Creatives of all levels inspire with industry knowledge sessions & award winning projects...
Ive often said that Baltimore should be given more credit for its strong arts community rather than the credit its often given for drug dealing, murder, or crooked cops. The Baltimore Next Media Web Festival is a great example of some of the creativity in this city. The festival draws digital media creators from all over the world to screen projects and receive awards. Thanks to event creator Elena Moscatt and her team this years festivities included 137 project screenings, celebrity vip panels, and a red carpet lined awards ceremony.
This year will make the sixth year that this event has taken place and we are looking forward to many more. Elena has been a part of the film industry since the late eighties doing everything from craft services to producing and directing. While listening to the gratitude and positivity that some industry heavyweights show when speaking on her influence on their careers is amazing. One of my favorites is Tray Chaney who is a DC area native who first gained fame as the character Poot in the critically acclaimed HBO series "The Wire". As he spoke very highly of Elena you could see and hear the genuine admiration pouring from him reminiscing of when they both worked on the set of the show. Hey my creative family if you ever need a master craft service person with a great team give Elena a hit.
The entire festival lasted for 4 days but I was only blessed enough to make it through for one day. What a day it was though... The celebrity ViP panel consisted of the motivational Tray Chaney known for acting in "The Wire", several movies, and currently the series "Saint and Sinners". The lovely Reece Odum who also is a "Saints and Sinners" cast member along with films like "Karen" and other series like "Vampire Diaries". Another "Saints and Sinners" cast member that showed up is exceptional Patrice Fisher who has a long list of projects under her belt "Trois 3 The Escort" being one of my favorites. The beautiful Shaquita Smith who is known for "NCIS: New Orleans" and the upcoming project "Wicked City" finished off the talented list of actors and actresses speaking on the topic of diversity.
One of the more interesting parts of the discussion was hearing that some of the diversity issues in entertainment that I heard about as a child in the eighties still are prevalent in the entertainment industry in 2022. A major one is having a director thats not of the culture of the character that they are directing telling an actor playing the character to do something like like act more black or latino basing their thoughts on stereotypes. Like how do you act more black?
The night ended with a giant party bus that was literally like a club on wheels. The whole event was a great time for creators and for people who enjoy award winning content alike. For submissions and any other information go to https://www.bnmwebfest.com/ hopefully we see each other there next year and if we do give me some love...
