June 23, 2024 | 10am – 3pm
Location: Residency Unlimited, 360 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11231
On Sunday June 23, 2024, Residency Unlimited hosted a workshop in which recent West African immigrants to the US created short films about their experience so far in New York. The Clemente hosted a similar workshop on June 22 in their premises. RU plans to continue facilitating these workshops dedicated to building an oral and visual archive about migrant experiences in New York City.
Led by filmmakers Ellen Knechel, Mohamed Balde, and Virginie Danglades, participants learned to make responsive mini-movies using footage filmed on their cell phones. The Workshop prompted a small group of new New Yorkers who recently arrived from Guinea to create a communal experience of making and watching films together while sharing ideas, observations, and feelings about the immigrant experience.
Mohamed Moustapha Balde is a Guinean filmmaker with 10 years of experience. He has worked on both episodic series and short narrative films. His work includes Mind Game, Stained Scarf, and Nr Touch among others. In addition to making his own work, he is passionate about helping others develop their storytelling skills.
Virginie Danglades is a documentary filmmaker and editor with a passion for storytelling across genres and platforms. She edited The Barber of Little Rock, a 2024 Oscar’s short documentary nominee, which explores America’s racial and generational wealth gap. She also edited Searching for Augusta Savage, Harry and Megan (Netflix), The Principles of Pleasure (Netflix), Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (PBS), Hamburger America, No Farewells, and Wine Crush.
Ellen Knechel is a documentary editor and filmmaker whose work has screened at film festivals in the US and internationally and been broadcast on PBS the Sundance Channel, and AMC+. She began her career as a volunteer in Honduras and she often collaborates on projects that deal with Latin America and immigration, including Border South (2019), which is about the migrant trail through Mexico. Her most recent editing work is Without Arrows (2023), a longitudinal portrait of a Lakota family.
