In this episode Gregory is joined by Megan Dhawan, a journalist, filmmaker, photographer, cinephile, programmer, poet and future podcast host!

You can find her letterboxd here:

https://letterboxd.com/megxxn/films/

Please note this episode was recorded July 2025.

In this episode we sit down with Sisa Bueno, Deion & Kamal Browder, two brothers of Kalief Browder to discuss the documentary, FOR VENIDA, FOR KALIEF

This documentary debuts the poetry of Venida Brodnax Browder, mother of Kalief Browder- an African-American teenager who inspired incarceration reform in the United States. It is not just a film about incarceration, but one that is about giving a complex humanity to people and communities (Black, Latino, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, and Asian) plagued by these issues. The film is an intentional weaving of verité, poetic visuals, rare archival imagery of 1970s New York, and most importantly, deep emotions. The film is a tender journey and exploration into the past, present and future, and delivers nuance and understanding about the long vicious cycle of mass incarceration over the last 50 years. It culminates in the contemporary movement to transform Rikers Island - one of the world’s most notorious jails - into a renewable energy center. This film intertwines spirituality and advocacy, while crafting a cinematic experience that re-imagines the “criminal justice” documentary as a poetic collage.

Director - Sisa Bueno Producer - Sisa Bueno, David Felix Sutcliffe, Paola Gadala-Maria, Jasmine Mans Cinematographer - Sisa BuenoEditor - Kristan Sprague, Daniel Chavez Ontiveros Poetry by - Venida Brodnax Browder Narrator - Jasmine Mans This documentary film was made possible with the support of: ITVS, Ford Foundation, Sundance Institute, International Documentary Association (IDA), deNovo Initiative, City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME), Firelight Media, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), Film Independent, The Gotham, Jerome Foundation, Hot Docs, Points North Institute, Sunny Side of the Doc, DOK Leipzig.

Uptown Films Podcast goes international!

Guests in this episode include:

Elizabeth McIntyre | Co-Founder and Director

With a career across conference, exhibition, commissioning and production, Elizabeth’s work includes curation for OKRE, a Wellcome Trust-supported story ideas platform (with a focus on climate and migration), and consultancy for ProQuote Film Berlin (UK and Irish speakers). Previous positions include Director of Sheffield Doc/Fest, Head of Masterschool Documentary Campus and Head of Production & Development (UK Factual) for Discovery Networks International, where she commissioned single films and series for local and global markets, including You Have Been Warned, The Great White Silence and Inside the Gangsters’ Code. Documentary credits include The Lost Children of Berlin for Steven Spielberg, Dangerous Love (BBC), No Place Like Home (BBC) and Five Steps to Tyranny (BBC).

Advisory roles include OKRE (supported by Wellcome), UK Muslim Film, Bronx Independent Cinema Center and, formerly, the BAFTA TV/Learning, Inclusion & Talent committees and WFTV trustee. Elizabeth contributes to mentoring and masterclass programmes such as Wonder Women and ScreenSkills (UK), and remains active with the BAFTA TV committee, including as an assessor for their grants. Elizabeth is currently based between the USA, Germany and the UK.

Chuka Ejorh | CEO and post director at Blink Studios, Nigeria

Chuka Ejorh has 20 years experience working on award-winning feature films, TV shows, drama series, documentaries and TV commercials in South Africa and Nigeria and is regarded as one of the top film editors in Nigeria.
Chuka founded Blink Studios Ltd in 2015; a company which provides post-production services for film and TV; and post-production supervision and consultation.
Listed as one of the top 100 influential Nigerians in Nollywood, Chuka has been nominated for AMVCA and AMAA awards; his films have won awards in Nigeria and across the world (most notably The Milkmaid, which was Nigeria's official submission for the Academy Awards in 2021); and he has mentored and helped scores of young Nigerians begin and sustain their careers in the film industry.

KAZEMBE BALAGUN (he/him), Executive Director

For the past twenty years, Kazembe Balagun has been a dynamic force on the NYC’s left intelligentsia scene, bringing together diverse audiences in real time to debate, learn and form solidarity.

Kazembe was born in Harlem in 1976, the son of Benjamin and Mildred. As the youngest of three and first generation out of the south New Yorker, Kazembe’s world outlook was formed by his parents’ trade unionism, life in the Polo Grounds Housing Project (“a small southern village transplanted up North as he said”), the LA Rebellion of 1992, and the sounds of Public Enemy, X-Clan, Rage Against the Machine and Wu-Tang.

From 1996-2000 he was a member of The Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM!) as a student at Hunter College, a broad multiracial front that sought to extend the legacy of the 1969 CUNY Student movements, fighting for a free, democratic, CUNY. 

