DNA Presents - Ethics & Aesthetics: An Evening with dream hampton

This is a special edition of Detroit Narrative Agency (DNA)'s Ethics & Aesthetics screening and talback series. This event is both a program and a fundraiser to continue to support the impactful work DNA does in the Detroit film and social justice communities. If you can give anything additional to what you pay for your ticket, or if you'd like to donate tickets, please let us know/donate directly using the "additional donation" option.

Join DNA for an evening with award-winning filmmaker and writer from Detroit, dream hampton. We will spend a night viewing and exploring in conversation two shorts and a feature film by dream. They are:

Freshwater

a portrait of remembrance, of flooded Midwestern basements and maintaining connection in the wake of ongoing displacement, abandonment and climate catastrophe. This film was meant to be small in every way--lingering shots that seem like photographs until the wind blows a leaf or a raindrop disturbs a puddle. Similarly the intentionally small production was meant to be healing. It was a retreat into a cadre of like-minded community of Detroit artists after doing work on three projects that were at major studios. I made Freshwater to remind myself I'm an artist, but also to reinforce the organizing principle about the power of small, local organizing.

We Hold These Truths

a musical and cinematic triptych featuring composer Tamar-kali's setting of three iconic poems from the turn of the 20th century through the Harlem Renaissance: Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask," Langston Hughes's "I, Too" and Claude McKay's "If We Must Die." A striking new film by dream hampton (director of the Peabody-winning and Emmy-nominated film Surviving R. Kelly), We Hold These Truths stands as both an affirmation of wonder and joy, as well as a testimony to the vigil kept for the full realization of liberty.

Treasure

a feature documentary about nineteen year old trans woman Shelly 'Treasure' Hilliard whose M**der involved police coercion, Jim Crow drug laws, the criminalization of sex work and transphobia.

dream's most recent works include the award winning short film “Freshwater” (NYT OpDocs/PBS, 2023) and “Ladies First” (Netflix, 2023). Selected works include “Treasure“ (Frameline, 2015), “Finding Justice” (BET, 2019), “It’s A Hard Truth Ain’t It” (HBO, 2019) and the Emmy nominated "Surviving R. Kelly" (Netflix, 2019), which broke ratings records and earned her a Peabody Award. In 2019, hampton was named one of TIME 100's most influential people in the world.

To learn more about dream or DNA, check out these links:

https://www.dreamhampton.com

https://www.detroitnarrativeagency.org

Host or Publisher Detroit Narrative Agency