Marcus Strickland - On My Mind
On My Mind" - Discussion and Q&A with the Creators
Columbia University’s ArtC and CUFP collaborated with VAEFF to host an online discussion and Q&A with “On My Mind” music video creators Marcus Strickland, Jennifer Galvin, and Petra Richterová. The event was moderated by Professor Ron Gregg from Columbia University.
Directors: Petra Richterova, Jennifer Galvin
Synopsis: With the questions of life on his mind, a saxophonist reunites on Bronx streets with his musician friends seeking solidarity while an ethereal being dances among them, taunting notions of love and summoning ancient wisdom. ON MY MIND is an abstract, Afro-cosmic film, aesthetically and symbolically grounded in African culture and New York history. Based on vanguard saxophonist and Blue Note recording artist Marcus Strickland’s latest track “On My Mind remix,” urbanscapes and spiritual objects bring artists into a rare, contemporary dialogue, reflecting the song’s timeless contemplation and resounding with mystical reverberation. Featuring Marcus Strickland, Bilal, Pharoahe Monch, Greg Tate, Ben Williams, EJ Strickland and Storyboard P.
Bios:
Born in Prague, Dr. Petra Richterová moved to New York City in 1996 to study photography with Frank Stewart and attend Hunter College. In 2004, Petra was awarded a scholarship to pursue graduate studies at Yale University, where she received her MA (2005), MPhil (2008), and PhD (2010) degrees specializing in the Art of Africa and its diaspora. She has worked in Cuba, Jamaica, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Morocco, and the US with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center; The Black Rock Coalition and their flagship band, Living Colour; the Cuban rumba ensemble Los Muñequitos de Matanzas; Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés; Moroccan Gnawa musician and healer Hassan Hakmoun; and hip hop dance duo Les Twins, among many others. In 2011, Petra was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in support of her research on the roots of AfroCuban dance. Petra is currently revising her award-winning doctoral thesis into a book manuscript, Rumba: A Philosophy of Motion (Duke University Press). Sound of Light, a book of her music photography and conversations with some of the world’s greatest artists, is also underway. Petra spends her time between New York and Savannah, where she is an Assistant Professor of African and African-American Art History at the Savannah College of Art and Design. More about Petra at petrarichterovaphoto.com and @petrarichterovaphotography.
Jennifer Galvin—Director, Producer, Writer.
In 2006, Dr. Jennifer Galvin founded reelblue, LLC – an independent film production and media company based in New York. A public health scientist by training turned internationally recognized storyteller, she has traveled the globe working as a director, producer, cinematographer, and writer. Commercial to indie, documentary to fiction, moving image to print – for Jennifer it all starts with a great story and a camera. Recent honors include being compared to a Swiss Army knife when named to GOOD Magazine’s GOOD 100, representing the vanguard of artists, activists, entrepreneurs, and innovators from over 35 countries making creative impact. Her latest feature documentary The Memory of Fish screened globally, centered an impact tour for American Rivers, and despite being a human-centered story was a Wildscreen Panda Award nominee—the highest accolade in the wildlife film and TV industry, dubbed the ‘Green Oscars’; she lost the award to Disney. She is currently in production on a feature documentary about kindness in America (The Antidote, 2020 release date) based at Radical Media and developing several narrative projects spanning fiction and nonfiction film. More about Jennifer at reelblue.net, jengalvin.com and @galvin_jen.
Marcus Strickland is a Blue Note recording artist. A Miami native, he is a virtuoso saxophonist, bass clarinetist, composer, beat maker and a producer. He is the CEO of his own music label, Strick Muzik, and he has released ten solo records up to this date. His band and concept project, ‘Twi Life’, deals with the connection and intersection between Jazz and Hip-Hop. Today, he has announced his new project of workshops called “Exchange Village”. We will link the website in the chat and on our website and we highly recommend checking it out.
Program: Color, Movement & Space – VAEFF 2020
