in this time of international schisms.