Sean Mannion

Tag: i was there

  • Three Questions with Nicole Witte Solomon

    Three Questions with Nicole Witte Solomon

    Nicole on the set of Meme in January 2015
    Nicole on the set of Meme in January 2015

     

    Three questions is a new thing I decided to do because I like the people I work with and want to share more about them and what they do and what they care about. These brief interviews appear in my monthly newsletter (which you can subscribe to here) and I am republishing them to the blog. The following interview with filmmaker Nicole Witte Solomon was originally published in the December 2015 edition of the newsletter.

    Nicole served as our Art Director for Meme, helped me produce Beneath the Black Moon, I frequently work with as an instructor at the I Was There Film Workshops, and we are now business partners in 4MileCircus offering Social Media Management and Consulting Services. Here’s what she has to say about herself.

    What do you do?

    I write things–screenplays, essays, short stories, reported articles, cook books, but mostly emails–as well as direct films and videos. I’m moving more into producing more as well.

    I also freelance as an editor and consultant. My primary client right now is I WAS THERE Film Workshops, where I serve as the Communications Director. I Was There provides free, therapeutic filmmaking workshops to veterans, active duty service members and military families coping with Posttraumatic Stress. I also am also a film instructor at these workshops.

    Why do you do it?

    I work with I Was There because it’s rare to be able to get paid to do something you actually believe in. I have personally found filmmaking to be tremendously therapeutic, and I love sharing that with other people, and seeing the very real, dramatic shift that occurs within people who have been seriously wounded once they’ve been empowered with the tools to tell their own stories, on their own terms.

    I write/direct/produce things that I would like to see that don’t yet exist. I’m generally interested in amplifying less-heard perspectives and narratives, whether my own or other people’s. Also I have always just have a compulsion to create and share stories.

    What do you want to share?

    You can learn more about I Was There at http://iwastherefilms.org. My short horror film, Small Talk, is currently in festivals and should be available for home viewing in 2016–we’re on facebook, twitter and tumblr as SmallTalkMovie, and the website is smalltalkmovie.com. The “Joan of Arc” segment I directed for the anthology Bring Us Your Women will be made publicly available in the latter half of the year. You can watch it and the rest of the film on demand now, though.

    Also keep an eye out in 2016 new projects–a feature I wrote that will be produced/directed by Flavio Alves and is in preproduction, a short I co-wrote with Jeanette Sears called Happenstance that’s in post, a short I’m line producing for Christina Raia, a couple video projects for The Shondes that I’m directing, and several scripts I’m currently writing. Also a comic book that I’m writing with my friend Che Broadnax, about which I’m extremely excited but probably should bite my tongue for now. You can visit NicoleWitteSolomon.com for more.

  • Abel and Cain Screenings

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxEMCwSWRw4

    June was a very busy month. I went back to Alaska for the first time in 4 years to celebrate turning 30 with my two best friends; I had a temporary gig with a lot of long hours; I was an instructor at the I Was There Film Workshop at George Washington University; and Abel and Cain had two screenings in two days in New York City.

    I was excited to be selected for the NewFilmmakers Screening Series, which showed Abel and Cain on June 12th. I was even able to take off early from the temporary gig I mentioned to attend the screening, which was thrilling. I feel like we got a good response from the audience. Then, on June 13th Abel and Cain also screened at the Brooklyn Short Film Festival. Sadly, I was unable to attend due to my aforementioned gig, but I hear it went very well.

    I’m looking forward to hearing from more festivals in the next few months (and submitting to more festivals).

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  • I Was There Film Workshop

    Screen shot 2013-07-05 at 11.05.43 AM

    Under My Umbrella from the June 2013 I Was There Film Workshop

    In June I had the privilege of being an instructor for the Patton Veterans Project’s I Was There Film Workshop being held at George Washington University in Washington, DC. At the workshop we helped a group of 15 veterans to conceive, shoot, and edit a collaborative short film in just 4 days. It was a lot of fun to work with them and I’m very impressed with what they were all able to accomplish in the short time we had together. Six films came out of that week and I think they’re all fantastic.

    The purpose of the workshops is to give Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress or Traumatic Brain Injuries a creative way to express what they’re going through. Sort of art therapy with film. It’s very open-ended, which brings some very interesting results. As an instructor it was my job to just be there to lend a hand. Whether it came to help developing story, shooting, or editing, our jobs as instructors was to help them get from idea to final product in the brief time we had. Sometimes that meant we were more hands on and sometimes that meant we were just sitting back and answering questions.

    I originally heard about the workshops last fall while filming interviews for my New York Filmmakers web series with Katie Carman-Lehach and Christina Raia, both of whom participate in the workshops as instructors. I was interested in the workshops when I first heard about them from Katie and Christina and was very excited to get to participate last month. I’m looking forward to being able to participate again in the future.