I did the video backdrops for the Grammy Nominated Imani Winds’ show “Josephine Baker - A Life of Le Jazz Hot”. The show is directed by my friend Bobbi Williams. More about the show below:

Celebrate June Black Music Month with
IMANI WINDS
presenting
Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Hot Jazz
A Celebration of Josephine Baker on the 101st year of her birth
Sunday, June 3, 2007, 4PM

The Apollo Theater will kick off its 3rd Annual Black Music Month celebration with groundbreaking African/Latino woodwind quintet Imani Winds paying tribute to the incomparable Josephine Baker on the 101st anniversary of her birth with Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot! This full scale concert is a fascinating exploration of the incredible life of one of the world’s most renowned and controversial figures through music and other forms of artistic expression. The afternoon concert features special guest René Marie on Sunday, June 3rd, at 4pm.

Tickets are $35 and are available through the Apollo Theater Box Office, 125th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, 212/531-5305 and Ticketmaster, (212) 307-7171, www.ticketmaster.com.

Peace,
Melissa

DJ Seth Gold

Had a great time shooting with DJ Seth Gold this past weekend. I got some great shots of the DJ with a few friends who just happened to be male models. Check out the full shoot in the photography section, and see some of the shots below:

Peace,
Melissa

I will be attending the Mais Olhares Pocket Film Festival in Lisbon, Portugal late this June! A selection of my work, in film, art and the internet, will be featured.

+OLHARES is an informal video & film festival dedicated to new works by young artists, video artists, web artists and filmmakers. It will take place in Lisbon between the 21st and 24th of June, 2007. Its propose is to create a dialogue between documentary and fictional work using as guide line the frontier between these two genres. We are looking for works that deal with the ambiguities of audiovisual creation related to the dichotomy reality/imagination. Everyone interested in participating should make a request to be a friend of this page.

The festival is divided in 4 sections:

1. +OLHARES: (Main feature films presented in big screen)
This is the main selection of works that explore the borders between pure documentary and fictional work. 9 of the 30 Authors will be invited to come to Lisbon and present their work.

2. POCKET VIDEOS: A selection of videos made with low resolution media devices. Prizes will include 3G mobile phones.

3. ALTERNATIVE VIDEOS AND WEB ART: An Exhibition of Web Art and Experimental Video presented in IMACs computers with headphones.

4. +DEBATE: Discussions about the main theme of the festival. This informal meetings will include presentations of films by Orson Wells, Woody Allen, Pedro Costa and others. Its main goal is to understand how reality can be filtered and manipulated by both the eyes of a documentary and fiction directors. Film critics, Directors, Writers and Scholars will conduct the discussions.

Peace,
Melissa

An industrial video piece for Global Learning Semester’s new product, Abroad Office. See the video here.

Peace,
Melissa

The Art of Love and Struggle will be screening at the 5th Annual H20 International Film Festival, on “Women’s Day” - Thursday, June 14, btw 8 and 10 pm, at the ImaginAsian Theatre, 239 Est 59th St. NYC. Please let your network know!

Also, on Thursday, June 7, from 6 pm to 7:30 pm, I will be one of the panelists for the panel on Movie Magic: 5 Techniques to Develop your Game, also at the ImagiAsian Theatre.

Peace,
Melissa

MULTO.tv NETWORK

I am relieved, proud and exhausted. The MULTO.tv Network launched today. After years of doing great work on my own, its time to create venues for other voices. I am grateful to the people who helped make this happen - Natalie, Liana, Liza, Misty, Raul, Wendy…many others whose efforts are deeply appreciated.

So what is MULTO.tv?

The MULTO.tv Network is select group of online broadcasting properties, developing high quality content. Niche oriented, each site focuses on a topic and demographic specific to the site’s mission. From eco-culture and modern feminism, to nightlife and culture, the video and blog content featured on each site engages and uplifts the MULTO.tv network viewership.

In creating these sites as unique entities, the team around each property is allowed to focus on content they LOVE to create. The result is fresh, original and informative pieces that keep users returning for more!

