Third Coast Creatives

Throughout history, storytellers have been a valued member of a community.   Whether passing down traditional stories over a winter fire in a tribal wigwam, creating a fictional world on the written page, or translating a story to a video format, storytelling is a valued skill.   But imagine being able to convincingly tell your story in under 60 seconds.  Now that is a truly unique talent.   On a cold evening in the backroom of a Ravenswood micro-brewery, attendees of the second quarterly live screening of the Big Teeth Small Shorts Film Festival were treated to a panoply of talented short form visual story tellers. The Big Teeth Small Shorts Film Festival is a quarterly showcase of great films from all over the world, each under five minutes in length.   The festival has a mission to give emerging filmmakers a platform in a way that celebrates very short form storytelling.   BTSSFF focuses exclusively on micro shorts (60 seconds or less) and smal...

The day the nominations for the 2020 Academy Awards were announced was a frustrating time for Naomi McDougall Jones.   The actor, screenwriter, and award-winning independent filmmaker (Imagine I’m Beautiful (2014), Bite Me (2019)) has long been an advocate for gender parity in the film industry.   Her TEDTalk, What It’s Like to be a Woman in Hollywood, has been viewed over one million times.   Jones was disappointed, but not surprised, that not one woman was nominated in the Best Director Category.   “The all-male directors nomination knocked the wind out of even me,” Jones says.   “The fact that the top four nominated films are so blatantly, not only by and about white men, but they read like a bad punchline to a joke.   It’s unbelievable.”   In the 92-year history of the Academy Awards, only five women have been nominated for Best Director.   Only one, Kathryn Bigelow has won (Hurt Locker). Despite her frustration, Jones is conti...