Birth of Pleasure
Atlanta, Georgia | Film Short
Drama, Experimental
This film addresses eroticism, based on the writings of Audre Lorde, as a means for women to reclaim joy in their jobs, relationships and identities with the goal to combat symbolic and literal pornographic ideas of beauty and sensuality. It does so through a unique combination of film and dance.
Birth of Pleasure
Atlanta, Georgia | Film Short
Drama, Experimental
1 Campaigns | Georgia, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $5,625 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
98 supporters | followers
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This film addresses eroticism, based on the writings of Audre Lorde, as a means for women to reclaim joy in their jobs, relationships and identities with the goal to combat symbolic and literal pornographic ideas of beauty and sensuality. It does so through a unique combination of film and dance.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
SYNOPSIS (TOLD WITH THE HELP OF OUR VISUAL INSPIRATIONS)
The film opens on Psyche, a young woman stirred by the tender, powerful and erotic energy of
“Sanctuaries and Fortresses” - a live dance performance.
The following morning, she's called into her her dehumanizing desk job on her day off.
While on a smoke break, she notices a dancer from the night before.
Zephyr, “The Wind Goddess”, swoops Psyche away from her job and together they travel to the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the dance company gathers after their tour before returning to their home in Atlanta.
There, Psyche meets the rest of the dancers, “The Goddesses”, as well as Cupid, the distant and ethereal choreographer of the company.
“The Goddesses” take Psyche through a healing ritual, The Dance of a Thousand Robes,
preparing her for a choice: return home or follow the impulse of the newly unleashed erotic energy.
She decides to follow the dancers to their home-base in Atlanta and auditions for a spot in their company.
The Goddesses put her through a trial, a journey through the Underworld into darkness...
Before Cupid accepts her into the group with a Disco Duet.
Finally the film ends in a light filled home, full of dancers living, moving and breathing together.
The film addresses:
a. Eroticism, based on the writings of Audre Lorde, as a means for women to reclaim joy in their jobs, relationships and identities and to combat symbolic and literal ‘pornographic’ ideas of beauty and sensuality.
b. The importance of support for the mental health and outlook of women in our current political
and cultural climate through nurturing depictions of the dancers.
c. The politicization of the female body through abstractions and depictions of menstruation and the shame and silence that oftentimes surrounds menstruation.
This film is an experiment in presenting choreography in a way that honors the choreography, without trying to replicate all of the nuances that are only possible in a live show. It is a child of the choreography, that supports the live work and maintains its independence as a stand alone work of art.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Food
Costs $1,800
We got a big cast and crew, and we're feeding them healthy, nutritious, home cooked meals.
Travel
Costs $500
It takes gas to get a crew, cast and equipment into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Production Design
Costs $1,000
The hero journeys from a theater, to the mountains, to the underworld and to a disco.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Talent
Costs $2,000
We have a big cast taking days off work over several days. We need to support them.
Share this update!
About This Team
Our team is a diverse and multi-national group of artists, creatives and performers based in Atlanta, GA.
CREW
Lev Omelchenko - Director
Lev is a Visual Artist born and raised in Ukraine, and currently based in Atlanta, GA. His film work is driven by collaborations with local artists and utilization of unusual and forgotten spaces. He plays with questions of modern rediscovery of ancient and sacred modes of existing, community vs individualism and the importance of diversity for imagination.
Anicka Austin - Choreographer
Anicka Austin is a performer & choreographer working from Atlanta, GA. She is invested in storytelling traditions and myth making as methods of inquiry. She is a 2015-18 Lucky Penny Work Room resident artist and a 2017-18 WonderRoot Walthall Fellow.
Amber L.N. Bournett - DP-
Amber is a military brat, artist, science fiction enthusiast, cinematographer, and director. She co-founded indie art film-house, House of June, with Ebony Blanding in 2013, while studying Film and video at Georgia State University. Her love of film began during the plastic Disney VHS Box Collection era. Initially visually expressing through oil paint and brushes since childhood, Bournett then a fine art painter, began studying as a cinematographer. Canvases soon transitioned to cameras through necessity and growth. A lack of representation of black existence in film called her to become a filmmaker and also curator of the cinematic arts.
Xenia Simos - Art Director
Xenia is an installation artist with a background in sculpture and design. She is born and raised in Greece, and a graduate of the University of Georgia with a bachelor of fine arts in interior design, her work explores space and our relationship to it. Through a conceptual and process-based approach, Simos translates the human experience into a spatial composition, manifesting mental structures into physical ones. Her works are often site specific, and interdisciplinary in medium.
Naomi Mack - Social Media
Naomi is a creator here in Atlanta dedicated to sharing the human experience through truth. Although she's been making a name for herself as an actress, she has always been passionate about film production as a whole. As an aspiring director, her goal as a storyteller is to capture moments of life and share these stories specifically through film and movement to enhance our quality of life and broaden perspectives.
Saira Raza -Mixing/Sound Design
Saira's work displays a wide range of musical influences including jazz, folk, electronic, and
classical. In her recordings, Saira employs any and all instruments within reach including
vibraphone, guitar, bass, dilruba, found sounds, synths, but she primarily performs with her first
love, the cello. Her album Inertia was included in Creative Loafing Atlanta’s 40 Best Albums of
2016. She recently released a new project Extempore, which reflects the experimental
loop-based style of her live solo sets.
