PRESS + PANELS
programming, moderating, panels, etc
OPEN TO TRAVEL FOR FESTIVALS, PANELS, CONFERENCES, ETC IN 2019
Indie Memphis Film Festival Indie Grants Jury [Memphis, Tennessee] November 2018
One of three members of the Indie Grants Jury.
Unorthodocs. [Columbus, OH] October 2018
Moderate the post-screening Q&A for the Midwest premiere of Shakedown (2018) with Leilah Weinraub at Wexner Center for the Arts.
Indie Memphis Film Festival New Black Creators Forum [Memphis, Tennessee] July 2018
One of three members of the Final Selection Committee for Indie Memphis Black Filmmaker Residency in Screenwriting 2018.
SVLLY(wood) @ Deptford Cinema [London, England] June 2018
Curated a special program of Sundance, SXSW, Vimeo Staff Pick, and BFI award winning documentary short films that center imprisoned women on screen and participate in the necessary work of undoing the celluloid legacy of violence and exploitation of women behind bars. Inspired by the ethos of SVLLY(wood)’s issue.3: INCARCERATION, this short film program was followed by a panel with filmmakers and local anti-prison activists.
Sheffield Doc/Fest [Sheffield, England] June 2018
Member of the New Talent Award Jury, set to discover the future of documentary film.
The New York Film Festival Critics Academy [New York City] Sept-October 2017
One of ten selected emerging writers to attend and cover NYFF screenings and events at the festival. Actively particiating in roundtable discussions with working writers and other members of the industry co hosted by Film Society of Lincoln Center, indieWIRE, and Film Comment Magazine.
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences [Ohio Valley] June 2017
Judge for the 53rd Annual Ohio Valley Regional Emmy® Awards focusing on Short Form Fiction. Up to 30 diverse short films from Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Indiana.
Radical Film Network USA: A Global Gathering [New York City] May 2017
Invited guest whose aim was to strengthen the relationships within the radical film community from across the Americas and around the globe.
Theorizing the Web Conference [New York City] April 2017
Panelist at the annual Theorizing the Web conference at the Musuem of Moving Image, presenting a talk on visual literacy and black personhood in the age of social media and Black Lives Matter.
#BlackLivesMatter in the Classroom Symposium [Columbus, OH] May 2016
One of four locally based anti-racist community and student organizers invited to speak on the Ohio State moderated by African American Studies department and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
#OscarsSoWhite @ The Ohio State University [Columbus, OH] February 2015
Speaker at #OscarsSoWhite and the Fight for Representation the politics of diversity in Hollywood.
press mentions
Columbus AliveLocal publication makes room for unheard voices in film criticism
Interview Magazine
THE FIVE UNDERGROUND ZINES YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT
NYLON
5 Somali Artists And Writers On How Surveillance Culture Shapes Their Work
Columbus UndergroundLocal Activist Talks Self-Published Movie Magazine SVLLY(wood)
Film Society Lincoln Center Artist Academy and Critics Academy at NYFF55
Graveyard Shift SistersHorror Blackademics: Rooney Elmi's Black Feminity as the Monstrousness video essay
Graveyard Shift Sisters5 Questions with SVLLY(wood) Magazine Publisher, Rooney Elmi
Film Jive Podcast contributed to Film Jive's Soundtrack of Terror Vol. II
