BLACKWATERS (41m)
Blackwaters trailer w laurels from Chad Brown on Vimeo.
"Blackwaters" encompasses the power of five Black men whose paths have been challenged with loss, defeat, fear, and pain by life’s ups and downs and social injustice challenges black men and black boys face every day. They have fallen into an “endangered species”, only surviving day to day. Through surviving life’s trials, each man has found grace and success in the outdoors, healed and mended by nature’s medicine to the soul, embracing the art of fly fishing and building brotherhood. Blackwater is an expedition of a journey in the Gates Of The Arctic Circle National Park, adventure, a vision quest, and a fly fishing adventure that surpasses the color of their own skin connecting to the fundamentals of nature’s, the poetry of life, and prosperous joy. Like indigenous communities, they find self-fulfillment in being outdoors. They find their own representation, and hold space for everyone, especially inspiring young Black boys. It is a dual survival between black boys who can not make the connection to a black man in the outdoors due to lack of representation and black men finding representation in wild spaces to call their own. Hopefully, these youths can see themselves, and be inspired to embark on their own journeys into the outdoors. The concept is a tactically crafted story in dialogue and adventure, with emphasis on dismantling the fear for BIPOC and inspiring BIPOC to pursue their journey in the outdoors and uplift black boys’ lives in green spaces.
This story is told in 5 directions; 5 lives and 5 perspectives wrap into a heavy dialogue discussion in nature tackling the heavy topics of masculinity attempting to answer questions such as “ Where do I as a black man fit in nature?” and “ How do we hold space in nature as anglers paving the road for our next generation of young men so they could see us and know this space is for them just as much as for everyone?”
INWARD (25m)
INWARD - Trailer from Chad Brown on Vimeo.
"Inward" is a film about Atlanta based artist Michi Meko whose life is expressed in multiple layers of mystical meaning.
Inward is a film experience Directed by Chad Brown about journeys, navigation, cartography and way finding into the unknown and the uncharted. It’s a narrative about the buoyancy of our souls and survival, keeping our heavy heads filled with heavy thoughts above water. It’s about his struggle to become orientated in the pitch black and discovering his metaphysical balance. It is about his decision and the journey to become an artist. Meko is influenced by nature and wilderness and its ability to heal and inspire. His art attempts to answer the question – "What is his place is in this unfamiliar world of nature and wilderness and how does his art define and exhibit a newly fused relationship between his past and a radically new and radiant expression?"
To learn more about artist Michi Meko, you can read this profile and interview written by Jason Rolfe and published by our friends over at the Flyfish Journal.
Buy your tickets HERE!