Chris Gravely - Composer
Music
Chris Gravely is an experienced Freelance Percussionist of 17 years. He has studied drum set,
hand drums, and classical percussion. Chris studied under the instruction of
various teachers such as John LaMattina, River Gueguerian, Michael Cebulski, Caleb Harron,
Stuart Gerber, and Charles Settle. As a soloist, Chris has performed two Concertos with the
Georgia Perimeter Wind Ensemble, and also premiered works by local Atlanta composers such
as Lowell Fuchs, Michael Standard, and his own piece entitled LIFE, which he premiered in
March of this year. Chris is also a teacher of percussion and drum set in the Atlanta area.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
SYNOPSIS (TOLD WITH THE HELP OF OUR VISUAL INSPIRATIONS)
The film opens on Psyche, a young woman stirred by the tender, powerful and erotic energy of
“Sanctuaries and Fortresses” - a live dance performance.
The following morning, she's called into her her dehumanizing desk job on her day off.
While on a smoke break, she notices a dancer from the night before.
Zephyr, “The Wind Goddess”, swoops Psyche away from her job and together they travel to the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the dance company gathers after their tour before returning to their home in Atlanta.
There, Psyche meets the rest of the dancers, “The Goddesses”, as well as Cupid, the distant and ethereal choreographer of the company.
“The Goddesses” take Psyche through a healing ritual, The Dance of a Thousand Robes,
preparing her for a choice: return home or follow the impulse of the newly unleashed erotic energy.
She decides to follow the dancers to their home-base in Atlanta and auditions for a spot in their company.
The Goddesses put her through a trial, a journey through the Underworld into darkness...
Before Cupid accepts her into the group with a Disco Duet.
Finally the film ends in a light filled home, full of dancers living, moving and breathing together.
The film addresses:
a. Eroticism, based on the writings of Audre Lorde, as a means for women to reclaim joy in their jobs, relationships and identities and to combat symbolic and literal ‘pornographic’ ideas of beauty and sensuality.
b. The importance of support for the mental health and outlook of women in our current political
and cultural climate through nurturing depictions of the dancers.
c. The politicization of the female body through abstractions and depictions of menstruation and the shame and silence that oftentimes surrounds menstruation.
This film is an experiment in presenting choreography in a way that honors the choreography, without trying to replicate all of the nuances that are only possible in a live show. It is a child of the choreography, that supports the live work and maintains its independence as a stand alone work of art.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Food
Costs $1,800
We got a big cast and crew, and we're feeding them healthy, nutritious, home cooked meals.
Travel
Costs $500
It takes gas to get a crew, cast and equipment into the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Production Design
Costs $1,000
The hero journeys from a theater, to the mountains, to the underworld and to a disco.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Talent
Costs $2,000
We have a big cast taking days off work over several days. We need to support them.
Share this update!
About This Team
Our team is a diverse and multi-national group of artists, creatives and performers based in Atlanta, GA.
CREW
Lev Omelchenko - Director
Lev is a Visual Artist born and raised in Ukraine, and currently based in Atlanta, GA. His film work is driven by collaborations with local artists and utilization of unusual and forgotten spaces. He plays with questions of modern rediscovery of ancient and sacred modes of existing, community vs individualism and the importance of diversity for imagination.
Anicka Austin - Choreographer
Anicka Austin is a performer & choreographer working from Atlanta, GA. She is invested in storytelling traditions and myth making as methods of inquiry. She is a 2015-18 Lucky Penny Work Room resident artist and a 2017-18 WonderRoot Walthall Fellow.
Amber L.N. Bournett - DP-
Amber is a military brat, artist, science fiction enthusiast, cinematographer, and director. She co-founded indie art film-house, House of June, with Ebony Blanding in 2013, while studying Film and video at Georgia State University. Her love of film began during the plastic Disney VHS Box Collection era. Initially visually expressing through oil paint and brushes since childhood, Bournett then a fine art painter, began studying as a cinematographer. Canvases soon transitioned to cameras through necessity and growth. A lack of representation of black existence in film called her to become a filmmaker and also curator of the cinematic arts.
Xenia Simos - Art Director
Xenia is an installation artist with a background in sculpture and design. She is born and raised in Greece, and a graduate of the University of Georgia with a bachelor of fine arts in interior design, her work explores space and our relationship to it. Through a conceptual and process-based approach, Simos translates the human experience into a spatial composition, manifesting mental structures into physical ones. Her works are often site specific, and interdisciplinary in medium.
Naomi Mack - Social Media
Naomi is a creator here in Atlanta dedicated to sharing the human experience through truth. Although she's been making a name for herself as an actress, she has always been passionate about film production as a whole. As an aspiring director, her goal as a storyteller is to capture moments of life and share these stories specifically through film and movement to enhance our quality of life and broaden perspectives.
Saira Raza -Mixing/Sound Design
Saira's work displays a wide range of musical influences including jazz, folk, electronic, and
classical. In her recordings, Saira employs any and all instruments within reach including
vibraphone, guitar, bass, dilruba, found sounds, synths, but she primarily performs with her first
love, the cello. Her album Inertia was included in Creative Loafing Atlanta’s 40 Best Albums of
2016. She recently released a new project Extempore, which reflects the experimental
loop-based style of her live solo sets.
Chris Gravely - Composer
Music
Chris Gravely is an experienced Freelance Percussionist of 17 years. He has studied drum set,
hand drums, and classical percussion. Chris studied under the instruction of
various teachers such as John LaMattina, River Gueguerian, Michael Cebulski, Caleb Harron,
Stuart Gerber, and Charles Settle. As a soloist, Chris has performed two Concertos with the
Georgia Perimeter Wind Ensemble, and also premiered works by local Atlanta composers such
as Lowell Fuchs, Michael Standard, and his own piece entitled LIFE, which he premiered in
March of this year. Chris is also a teacher of percussion and drum set in the Atlanta area.