I AM NOT OK

  • Director

    Gabrielle Lansner

  • Country, Year, Length

    United States, 2022, 12 minutes 10 seconds

  • Category

    Drama, Experimental, Educational, Political, Family, Documentary, Social Justice, Dance

  • Format

    Digital

  • Festival Year

    2022

Film Screening & Ticket Information

When & Where to See this Film!

Date, Time & Location:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH • 2:15 pm – 4:15 pm
MoMI Redstone • 36-01 35th Ave • Queens, NY 11106

SCREENING BLOCK:

Moving into Identity: Eight films celebrating the dance of self discovery.

Synopsis

A mother and son respond to the unending killings of black Americans amidst the backdrop of the protests that followed the death of George Floyd. Dance and archival photographs are woven together to evoke fear, outrage, and anger and the need for communities to come together and find solutions.

Credits

Gabrielle Lansner, Director, The Birch Grove, The Stronger, Lullaby to Love, wishing…, DAD
Tiffiney Davis, Writer
Ben Glickstein, Producer, Lullaby to Love
Dean Taucher, Producer, The Birch Grove, Lullaby to Love, The Stronger, Law & Order, SVU, Miami Vice, New York Undercover, The Sopranos
Gabrielle Lansner, Producer, The Stronger, The Birch Grove, Lullaby to Love
Pat Hall, Key Cast
Dahsir Hausif, Key Cast
Tiffiney Davis, Key Cast”Narrator”
Pat Hall, Choreography
Dahsir Hausif, Choreography
Gabrielle Lansner, Choreography
Philip Hamilton, Original Music, River Deep, A Tribute to Tina Turner, DAD
A.T.N. Stadwijk, Original Music
Barbie Leung, Director of Photography, Unladylike, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

Director Statement

ARTIST & COLLABORATOR STATEMENT

In June 2020, following the death of George Floyd, I came across a Facebook Live post by my friend and colleague, Tiffiney Davis. Ms. Davis is the Executive Director of the Red Hook Art Project/RHAP, a free art and mentoring program for low-income youth based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, where I had been mentoring and volunteering for several years.

From her kitchen, in the thick of the Covid pandemic, Ms. Davis spoke about her outrage at the unending killings of Black Americans, the protests and her fears for her son. It was an impassioned plea and call to her community and to the world at large to protect the lives of Black children.

My heart was pierced by her words and her pain.

This is what spurred me on to create, I AM NOT OK.

I immediately asked Ms. Davis if I could use her words in my film. She said absolutely.

I then reached out to Pat Hall, a long-time collaborator. We had worked together on a dance/ theater piece about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2004 and she also portrayed Tina Turner in River Deep, an original musical about the iconic singer.

She too was on board to work on the project.

Along with Dahsir Hausif, we spent many months in the dance studio working on the movement and discussing the issues. We also met with Tiffiney to share our progress, to experiment with her text and to share our feelings surrounding the work.

I AM NOT OK is the film I created in collaboration with Tiffiney, Pat, Dahsir and our composer, Philip Hamilton.

TIFFINEY DAVIS, Writer & Narrator: Statement

I met Gabrielle a few years ago. She came to my nonprofit to volunteer for the mentor circle with our young artists. Immediately Gabrielle caught my attention and I knew our young artists were in the best of care. Gabrielle is very passionate and sensitive about working with young people. I knew I wanted to build a long-lasting relationship with her and wanted to work closely with her on learning from each other’s walk of life and the struggle and the resistance that we hold as community members and leaders. The moment she mentioned this project I knew it was urgent, necessary, and important. For a white woman to hear me roar in pain and frustration and want to do something about it and to bring awareness to the situation is a powerful and uplifting experience for me. I became dedicated to the project and wanted more from it. Thank you Gabrielle for raising the voice of a black woman!

PAT HALL, Dancer, Choreographer: Statement

Art reflects the world around us…the world we live in and has always been a powerful tool to use to address social issues that matter to us. When Gabrielle approached me about the project, I was immediately interested. After yet another senseless death of a black person, driven by hate and ignorance, I felt broken inside and wanted to lash out! I thought about my family, my daughter, my young grands who are growing up in a world that is not making space or a place for them to live their lives productively in peace.

Because of COVID, I didn’t want to take to the streets in protest and I’m not a social media person but I wanted to use my voice and to speak through my art. When Gabrielle sent me Tiffiney’s recording I felt that this was an opportunity to respond in a way that was so potent and so present. This piece weaves the words, photos, archives, body-movement-voice expression in a way that is visceral and at once, educating. As an African-American woman and artist, I am proud to lend my voice to this piece that brings awareness and touches us in ways that only art can.

I have known Gabrielle for over 20 years and have worked with her on two other projects. Her work has always been thought-provoking, sensitive and powerful, and I AM NOT OK is another example of who Gabrielle is and her commitment to fighting injustices through her art.

Director Biography

Gabrielle Lansner is an award winning filmmaker, choreographer, and producer whose work is influenced by her background in choreography and performing. Her films have screened at dozens of festivals worldwide and garnered multiple awards.

She wrote and directed her first short narrative film, Lullaby to Love, in 2020. She is also in the early stages of development for her first narrative feature film, STILL LIFE, which she has penned as well.

Her film, the birch grove, 2015, had a successful festival run, screening at the Newport Beach Festival, the Cannes Short Film Corner, and Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center, to name a few. The film won the Grand Jury Prize and Best Experimental Film at the Underexposed Film Festival in Rock Hill, S.C. and Best Score at the Santa Barbara Fine Arts Film Festival.

Lansner’s, THE STRONGER, 2012, premiered at the Cannes Short Film Corner and screened at over twenty festivals, including Interfilm Berlin, Festival International du Film sur L’Art Montreal, and the Female Eye in Toronto, to a name a few. The film received Best Artistic Director Award from the Lady Filmmakers Festival in LA, the Award of Distinction from the Open Stage Festival in Poland, and was nominated for Best Experimental Film at the Female Eye Festival and Best Cinematography at the VisionFest Festival in NYC.

From 1997 to 2009, she was the Artistic Director of gabrielle lansner & company, a critically acclaimed dance/theater company based in New York City.