The Maryland Minority Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place Aug. 19th at the Creative Alliance in Highland- town, will feature “Implied Warranty,” a 30-minute futuris- tic film-short produced by Quiet Mountain Films and direct- ed by local filmmaker Robert G. Christie. It stars an ensem- ble Baltimore cast, including 2 Hotmedia Film Fest winners.

CREATIVE ALLIANCE VENUE ON EASTERN AVENUE
IN HIGHLANDTOWN IS SITE FOR ANNUAL EVENT
BILLED AS ‘MINORITY FILMMAKERS SHOWCASE’

The medium of the moment for everyone
 
By Jill Yesko
 
These days it seems that everybody with an iPhone is making a movie.

Which makes Sharin Nelson, founder and director of Reel Independent Women, an organization devoted to showcasing films by women and minority filmmakers, a very happy person.

“For the longest time, making movies was something people could only dream of,” says the Owings Mills resident.

“Today technology has evolved so that you don’t need thousands of dollars or sophisticated equipment to make interesting, quality movies.”

Nelson should know. She has her own IMDb (Internet Movie Database) page and numerous film credits both as a producer and actor.

Nelson has worked with local area filmmakers such as Dundalk’s Jimmy Traynor and Baltimore’s Marlene Zechman of Zany Zone Productions.

But she isn’t satisfied with just making movies: “I want to give back to the community of local filmmakers,” she says.

To that end, Nelson is the driving force behind the Second Annual Maryland Minority Film Festival, which will take place at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore on Wednesday, August 19th at 7 p.m.

The event, which was well received in its first year, includes an expanded genre of films, from anime to horror and documentary.

Among this year’s highlighted filmmakers are:  Phoenix Tremayne, a former Baltimore City fire fighter turned writer, producer, and photographer; feature film producer Ashleigh Coffelt, founder of Miss Ash Productions; Jasmine Jones, director of Living Natural, a documentary about Jenise Wamble’s natural hair story and her role as president of Towson University’s natural hair club, the Naturalistas; and James Bowman’s short animated movie “Kassi.”

Owings Mills resident Sharin Nelson, founder and director of Reel Independent Women & organizer of the Md. Minority Film Festival.

The festival also includes “Implied Warranty,” a 30-minute, futuristic film written by Lorrie Smith and directed by Robert G. Christie, which features an ensemble Baltimore cast.

Trailer for the film, which was nominated for several awards at the Hotmedia Film Fest, may be viewed by clicking here.  Brent Bauer won the award for Best Actor at Hotmedia and Altorro Prince Black was named Best Supporting Actor.

“Just because this is a minority film festival it doesn’t mean that these films don’t have broad appeal,” says Nelson, adding that “the Minority Film Festival is a great opportunity for emerging filmmakers of color to show their work to all audiences.

“Movies are the medium of the moment for everyone.”
 
jreyesko@gmail.com 
 
VoB Managing Editor Alan Z. Forman contributed to this report.
 

Baltimore filmmaker and writer Jill Yesko’s new book is due out in 2017.

Jill Yesko is a Baltimore-based filmmaker and writer.  Her documen- tary Tainted Blood: The Untold Story of the 1984 Olympic Doping Scandal will be released in 2017.

Earlier works by Yesko include Murder in the Dog Park: Bad Girl. Good Cop. Bad Dog (published 2012) and Dog Spelled Backwards:
An Unholy Mystery (2013).  Both are available at Amazon.com plus various local bookstores:  click here  here  and  here.

This is her initial contribution to Voice of Baltimore.

And check out Reel Independent Women’s Facebook page by clicking here.