“I am directing one of my short films I wrote called Mt. Washington (2016). There’s DP Chris Boylston, and Gaffer Neil Guliano setting up lights. This film went on to win a Special Mention: Short film award at the LA Film Awards in 2016. Photo credit goes to Slavin Productions. “
She graduated with an associate’s degree in humanities from BCC in December of 2011 and matriculated at Bridgewater State University in the fall of 2012. While attending BSU, I was fortunate enough to have her as a student once again, and this time her work had gained a breathtaking maturity to it. Her presentation and essay work on a Rod Serling, Twilight Zone episode, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” is one of the best student performances I have ever observed. This story is the 22nd episode of season one and it was first aired on 4 March 1960. Time magazine has rated it one of the ten best Twilight Zone episodes. [1]
“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices – to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill—and suspicion can destroy—and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own – for the children – and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is—that these things cannot be confined—to the Twilight Zone.”
“Raeshelle Cooke, a BSU 2015 graduate, is an Award-winning Filmmaker & founder of production company RMC Pictures. She often writes about the many misadventures of love, and justice, with music and spoken word often leading the narratives. In 2015 her short film Sometime Around January was nominated for Best Short Film at the local Shawna Shea Film Festival. In 2016, her short film Mt. Washington won a Special Mention award for an indie film at the LA Film Awards. And now her newest 20-minute short, Wrath City [2017] is a semi-finalist at the Las Angeles CineFest. This film focuses on an angry city and a Haitian woman who’s being deported out for committing an awful crime. The short makes a lot of commentary on Black Lives Matter and police brutality.
Here is a link to the trailer of her latest film: https://vimeo.com/230370284.”
“The slate picture is photographed by the Director of Photography of the same film, Paul Bulgin (Sometime Around January film). We are getting the slate before beginning to roll on the next scene.”
Grease [1978] is my all-time favorite.
Jason’s Lyric [1994],
Rear Window [1954] by Hitchcock,
Rocky [1976],
“I am directing Malden-based music artist Chaud Galliano, in his French music video called Fatoumata (2017). The guy with the beard in one of the beach pics is my Director of Photography for the music video, Chris Boylston.”
Witness for the Prosecution [1957],
12 Angry Men [1957];
Psycho [1960],
The Breakfast Club [1985],
Boys n the Hood [1991],
The Temptations [1998],
Bonnie and Clyde [1967],
Why did I get married? [2007],
The Sound of Music [1965],
What’s Love Got to Do With it? [1993],
Night of the Living Dead [1968],
Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films,
The Warriors [1979],
Die Hard [1988],
Predator [1987],
Shadow of a Doubt [1943],
The Clock [1945],
Out of the Past [1947],
Notorious [1946], and
Planet of the Apes [1968].
And so much more . . .
For a long time, it began with a song. I love music more than I like films. As dumb as it sounds it’s just true! I don’t want to talk about films all the time. But I talk about music all the time. I listen to music all the time. I feel like in another life I was a musician, maybe a bass player, and I probably would’ve been a musician in this life too, but I can’t play an instrument or sing. I need music in my day to day living. That shows in my films because a lot of my films have been inspired by songs that I listen to and obsess over, whether hip–hop (I love giving tributes to hip-hop music in my work), Japanese music, video game music that I love, or 1970s rock music, which I’m tackling next. Most of my films have been narrated by music with little to no dialog.
“That’s me and writer/actress Dominique LaFleur at the Hip Hop Film Festival in Harlem, NY this past August [2017]. We were there screening a music video that I directed, and Dominique rapped in it & wrote, called Sedentary Lifestyles. It’s a rap music video. We asked a random person to take a pic of us for us.”
I have friends that make statements on their social media pages. Revolutions have started via social media. You can make a statement in your art if you’re a filmmaker. I don’t understand those who are silent, and in my latest film Wrath City [2017], I am talking to those very people; people who should know better than to be silent; people that were outspoken when it came to gay and women’s rights. Like sports, film has a place in our social and political conversations. And I hope more people stop caring about what others think of them, and just stand up for what’s right and denounce what’s wrong. It’s not right that blacks are getting killed for no good reason, and it’s not right that cops are getting off for it. And it’s not right that people are being silent on it and ignoring it. My life matters too.
I think that there are advantages and disadvantages of being a woman in the film industry. I don’t want to sound that I am putting down male directors because I love a bunch of them; however, when I look at R&B music videos of the 90s, and they are directed by women, I feel that they are way more creative, beautiful and they have this emotion and compassion to them because they are love songs. The women understand what it is like to be in love and to feel deeply. Their directing seems to have this compassionate and authentic aura and tone to it. For example, “It Never Rains in Southern California” [1990], by Tony! Toni! Toné!, directed by Lisa Bonet, I had no idea she could direct.
It is an honor to know Raeshelle and to have the privilege of following the arc of her artistry in filmmaking.*
* Please note that I will be adding another follow–up post on Raeshelle’s work.
Notes:
Raeshelle explains the origin of the feature photo above as follows, “The pic where I am in dark shadows: the photo credit is Slavin Productions. That’s me in 2016. I don’t remember where we took it. In RI somewhere. But it represents my brand of films: dark, moody, emotional, etc.”
[1] Cruz, Gilbert (October 2, 2009). “Top 10 Twilight Zone episodes”. TIME. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. As the sole author of the Penitent – Part I, and the Penitent – Part II, and as the sole proprietor of Copper Beech Press, I have a material connection to these books, as well as to the publishing press, I have just listed. Other than my previously stated novels and publishing press, I have no material connection to the brands, products or services that I have mentioned here. I am disclosing this information in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
© 30 January 2019 by A. Keith Carreiro
For information about my series, The Immortality Wars, please go to my home page: https://immortalitywars.com/
1 comment. Leave new
Wonderfully written interview!