Join us for a virtual film screening corresponding with E-Merge: Artistic Intersections of the Black Midwest, the groundbreaking in-person event celebrating Black Midwestern creativity and community. This FREE virtual experience brings the spirit of E-Merge back online, offering an engaging exploration of the Black Midwest through the lens of cinema.
The screening will feature short films and video art by emerging and established Black filmmakers and visual artists Jasmine A. Golphin, Cameron Granger, and Robert Banks who are from or currently based in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Centered on themes of regional pride, cultural identity, and technology, these works illuminate the ingenuity of Black Midwestern creatives.
This virtual screening is an extension of E-Merge’s mission to emphasize the vibrancy and creativity of the Black Midwest, fostering regional pride and community connection.
To learn more about E-Merge, visit https://www.withindigital.net/e-merge-archive
We look forward to welcoming you online!
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
CAMERON GRANGER
IG: @realtayediggs
Cameron A. Granger is Sandra’s son & came up in Cleveland, Ohio. Inspired by the rigorous archival & homemaking practices of his grandmother, Pearl, Granger uses his work as a means to quilt his communal and familial histories, into new, not just potential, but inevitable futures. He’s an alumni of Euclid public schools, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and the Studio Museum in Harlem AIR program.
ROBERT C. BANKS JR.
IG: @cinehypofilms
Robert C. Banks Jr. was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966, and has attended Cleveland Institute of Art and Cleveland State University, and has also served in the U.S. Air Force.Inspired by his father, Banks is an experimental filmmaker, cinematographer, and teacher of filmmaking and photography at numerous colleges and universities. Banks’ films have been screened at numerous prestigious film festivals and art institutions, both domestically and abroad, such as Sundance Film Festival, SXSW Film-Music Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Museum of Modern Art, The Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Ann Arbor. He is a recipient of numerous awards, including Filmmaker of the Year at the Midwest Filmmaker’s Conference, and his film retrospectives have been featured at The BBC British Short Film Festival, The Cleveland Cinematheque, and The Walker Center for the Arts. One of Banks’ best-known works is the 1992 short film “X: The Baby Cinema”, which chronicles the commercialization of Malcolm X’s image and legacy. Some of his other films include “Motion Picture Genocide”, “My First Drug, the Idiot Box”, “Outlet”, “Goldfish and Sunflowers”, “AWOL”, “Autopilot”, and “Don’t Be Still”, all of which were shot and edited on 16 and 35 mm film. Several of his short films have been added to the private collections of institutions such as The Yale University Film School and The Walker Center for the Arts. Most recently, Banks has completed his first 35 mm feature film, “Paper Shadows”, which was seven years in the making.
JASMINE A. GOLPHIN
IG: @eleven59pm
Jasmine A. Golphin is a visual artist and is currently the Associate Artistic Director at Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, an interdisciplinary and intersectional arts venue. Her artistry includes photography, filmmaking, live performance, virtual reality and projection design exploring themes of existentialism in relationship to technology and societal marginalization.In 2022 she was the first apprentice in Dobama Theatre’s FOCUS Program, leading to projection design work on Cinderella at TUTS, Matilda Jr at Brooklyn Music School,Thurgood and King James at CPH. Jasmine’s 2023 essay Black Woman [Unintentionally] in Tech was supported by the Next Web Seed Grant, an initiative of NEW INC and Meta Open Art. Her 2022 VR experience FACEBOOKLAND was supported by SPACES’ The Satellite Fund. Her latest short film and art installation “Welcome to the Panopticon!” was supported by Dobama Theatre, Cleveland Camera Rental’s 2024 Rental Credit Grant,and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts’ Emergency Grant.