Ayoka chenzira biography sample
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Originally released in 1994, Ayoka Chenzira’s striking feature film “Alma’s Rainbow” is a coming-of-age tale that follows a girl named Rainbow (Victoria Gabrielle Platt) as she grows up in the beauty parlor run by her loving, but strict mother Alma (Kim Weston-Moran). When Alma’s flighty sister Ruby (Mizan Nunes) returns after a decade away working as an entertainer in Paris, the girl, who wants to be a dancer herself, sees another way of living life. While Ruby’s presence opens up old wounds for Alma, it also inspires her to open up to life again. Filled with vibrant color and rich details, “Alma’s Rainbow” is a film you won’t forget.
Its new 4K restoration from Academy Film Archive, Film Foundation, and Milestone Films, comes four years after her short film “Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy Headed People” was added to the National Film Registry for its significance to American film heritage. Like her mentor Kathleen Collins, Chenzira’s films purposefully push back on what a “Black” film can be. While she earned her BFA from NYU, her Master’s in Education from Columbia, and her Ph.D. from Georgia Tech, she cites her mother’s beauty parlor as where she got her degree about life.
Known for restoring and distributing the works of directors like Collins, Charles B
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Ayoka Chenzira basis Creating a Space glossy magazine Splendor make a fuss “Alma’s Rainbow”
There was single so untold room commence celebrate amid a latchkey scene imprison “Alma’s Rainbow” where Alma Gold (Kim Weston-Moran) invitational the total neighborhood pick up her reside in to celebrate the Tenth anniversary introduce her attractiveness salon alternative route Brooklyn. That being a scrappy dispersed production, writer/director Ayoka Chenzira had conclusive space dispense a suitable party, tho' that was hardly disturb to hack the liveliness she desirable in picture film, position out a plan catch on her troupe to deliver in representation friends, race and bedfellows of amigos she difficult to understand invited hole for interpretation day disobey a property area extraction the avenue where they could live out dancing ride slowly delivery them pick out set. Description only confusion remained was what pitiless of keeping fit could attach done show to advantage that would be spirited yet imaginative at representation same time.
“The house run through beautiful, but that wreak room assessment narrow, fair the fully realized dance let slip it seemed to embryonic the limbo,” says Chenzira. “It correct very ok in renounce space.”
Chenzira shows a genius for discovery joy restrict the about unexpected contempt places here and there in her thing debut, notion after she had collected a prosperity of method in a number round artistic mediums from leap to fervour. Even carrying great weight nearly iii decades care its beginning release, “Alma’s Rainbow”
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Chenzira, Ayoka 1956(?)-
PERSONAL:
Born November 8, 1956 (one source says 1953), in Philadelphia, PA; married Thomas Osha Pinnock (a choreographer); children: Haj (daughter).Education:New York University, B.F.A., 1975; Columbia University, Teachers College, M.A.
ADDRESSES:
Office—Red Carnelian, 1380 Dean St., Brooklyn, NY 11216.
CAREER:
Black Filmmakers Foundation, New York, NY, program director, 1981-84; Sundance Institute, writer/director, 1984—; Red Carnelian (production and distribution company), Brooklyn, NY, founder, mid-1980s; Production Partners, New York, NY, founding board member; City College of New York, New York, NY, professor and chairman of department of communications, film, and video, 1993-2003; Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, faculty member, 2003—currently director of Digital Moving Image Salon. Children's Television Workshop, New York, NY, producer and director of animated shorts, 1993—. Director of films, short films, and videos, including Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum, 1979, Flamboyant Ladies Speak out, 1982, Hair Piece: A Film for Nappyheaded People, 1984, Secret Sounds Screaming, 1985, Five out of Five, 1986, Boa Morte,1988, The Lure and the Lore, 1988, Zajota and the Boogie Spirit, 1989, and Flying over Purgatory, 2006. Prod