Finding the Frame
story behind the piece
In 2021, I worked a job as an A-Camera Operator on a movie called ‘A Thousand and One’.
The story followed a low income woman who grew up in and out of the NYC foster care system. She meets a young boy in the same position who reminds her of her tough childhood. She decides to adopt and raise him without legal paperwork and the movie follows the two traverse through difficulties and triumphs and ultimately grow as a family. The movie shows the difficulties of low income black communities in the 90’s and 2000’s and has both heartwarming and heartbreaking realities.
In this image; we were filming some scenes in Harlem on a very hot summer day. Our cinematographer; Enrique Yue and director; AV Rockwell were searching for our next shot’s frame with the directors finder on the sidewalk. I was always right next to them to help translate their frames and ideas into moving images. In this moment, I had my Leica Minilux in my pocket and snapped a quick 35mm point and shoot image of the moment.
Later, the movie went on to Sundance and ended up winning the Grand Jury Prize at the festival. I was so moved by the final piece that I felt a strong desire to draw this moment and ended up with this drawing. Later to gift it to Enrique Yue.