Want to be a content producer? Have an idea for a channel? Contact us here if you’d like to be a part of the MULTO.tv Network, or if you’d like to hire MULTO.tv to create your very own broadcast channel. We’re democratizing media and looking for new voices!

Much gratitude to the people who have helped make this venture possible.

Peace,
Melissa

see the video here

From my sister in art, Nirah:

Dear friends and family…

I pray this finds you all feeling fresh and inspired. I am writing this missive in the hopes of sparking a swift movement of support. After almost three years of living and working out of Jerusalem, the Art and Apathy Documentary Project is nearing a point of completion. We have begun sending some of our 11 short films out to festivals, and so begins the cycle of return and reciprocity.

We have only just started to screen parts of our Project and we will be previewing some of our short films at the Cannes Film Festival in May. We recently received news that two of our films have been selected for the Moving Pictures Magazine Short Film Contest held at Cannes. While one of the films, “Meet Me Out of the Siege”, has already been chosen by a jury as a finalist, the other, “Honor Killing”, is now eligible for selection through the Audience Choice Award contest.

What this means for us is an assisted opening of the doors of distribution and success. What this means for you is you get to preview one (or two) of the eleven short films of The Art and Apathy Documentary Project online. So… I encourage you and whomever you can send this email to, to please visit http://www.movingpicturesmagazine.com/shorts/currentcontest and enter the Vote for Audience Choice Award portal, watch “Honor Killing” and email your vote for it to shorts@mpgcorp.net.

Again, this is just the beginning of the next chapter in the long journey that has created our Project. We hope that we will soon have the opportunity to sit in an intimate environment with you, to share a screening or festival in your town or university, and to expose the entirety of The Art and Apathy Documentary Project… which is a deep meditation exploring how the Militarization of Israeli society and the Occupation of Palestine effects the creative minds of visionaries, activists, and artists in their respective cultures of resistance.

Infinite Gratitude and Blessings to all.

Nirah Shirazipour
EyesInfinite Films

I caught a re-run of The Daily Show last night, and they too had done a story on Stop Snitching last week. A clip of “Death Before Dishonor” ran as part of the piece, which was just the right shade of absurd.

Peace,
Melissa

So the rumors are true - there’s a contest now for MC’s looking to get a deal with Hi-Tek. Check out the contest here - I wonder if its going to be as laughable as VH1’s The White Rapper Show.

The above photo is also an example of my previous post about greedy folks. I took this shot last summer for Cinematic Music Group, along with the photos used in the below CD covers, press materials, etc - literally, hundreds of photos per shoot, for several different artists, at half my normal rate. I still haven’t been paid for this work, and its being used to make this company and these artists money. I haven’t been credited on any of the released CDs, and have to contact publications on my own when they re-print my work to get a photo credit. I guess that’s business as usual for the unscrupulous Jon Shapiro, and his business partner, Zach Katz. Even collections couldn’t get the money from these shifty hustlers.

The artists that posed for these shots were great, but their management was WHACK!

Peace,
Melissa

DVG Crimson Kiss, M. Ulto 2007 (see full sized version here)

There are times in one’s life when worth is realized. That time comes in a strange side-winding way for artists, whose path is never clear, and most definitely less certain than the path taken by the many. The myths and warnings are a challenge to navigate. I no longer bare my artistic vulnerability with a hope that others will be gentle and respectful of it, cause that’s just patently naive. I have an incredibly well developed shield system that blocks out unwanted energy, with or without my conscious involvement. My subconscious doesn’t always trust my imprudent eagerness to please, so it finds ways to tell me what is a healthy environment or relationship, and what needs to be jettisoned. I’m learning to what to say yes to and what to pass on.

Time has taught me well and my turtle shell is solid. I love the busy silence of my mind in the middle of creating. It is as if I’m standing in the middle of a massive, undefined space, orchestrating a vast array of visual and emotional assets, sorted by sense (sound, smell, taste, etc), and by the chaos factor that arranges all objects in the universe. It is as if I fully understand that language, that ebb and flow of creation, and that gift is the truest form of communication I use. (more…)