In 2008, he came onboard as outreach coordinator for the Brecht Forum, a broadly anti-capitalist cultural space in the West Village. His interest included the intersections of Marxism, Black liberation, and LGBTQ issues, working with diverse collectives such as Theater of The Oppressed, Women on Wednesdays, Ground Floor Collective, Neues Kabarett, Music Now Series, and speakers such as Slavoj Zizek, Angela Davis, and Naomi Klein.

“Being around so many speakers, so many musicians and artists, especially in the Village taught me it really wasn’t about code-switching, it was about being polyphonic.” said Kazembe about his experiences at the Brecht Forum. “The sound of jazz really helped me develop coalition politics.”

His start in film was unintentional. A class at Manhattan Neighborhood Network to document Brecht Forum events led to a passion for editing. Eventually he joined the Red Channels Collective which programmed films out of the Brecht Forum. He continued his film work as a production fellow at Third World Newsreel.

From 2013-2022, Kazembe was a project manager at the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung New York Office, He lives in Co-op City with his son Miles and cat, Leroi.

Maysles Documentary Center is a Harlem-based nonprofit organization committed to community, education, and documentary film. We use filmmaking to amplify and expand under-represented artists and narratives, while empowering young filmmakers in creative self-expression, communicating ideas, and advocating needs.

Executive Director Kazembe Balagun of Maysles Documentary Center makes a bold claim as his micro cinema center has the best popcorn of any theater in New York City!

Visit Maysles in Harlem today!

Solomon West is a dynamic professional with a Mechanical Engineering background and a multifaceted career spanning cloud infrastructure, software integration, and community health. Certified as an AWS Cloud Practitioner, Solomon is fluent in technologies like Docker, Kubernetes, React, and Jenkins, with hands-on experience in database systems and API development. His business acumen shines through in his understanding of media-tech ecosystems: he’s contributed to platforms where film studios leverage granular viewer data — including trailer views and shares — to optimize distribution strategies and secure funding. Solomon’s cross-industry experience includes engineering project management, application support, and health equity outreach, making him a rare blend of technical depth, strategic thinking, and human-centered impact.

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Interview Segment with Solomon West | Founder of TrailerScope

Solomon West is a dynamic professional with a Mechanical Engineering background and a multifaceted career spanning cloud infrastructure, software integration, and community health. Certified as an AWS Cloud Practitioner, Solomon is fluent in technologies like Docker, Kubernetes, React, and Jenkins, with hands-on experience in database systems and API development. His business acumen shines through in his understanding of media-tech ecosystems: he’s contributed to platforms where film studios leverage granular viewer data — including trailer views and shares — to optimize distribution strategies and secure funding. Solomon’s cross-industry experience includes engineering project management, application support, and health equity outreach, making him a rare blend of technical depth, strategic thinking, and human-centered impact.

Episode #51 with Kendra Monet, a filmmaker from Harlem.

Kendra Monet is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied Film & TV. She creates personal narratives about individuals that dare to use their voices and imaginations to discover themselves. Her student short films have been selected at numerous film festivals including an honorable mention award at the Denton Black Film Festival her coming of age short film "The Walk Home." She was a finalist at the Changing Minds Young Filmmaker Festival, and she was interviewed by Bronx News 12 about her documentary film "Pulling the Evidence That Remains", a personal narrative on mental health. Kendra is currently working in publicity at Searchlight Pictures, where she has contributed to Academy Award winning campaigns such as Questlove’s "Summer of Soul" and most recently the Academy nominated and acclaimed film: Jesse Eisenberg's "A Real Pain." At the same time, she is in post-production for her short film ATTACHED, a psychological thriller about a struggling actress whose past continues to haunt her that forces her to confront her sense of control.

https://www.thekendramonet.com/

https://vimeo.com/kendramonet

https://tisch.nyu.edu/film-tv/news/2019/ugftv-student-kendra-brown-interviewd-on-bronx-new-12.html

Chapters:

- 00:00

Intro

- 00:56

Kendra's Introduction

- 01:15

What does it mean to be an independent filmmaker?

02:22

- How did your experiences at NYU prepare you to become a filmmaker/visual storyteller?

04:27

- What was your experience like working in Searchlight Pictures, publicity, and now working in the industry?

07:18

- How has your view on being a filmmaker changed over the past three years?

11:34

- What is your inspiration in making the short film "Attached"?

15:16

- Technical approach to the film

19:55

- What is ShotDeck?

22:41

- Kendra's past with dancing

24:48

- What was it like finding the right production designer?

31:18

- What made you choose to do a backstory and how did it help production?

34:30

- How often do you rehearse prior to production?

37:04

- What was the intention behind utilizing 180 degree shutter angles?

49:26

- Ad break

50:16

- First project co-writing/producing/directing

59:36

- Did people talk about the story potentially taking place in D.C.?

01:03:49

- What was it like confronting someone who you thought wasn't doing their job well?

01:20:08

- How did you come up with the name "Attached" and how did the final script work for you?