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The gods of Langston Hughes and Gladys Bentley be praised!--we made it! Thank you to everyone who contributed, shared, and supported us over the last 30 days. We had some extremely generous backers, and the excitement is building over this project.
We now have a stretch goal: $12,500
The total budget of the film is estimated at $20K. $10K was the bottom line amount we needed to raise to shoot festival-ready footage. Kickstarter fees and rewards will account for about 15% of that $10K.
There will be many more costs, including editing, music, sound mixing, and color correction. None of that has been included in this initial effort at fund-raising. Our directors, the Gossfields, will be calling in all the favors they can to shoot a visually lush scene on a shoestring budget, but raw footage remains raw footage without the money to turn it into a film.
And here's the perk that backers of $25+ get if we make our new goal!
The digital download of the Shoga Films short,"Take the Gay Train," charts the progress of gay sensibility during the Harlem Renaissance through a poetic use of historical stills, contemporary filmmaking, scholarly accuracy, and music of the period. Each cultural artifact is prefaced by an explanation putting what follows in historical context. Part 1, ‘Shadow,’ features a poem by writer and illustrator, Richard Bruce Nugent. Part 2, ‘Smoke, Lilies and Jade,’ dramatizes an infamous Nugent short story of the same name, the first gay romance in American literature. Part 3, ‘Rockland Palace,’ recreates a highly stylized version of the period drag balls hosted in Harlem’s dance hall of the same name as fundraisers for the Odd Fellows Society. Traveling on the Gay Train, the passenger makes stops along the stages of an emerging gay identity: from hidden anguish, to first kiss, to a fully blown camp culture which feels contemporary 80 years later.
Please continue to spread the word. Thank you!
Meet our directors!
That's right! Deondray and Quincy LeNear Gossfield came on-board as our directors 2 weeks ago, and it's clearly a match made in heaven. See their bio below under "Team." And watch Philipson's interview of the Gossfields (including a description of their marriage on the Grammies -- off topic but hella entertaining) on the replay of our Kickstarter Live event on this same page.
Black queers of the Harlem Renaissance have a rich, important history to share, and we need your help to make sure the story gets told.
“Congo Cabaret” is part of an ambitious longer documentary project that centers around the contributions of gays and lesbians to the Harlem Renaissance. It is the most expensive of the production pieces that will bring to life novels and poems written by gays and lesbians, featuring gays and lesbians. This short music film is an adaptation of an episode from gay writer Claude McKay’s then-bestselling novel, Home to Harlem.
The Scene
Set in a small nightclub, this scenario presents the little-known figure of a “wolf” (a masculine gay man) and features the performance of a Bessie Smith song, “Foolish Man Blues,” which refers in a joking manner to “a mannish acting woman and a skippin’ twistin’ woman-acting man.” We envision a visually lush representation of the Harlem nightclub scene, involving
- period costumes
- set design
- accomplished actors (veteran gay Black actor, Darryl Stephens, has already signed on)
- a raft of extras
- a blues singer and her dancing partner
- three musicians
The Gossfields – Artist, Activist, Deondray and Quincy LeNear Gossfield are the creators of the award-winning film anthology series, The DL Chronicles, The Chadwick Journals, and The DL Chronicles RETURNS; recipient of the 2008 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Television Anthology. Noted in 2013 by BET as one of the leading Black gay power couples, the creative team have also developed and produced TV series such as Bring Your Own Talent (Lifetime), Kocktails with Khloé (FYI) with Khloe Kardashian, The Zane Chronicles (HBO/Cinemax), Face Off(Syfy), Family Dance Off (ABC), Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew (MTV), The Sing Off(NBC), Make Your Mark Shake It Up Dance Off(The Disney Channel), and The Laugh Factor (CW). They made history when they were married at 56th Annual Grammy Awards during Macklemore’s performance of Same Love, featuring Madonna and Mary Lambert, officiated by Queen Latifah.
Robert Philipson – Director, Producer. Robert P. has directed 2 music videos and 6 documentaries on various aspects of the Jewish and Black LGBT experience. His first music video, “Ma Rainey’s Lesbian Licks,” played in over 20 film festivals. His latest documentary, “Body and Soul,” was recently picked up for distribution by 7th Arts Releasing.
Robert Elcock -- Assistant Director. Producer and director of music videos, advertising and documentaries, Robert E. employs the communicative power of film to promote products, spread ideas and defy stereotypes. Elcock exposes a range of audiences to well-rounded, dynamic representations of local talent, women, people of color and the LGBT community.
Darryl Stephens – Actor. Darryl is a prominent Hollywood personality whose breakout role as the lead character for the Black series Noah's Arc put him in the forefront of gay visibility. He has worked in numerous film and TV projects since then.
Marc Smolowitz – Consulting Producer. Marc is a multi-award winning director, producer, and executive producer with more than 20 years of experience across all aspects of the entertainment and media business. His career focus has been powerful social-issue filmmaking across all genres. His long list of credits include films that have screened at top-tier festivals including Sundance, Berlinale, AFI Docs, IDFA, Tokyo, and Melbourne, among others.
Joshua Burton – Social Media Guru. Joshua is a comedian, political activist, and writer in the bay area. Between hosting two podcasts and tweeting like crazy, she also writes content for the local chapter of the transgender community group The Degenderettes. Through her writing and performing, she works on making queer people as visible as possible.
Kendall Kanoa Kukahiko - Producer. Kendall Kanoa Kukahiko is a line producer and production manager working in film and television. Her previous credits include multiple projects for the Jim Henson Company, UPM on the Fusion Network comedy No, You Shut Up, feature films, and dozens of commercials and new media projects.
Chad Kukahiko - Consultant. A Hawaiian writer, director, performer and producer, Chad has spent over half his life performing in more than fifty plays - including two years traveling the world with STOMP - and several dozen film and television appearances. Chad has since moved behind the camera and as the COO of L.A. film collective We Make Movies, he helps filmmakers like Robert make their own films.
Because the Harlem Renaissance was so much about art, literature, dance, and theater, I simply didn’t want to point out, for example, that “Claude McKay, a gay writer of Jamaican origin, wrote a best-selling novel that specifically included gay characters.” How much more interesting to adapt the scene in question! Those who have seen Dee Rees’ HBO biopic Bessie, about Bessie Smith, know how compelling an artistic presentation of past songs within their historical context can be – both instructive and beautiful. That’s what we’re going for, and we're confident that the creativity will really shine. As far as I know, this integration of literary adaptations is somewhat uncommon in the documentary genre. Your donation will help us explore new territory in the genre's form AND provide viewers with a luscious experience of Black queers in the fabulous era of the Renaissance – all on a shoestring budget, of course.
THANK YOU
Thank you so much for your support -- through donations, encouragement, and spreading the word. The creation of this film would not be possible without you.
If you would like to support this project over and above whatever you can donate, here's what you can do:
1. Invite Your Community to Support!
- Send this link to 5+ people who you care about and encourage them to support the production of this film and future projects
2. Spread the Word on Social Media
- Use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or the platform of your choice to promote the project until the campaign ends on May 26
Again, thank you for your support!
Riesgos y desafíos
Even at $10,000, this project will be challenging to complete. There are period costumes, set design, audio recording as well as video recording. However, we've worked miracles on small budgets before, and when it's over, this will look like a million bucks. Also, we'll be shooting in L.A. for the first time, even though we're based in the Bay Area, but that's where our talent and much of our technical support lies. So it's off to new adventures.
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