Beauty is a profitable business, and I don’t just mean financially, I mean in cultural capital as well, and for too long, we the other people have been left out of the conversation. We have been eliminated under several assumptions, the least of them not being that there is simply nothing beautiful we can offer. On that note I dare you to look at anything by Benny Andrews and not need a moment to hold on to that beauty. Beyond the Black is beautiful cliche is the truth behind that desire to connect oneself with beautiful things, because if we can understand that we are more, collectively, than what we are so often told, or shown, then we can be stirred to action.

There is truth in the assertion that Black people in America need more togetherness in action, and I don’t mean the oft-repeated politics of showing up for the cameras (I will stay away from naming names as this is not really about politics), but I mean social action brought on by earnest conversation with each other. Social action is not solely pickets and placards, it is educating yourself on the right candidate for presidency, it is curiosity on the nature of your local communities, it is a desire to be part of the future of something great.

I will not pretend that our film is all these things, that would be arrogant, not to mention wrong. But what Colored Frames does do to address a lot of these points, is show you beauty as it lives, capital ‘b,’ as created by Black artists with a natural talent that deserves better than stereotyping, a talent that deserves the space to grow, breathe, evolve into a spectacular future we will all enjoy arriving at, a universal future.

I need for Benny’s name to ring loud today, I need for his images to catch, stick, stay - I need someone to understand that the reality of the present is in our understanding of the past. I need for colors to spread across visions of us, Black folk, Colored folk, Africa folk - I need this to be important to everyone who hears it; inspiring that same alarm moment where you cannot grab hold of your next sentence for fear that the end is near. This is not drama, this is the truth, if we cannot see the immense value in the existence of someone like Benny Andrews, well then I’m done trying to be the best man I can be because, what’s the point?

But have no fear, I will not leave you on that note, but on this; there are truths in this film, there is immense beauty, and we are finding, more joy there than we initially anticipated. Someone once said to us ‘you find what you look for, so what are you looking for in this film?’ Well, we went looking for pain and make no mistake, we found it plenty, but thanks to moments with inspirations like Benny Andrews, we found pools of joy as well.

We’re not kidding ourselves as filmmakers, we know this is our first best hope to get heard with less, not dramatically less (believe me!), but less bureaucracy. Right after those with the power put down their New Year’s champagne glasses, we need to be right beside them with a Fine cut of ‘Colored Frames.’ We don’t kid ourselves that they will come after us because if there’s anything true about February, it is that everything is recycled; all that The Powers have to do is give a shout to the guy in ‘archives,’ let’s call him Jerry, and he’ll come running with the same old visions of Blackness. I’m not saying good films have not been made, but I believe that there is room in the celebration of Black History - during that, our given month - for new interpretations of that history; for one of the grandest misunderstandings of history, is that it is constant. This is a lie. If only because history up until very (very!) recently, has been documented by the same people, let us call them the victors, it is time that new versions of history come forth, new perspectives on history.

I understand February is centered on Black ‘History,’ but I know once in a while people would appreciate a tale of history without the same old tag lines. I believe Colored Frames is going to be a fresh look, if only because stylistically, one of the first things we envisioned, was a ‘pretty’ movie about Black art so the actual pieces we’ve come across, are very important to the aesthetics of the film. So like I have said before, this is a film about art, art that has been largely ignored if not misrepresented and misunderstood (granted there are no parades being held on behalf of the struggling artists no matter how great she is), but every once in a while we, as a human race, should celebrate the makers.

We started as an attempt to educate ourselves on the ‘texture’ of the landscape out there for Black artists in the last fifty years, and I believe we are well aware now, the next task? Translate that ‘texture’ into words, sounds, cuts, music, invigorating interviews, and a fluent plot - before February!

Magali Souriau, the wonderful French-born, New York-evolved pianist laid down some tracks for our film earlier this week, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Her efforts were extremely professional not to mention inspired, considering we were just two guys with a camera and a tiny film about art. We thank her yet again while knowing that her sounds have definitely taken our piece to the next level.

Be sure to check out her site here: http://magalisouriau.com and discover the sounds of a pure New York artist, sans the New York pretense.

Colored Frames is first a song to the various textures, colors, strokes, and shades of light that shape art created in recent years by African American artists. So to be blunt, we want to show you how pretty we think African American art can be. We will of course attempt to cover the last fifty years historically, and as such we are inevitably going to cover the effects of the Civil Rights movement on artists and art movements within the community, however we are making here a visual song to Black art, what ever we discover it to be, and hope that both the journey, and arrived at destination, prove fruitful as well as entertaining.

Now even the term ‘Black Art,’ as we were to discover, was nebulous at best so we resolved ourselves to looking for the story of the Black experience in America (which as James Baldwin noted is the American experience) through the eyes of visual artists. This would allow us some latitude; while making this film about art, we could talk about the thing we wanted to the most, the state of Blackness in America over the last fifty years.

The one thing we discovered on the outset was that people, artists and ordinary folk alike, were eager to hear this story. We are of course aware that permutations of it exist out there, but often we found a heavy emphasis on singular artists. We want to make a film about art and Blackness; the Black experience in and through visual art because we believe over the years both these things have immensely influenced each other.

We were delighted upon beginning to find that there is more than stereotypes out there, there are realist African American painters, there are abstract Black painters, there are consciously political artists out there, and there are also consciously apolitical artists out there, and it is a thrill to talk to each and every one of them. We have interviewed greats like Adger Cowans, famed photographer and member of the influential AfriCobra movement, and we have also interviewed a good number of young artists living, and yes working, in New York City, just making good art. We are still in the process of putting this all together, and as the larger picture of what Colored Frames is develops, we are finding that it just could be something greater than either of us imagined during that lengthy conversation in a café in Brooklyn.

Look for ongoing insight and commentary on the project, by myself as well as others as the project continues. We will also post additional trailers, extras, and production stills here to further document the extraordinary development of this groundbreaking film.