Alpha Bruton, lead artist, and the Phantom Gallery Chicago is my curatorial practice. I'm collaborating with composer and musician Reggie Nicholson. This project is designed as an intensive experience.We are creating a work with an interdisciplinary approach and will present the final product during community programming. This project occurs in and around the Bronzeville community, collecting sounds from the horizontal landscape to produce the Soundscape Tapestry.
Featured Speaker: Ife Olatunji
Topic: Collective Voices Ethnographic Film Festival Preview
Olatunji is a visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, and film critic. Born into a family of artists and activists, she graduated from Syracuse University with a BA in Anthropology ('06) and a minor in photography and African American History. Ife completed her MA in Visual Anthropology from the University of Manchester, UK ('10) after creating a short documentary on daily life for girls in Rajasthan, India. She has since lived in Chicago, teaching documentary and film production to youth as young as 6 to adults at community centers and The Art Institute of Wisconsin. She has been a media educator with Facets Multimedia for the past four years, teaching media literacy, narrative editing, and documentary filmmaking. As a Diverse Voices in Documentary fellow with Kartemquin, Ife developed her own short observational film and worked with others to produce and edit their projects. Ife has continued to work with The Community Film Workshop, Reel Black Filmmakers, and Collected Voices: Chicago's Ethnographic Film Festival. An advocate for diversity and inclusion, Ife believes race and gender should not be categories of film festivals but rather the very topics film seeks to explore: www.collectedvoicesfilmfest.com.
CINEMA
N'spire Entertainment Inc. is the film and video production subsidiary of Raymond A. Thomas Studios.
In 2000, Raymond A. Thomas wrote, directed, and produced his first film project, 12 MINUTES. The 30-minute film short was an official selection to over 20 film festivals worldwide, winning numerous awards and honors. The film, which deals with the issues of mass incarceration and the death penalty, continues to be used in community arts engagement efforts with screenings in correctional facilities nationwide. Thomas has written over a half dozen feature screenplays, several of which have been optioned by major motion picture studios. In 2013, Thomas won an EMMY for serving as an associate producer on the documentary COLORBLIND: Rethinking Race, which aired on television station WYCC in Chicago.
Lavon N. Pettis, project manager for the 2023 Phantom Gallery Chicago Tactical Urbanism Film Series.
A Published ethnographer/researcher with program development, piloting, pre and post-evaluation, and background for hire. Civic and community engagement project manager. Best practices, technical savvy, and additional perks include negotiation. Skills include but are not limited to infrastructure setup, operations, lead planning, special events, capacity building, arts, and entertainment. Career experience includes public/social policy strategist, state director, sponsorship procurement, and fundraising.
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