CRWN On The Move: #BlackMovieNight
Using art as advocacy, filmmakers Sterling Milan and Cameron Ross created the short film #BlackMovieNight as a response to the lack of melanin being represented at the Academy Awards this year.
CRWN was in the building via our vintage sister niki zoë vickers to chat with these two creators about the short film.
Black Movie Night starring Sheria Irving + Akintola Jiboyew
zoë: What was your inspiration for this short?
Sterling: “We wanted to let people know that Black filmmakers are creating works worthy of recognition and praise.”
zoë: Give us one piece of wisdom for entrepreneurs, current and future.
Sterling: “My advice for other filmmakers would be create work true to yourself; passionate pieces. Your audience wants something real and passionate.”
Cameron: “Study the art of business and marketing, make sure that you finesse your brand. Be very mindful of what are you selling.”
Cameron Ross and Sterling Milan speaking to Michael Arceneaux of Complex/Ebony
zoë: For your future daughter, please give a piece of advice about defining her beauty.
Cameron: “I want to make sure she is aware of her history and heritage. Using her ancestors' and legacy beauty standards as opposed to what is shown on the television.”
Sterling: “My advice to my daughter about beauty is that it’s my goal to love her mother in front of her as much as possible. As a black woman, you will only understand beauty when you see a man love someone like yourself in its fullness; deep love, can’t let go love. Because then as a woman, you believe that you can find that yourself because you know it exists. If you don’t know that and don’t see that everyday, you won’t have faith in that love itself. I say that because I never saw my father love my mother. . . Our black women need so much love and support because y'all get such a bad rap of so many areas in life. You need that love. To my future daughter, your mother is the most beautiful woman that God created and because she is, you are the absolute epitome of beauty in every single way.”
Shayla Milan, hair crush and wife of Sterling Milan, + CRWN,
The short will be available for for twenty-four hours only tonight after Chris Rock’s monologue at 8:30PM EST online at www.theblackmovienight.com. Be sure to follow the hashtags #BlackMovieNight and #OscarsSoWhite to stay abreast.
