After many months of hard work I am so proud to announce Vol I of "Hip Hop Esta Vivo En Cuba" is available to DL and purchase on all digital platforms!! The last year traveling to Cuba and working with so many talented artists and musicians, has been one of the best experiences of my life. There is still so much more to come from this project, a documentary film release in 2018, more promos and live videos, but the first step in our plan was always the music. Our partner Collin Diles put his heart and soul into this release, and we are blessed to have the legendary Errol Brown master the album. You can check out the promo that I shot and co-directed below. It's also a tease to the documentary that is coming down the pipeline. Stay Tuned and follow our progress at www.hiphopestavivoencuba.com
"Almost One" Short film streaming on Amazon
After a small film festival run, and several successful DIY screenings, my weird little documentary / narrative hybrid is now officially streaming on Amazon, and available for free to all Amazon Prime users. It's also available to rent for anyone willing and curious in the world. You can find it at the link below.
https://www.amazon.com/Almost-One-Josh-Williams/dp/B076HZXT6L/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1508339335&sr=1-1&keywords=Almost+One
Zander interviewing DJ Leydis for our film Hip Hop: Esta Vivo en Cuba
Hip Hop: Esta Vivo en Cuba!
August 12-22nd I had the pleasure of having the opportunity to visit Cuba under a professional research visa to take part in a Hip Hop symposium in Havana. With this came the chance to collaborate on a short film and the recording of an album. Yup, it was as amazing as it sounds guys!
My old college buddy Alexander Scott pitched me on the idea of shooting a film about Cuban Hip Hop at this time of monumental change in Cuba, and I was immediately sold. He then secured a grant from a foundation in Detroit to make this dream project a funded reality. The state of Cuba post-Obama visiting in March, and the start of this "normalization" process between the two governments would serve as the inspiration to shoot a film and serve as our general thesis during this collaboration with many talented Cuban artists. Zander also facilitated bringing down Collin Diles, a talented producer from New Mexico, to implement a strategy to record music and handle on set sound. Over the course of 12 days we recorded a 16 song album and shot 1.5 TBs worth of video footage! I was completely blown away with how hard everyone worked and utilized our time. The relationships we made in Cuba will be long standing, and I am so excited to move forward with the process of editing this short film and releasing a full length album/sound track. Stay tuned for a lot of good things to come. Below is a teaser trailer for the film. We are working hard on an *OFFICIAL trailer SOON! Our first single "Equilibrio" drops soon as well.
www.facebook.com/HipHopEstaVivoenCuba
www.instagram.com/hiphop_estavivoencuba
The crew!!
Coney Island Film Festival 2016
We had the pleasure of being apart of the 16th annual Coney Island Film Festival this past weekend with our short film "Almost One". Our screening block brought some great talent to the screen, we all had a really solid Q&A together. All the filmmakers brought a good vibe and I hope to cross paths with them again as continue as we continue to glean more knowledge about the festival circuit. Warriors, come out and plaaaaay!
"Achoo Achoo, How Do You Do?" film shoot
I got to experience the crazy visual world of Duane Michals first hand last Friday. For those of you don't know Duane is a famous NY photographer, in particular for his contribution to the artistic movement of telling stories through a photo series back in the 1960s. At age 83 Duane decided to start making short films for the first time, and screened a series of 12 avant-garde films at SVA that were equal parts weird, wacky, and amusing. My friend Josiah Cuneo who works directly with Duane on his films, booked me to run audio on his newest short "Achoo Achoo, How Do You Do?". This film was like a vaudeville show that turns into chaos with various performers spilling on and off the stage. It's always fun and exciting to see new people's process on set, and it was a pleasure to be a part of this film and I got inspired by the creative freedom that Duane Michals and Josiah bring to their films. Can't wait to see the final product.
TOBH Photo Party / ALMOST ONE Film Screening
July 30th 2016, Philadelphia PA
We had a great TOBH photo party / 1CD screening event in West Philly. A lot of people came out to support the TOBH movement and 1CD as a production company. Our film ALMOST ONE got a great response. This was our 5th private screening event this summer. Philly really showed us some love, definitely our 2nd home outside of NYC.
Setting up the space aka the calm before the storm
New 1CD business cards!
Josh aka Technodrome1 getting interviewed about the film and his art work.
Hip Hop Hacks!
Check out this really fun package I shot and edited for SciTech Now about a monthly hack-a-thon event that is held at the Spotify headquarters in NYC. Coders and rappers alike came together to work on projects and apps revolving around hip hop culture and music. These kids are so bright and really think outside the box, so much respect for coders. Big shout out to my producers Challis Popkey and Emily Boghossian for such a fun collaboration!