HEAR US NOW?!? inFusion Film Festival and Exhibition

Curated by Allison Duggan, Gerad Forte, and Sarah McCann

Film Festival: May 7, 2022 10am-5pm

Exhibition on view: May 7 – June 3, 2022

HOEN & CO LITHOGRAPH BUILDING

2101 E Biddle Street, Baltimore,  MD 21213

Hear Us Now!?! Is focused on Baltimore, social justice, and the effects of Covid-19. The festival and exhibition is a follow up to the 2019 inFusion Film Festival and exhibition Are We Loud Enough? and showcases Baltimore artists, filmmakers, and artwork that is related to the struggle for justice, equity, and transformation needed in our communities now. Topics addressed include:

• What is life like in your Baltimore neighborhood?

• What do you love about your community?

• Who are the people and places that make where you live a special place?

• What are the challenges people in your community face?

• How has our society’s history of oppression and violence impacted where you live?

• How has Covid-19 impacted any of the above?

May 7 is the film festival, a FREE full day event that will include films, DJs, food, an art activity, art exhibition, and tours of Outlook OVFX Animation Studio.  The film screenings will begin at 10am and run throughout the day, full schedule will be announced on www.fusiongroup.org. The culminating feature length film Dis-placia: Vacants in the Village by Jewel Guy/Fight Blight Bmore is a film that exposes what blight is, how it came into being, what must be done to address it and how the community is doing its part to solve the problem.

This festival is presented by the inFusion Community Grants Program, and Video Lab. The event is hosted by Morgan CARES and the Center For Neighborhood Innovation in partnership with Fusion Partnerships, Inc. Funding for this event is supported by The Annie E Casey Foundation and the Baltimore Community Foundation.

Artists featured in the visual arts exhibition include: Zizwe Allette, Daisy Brown, Tatiana C., Roy Crosse, Eager Quilters, Kali Hinton, how-weLL, Tiffany Jones, Shamarah Jones, Shariah, Jones, Zoe Nowoslawski, Hannah Nowoslawski, Caroline Rice, Student artists from Access Art program at Commodore John Rodgers, Ali Thomas, Wide Angle Youth Media

inFusion Community Grants is a resident led, resident driven, and resident approved community grounded grants program. The impetus for this program was the displacement of nearly 700 families from their homes in East Baltimore to make way for the building of an 88-acre technology park. inFusion Community Grants Program collaborates with residents in the following neighborhoods: C.A.R.E., McElderry Park, and Middle East (all bordering Johns Hopkins Hospital) to restore long term residential power through participatory grantmaking and supporting grassroots initiatives.

Video Lab Baltimore is an initiative of Baltimore United Viewfinders, a youth driven leadership organization that uses the digital arts to tell participants’ own stories about themselves and their homes in and around the Middle East neighborhood.

Morgan CARES(Community Aligned REsearch solutions) is the community engagement core of The Center for Urban Health Disparities Research & Innovation at Morgan State University. Our primary focus is to foster collaborative academic and community partnerships through community-based participatory research. The Morgan CARES community center, located at the historical Hoen & Co Lithography building, is a collaborative space where our network can participate in community events, seminars, workshops, training and more.

Center for Neighborhood Innovation/Hoen & Co is a collaborative workspace for mission-driven organizations based out of East Baltimore. By providing access to tailored facilities, shared resources, and interdisciplinary conversations, the CNI offers an environment where members can grow and collaborate with community stakeholders.

Image: Nancy’s Vibe 02 by Tiffany Jones