Animation ‘At War With Ourselves’ screened at 2015 ‘NextNow Fest’ and PGAAMCC Gallery
The animated short ‘At War With Ourselves: The Battle of and for the Black Face Boy’ written and voiced by renown poet Nikky Finney screened at 2015 ‘NextNow Fest’ at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Center and as a featured in a recent exhibition of the same title at the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center in North Brentwood, MD (PGAAMCC).
This early version of the video was co-produced with students from Cultural Keepers, PGAAMCC’s after school arts education program at the Center for Visual and Performing Arts at Suitland High School.
Desiline Victor Project
Client: Advancement Project, Inc.
Producer: Leila McDowell
Director/Editor: Paul Grant
Camera A: Paul Grant
Camera B & Audio Assist: Joshua A. Washington
Every now and again, our work allows us to touch history. It's an electrifying yet fleeting moment. But we are thrilled to work behind the scenes while great stories that define the times in which we live unfold in front of our eyes.
Desiline Victor, a 102 year-old, Haitian Immigrant, was told she had to wait up to six hours to vote in the 2012 Presidential Election at the polls near her North Miami residence. Desiline persisted through the heat, the long lines and having been wrongly returned from the front to the back of the line because it was though that she had the wrong paper work proving her residency. Three hours later, she emerged from the polls with her "I Voted" sticker and throngs of cheering people, to become the symbol of voter frustration and for much need revamping of the U.S. voting system/ process.
Ascender was tapped by Advancement Project, Inc., a non-profit civil rights advocacy group, to document her experiences in Washington immediately leading up to her being an invited guest at the 2013 State of The Union Address. Save for a few technical embellishments, this was story that ended up telling itself--and inspiring millions in the process.
SeatPleasantCityCenter.com (Event Web Site)
Ascender was awarded a contract to design the web site and print advertising for City of Seat Pleasant new City Center Groundbreaking event in September 2012. We were thrilled to serve. This historic and important event attracted nearly 3000 attendees and many more online viewers of the online video stream.
“A City of Excellence”
The City Center Project is a “Community of the Future”, an urban lifestyle in balance and harmony with the ecosystem that sustains life responsibly, organically and economically without sacrificing convenience. This project will integrate innovative technology with creative architecture in urban environments to establish local self-reliance and security. Yes, we are “Bringing Communities & Nature Together in Harmony.”
This development integrates innovative technology with creative architecture in urban environments to establish local self-reliance and security. To that end, this development is an integrated, distributed, renewable, sustainable infrastructure and energy production project. Enveloped within the project will be integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), micro turbine, combined cooling, heating & power (CCHP) buildings with geothermal micro turbine wind waste water and trash.
www.seatpleasantcitycenter.org
Ascender Wins 2012 TELLY AWARD for 'Enlisted: Conversations with Five Generations of African Americans in the U.S. Armed Services (2012)'
MUSEUM & CULTURE | ORAL HISTORY | DOCUMENTARY
ENLISTED: CONVERSATIONS WITH FIVE GENERATIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE U.S. ARMED FORCES (2012)
Our first museum video installation opened as a part of the Prince George’s County African American Museum and Cultural Center’s (PGAAMCC) ‘Coming Home’ World War II exhibition in North Brentwood, Maryland in, May 2011. ‘Enlisted’, is our 16-minute documentary featurette produced from oral histories of six African Americans who lived in the Washington, DC metropolitan areas that served in World War II, Korean War, and two Vietnam War veterans– and their collective experiences in service to their country.
The exhibition, ‘Coming Home: How the African American Experience in World War II Shaped the Culture of Prince George’s County’ explains how the full integration of the U.S. armed services during the second world war actually opened the a new widnow of opportunity for many African Americans to seek and pay for, higher education and gain new professional skillsets. This was eventualy contribute to making P.G. County, Maryland the most affuent, predominately black county in the nation.
Tagline
ORAL HISTORY & DOCUMENTARY
‘Coming Home: How the African American Experience in World War II Shaped the Culture of Prince George’s County’ explains how the full integration of the U.S. armed services during the second world war actually opened the a new widnow of opportunity for many African Americans to seek and pay for, higher education and gain new professional skillsets. This was eventualy contribute to making P.G. County, Maryland the most affuent, predominately black county in the nation.
'A Struggle for Dignity' (Museum Exhibition Logo/ Brand)
CLIENT: Prince George's African American Museum & Cultural Center (PGAAMCC)
DATE: JUNE 2012
ART-DIRECTION/ DESIGN: Paul Grant