Help Fund "STILL LIFE" Short Film by Kwesi Jones

About Me:

My name is Kwesi Jones and I am a 2nd Year Graduate Directing student attending the NYU Graduate Film program. Growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, I cultivated a serious interest and dedication to the arts from a young age. My earliest passion was for the visual arts; as a visual artist, I learned to transmute my imagination and render my interests and emotions with paint, graphite and ink on the 2-dimensional realms of paper and canvas. Now as a filmmaker, my early passion for visual arts has evolved into 3-dimensions, using a camera now as my paintbrush, I craft immersive stories that interrogate emotional, personal, or societal truth.

Of the many lessons I have learned thus far at NYU, the most essential is that at the very heart of filmmaking is collaboration and community. More than any other art form, filmmaking is not an individual venture; it requires the support, creativity, and dedication of a group of people to bring it to life. In this spirit of collaboration and community, I humbly ask for your support in bringing my next film project to life.

The Film:

"All profoundly original art looks ugly at first."

STILL LIFE is a psychological thriller following a troubled art student, Amiri, who is invited to the home of his professor, world-renowned expressionist artist, Marcel Khan. As he discovers the horrific nature of Marcel's work, Amiri must reckon with his own desires and the driving force behind his art.

The film is an effort for me to excise and explore my own inner conflicts surrounding the nature, ethics and meaning of my own art, especially as a Black artist. In this film I take inspiration from artists who have changed the way I interpret and engage with visual art including Jacob Lawrence, Augusta Savage, Kara Walker, Romare Bearden, Marcel Duchamp, Wassily Kandinsky, and Damien Hirst.

Through Amiri and Marcel's internal conflicts, STILL LIFE poses the questions: what is the purpose of art? How far should one go to be great? How do you confront the dark shadows of your psyche?

Why We Need You:

Even in the world of short films, production costs of $15,000 and above are considered low-budget. My film “Still Life” exists in the tradition of classic Hitchcockian films like Rope, which thrill and entice audiences with a contained location and a small cast.

We will need to reach our budget of $7,000 to make this film possible.

Your contribution will go toward:

Contribution Incentives:

Everyone who contributes any amount is greatly appreciated and partly responsible for bringing the film to fruition.