National YoungArts Foundation commissioned five multidisciplinary teams, each comprising three artists and told them to go nuts exploring the theme of “Transformations.” The result: five short films that mash up creativity, premiering Saturday, Nov. 5, during a free party under the stars at the YoungArts Campus in Miami.
This endeavor meant putting together teams of grads dating from the ’80s to now, across media including cinematography, music, writing, visual arts, and dance. Equipped with free creative rein, each team was able to interpret the film assignment however it wanted — with one going so far as to an abandoned mental hospital in Seattle, Wash. — to explore the meaning of transformation.
In order of appearance: Tyler | To and From | Solitude, Darkness, Light | Variations On Breathing | Hell You Talmbout
The films explore the physical metamorphoses of body and environment, as well as the allusive transformations of mind and soul. Here, a couple of participating YoungArts alumni weigh in on what the creative processes were like and what it meant to work across backgrounds:
Da’Shawn Mosley (To and From | 2012 Winner in Writing)
“Our film focuses on three budding artists who each work in a different medium of art and have each found themselves stuck in a predicament of isolation. Each of the artists are versions of us and are portrayed by us, and each of our respective mediums of art — poetry, cinema, music — take center stage in our film.”
Isabela Dos Santos (Solitude, Darkness, Light | 2011 Winner in Cinematic Arts)
“I keep saying that this project made me feel like a scientist, like we were sent out to the field to gather information on this phenomenon of ‘transformations’ and digest it through our artist brains and report back. It meant that we had societal purpose as artists, to unfold abstract issues everyone wonders about.”
Devyn Tyler (Tyler | 2009 Winner in Theater)
“Collaboration across disciplines can be difficult because it feels as though we all speak different languages. But that’s where the magic is. We have to learn how to speak to one another, and we have to find a common vocabulary to tell the same story. That process is always refining and rewarding.”
The premier is free and open to the public. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the screening, in addition to alumni performances, will begin at 7:30 p.m. Attendees can RSVP to the event here.