Art: It is Time, by Alex Duensing
Matters: A Rising
Matters: A Rising features 8 black people in the US and UK, aged between 17 and 70 discussing, via Zoom, their feelings about the 2020 Black Lives Matters protests. The conversations cover systemic racism, hopes for the future and ways of moving forward. Zoom footage is edited in with original footage of Harlem street-life and BLM protests plus other relevant public domain footage.
In the filmakers’ words:
Yolande Brener and Danielle Imara first worked simultaneously across the Atlantic in 2014 when they revised and self-published their memoirs, Imara’s Crack, and Brener’s Holy Candy. In 2019, they co-created the short film Y&I, conceived from opposite sides of the Atlantic, and performed in London in December of 2019. The following series of Y&I short videos they created have been widely published. Matters: A Rising is their first documentary work.
About the artist:
Alex Duensing. Graduate of William Paterson and Columbia? Yes. Ran for St. Petersburg, FL City Council? Yes. Won? No. Stopped Mayan Apocalypse on rooftop with performance art? Yup. Strange but nice fellow? Clearly. Able to create mechanical engines that run completely on the energy a person creates while appreciating a painting? On occasion.