Profile of GED student Elliott Dudley
New York
Why do we need so many film festivals?
Why do we need so many film festivals?
Even putting aside the big industry festivals, like Cannes, Sundance, Berlin, Toronto, Telluride, Venice and IDFA, not a day goes by without a film site announcing another festival lineup.
Originally published on Arts and Crit on 1 April, 2014.
Finding a home for each and every pet
Finding a home for each and every pet
Bobbi and the Strays is part of New York City’s growing movement toward no-kill animal shelters. But can we save every animal?
Originally published in Queens Chronicle on 20 March, 2014.
Hollywood’s women have had enough
Women are underrepresented behind and in front of the camera. At the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College, strong women insisted on discussing inequality and raise the questions about gender discrimination that nobody dares answer.
Originally posted in Denmark’s largest newspaper Politiken on 20 Feb, 2014. (in Danish)
Healthy diets don’t grow in the garden
Healthy diets don’t grow in the garden
Several organizations are working to provide affordable, healthy food to low-income New Yorkers through urban farmsteads, mobile markets and hands-on gardening programs. But what do public housing residents think about healthy eating?
Co-written by Micah Luxen and Natalie Rahhal. Originally posted on NYCinFocus on 21 Oct, 2013.
Cheering for the NYC Marathon
The runners come in all ages, nationalities, body types, costumes and exhaustion levels. One man with wild black hair, wearing nothing but red shorts and running shoes, dribbles a basketball. Other guys are dressed like Waldo, or wear a suit or a banana costume. A young woman in yellow tosses her gray mittens to the side of the street. A middle aged man in black with a belly and a big yellow bandage around his right knee wears a painful expression and barely lifts his feet off the ground. Several runners duck under the barrier, do stretches while in the restroom line, then sprint back to the course.
It’s the New York City Marathon, and at the corner of Lafayette Avenue and Clermont Avenue in Brooklyn, between Mile 8 and 9, a crowd of windswept New Yorkers in hoodies and windbreakers cheer for the runners. Some holds signs or flags, others…
View original post 285 more words
A void on the Lower East Side after a Pathmark closes
A void on the Lower East Side after a Pathmark closes
Everyday grocery shopping has become much more of a hassle for the residents of the Lower East Side since Pathmark’s branch on Cherry Street closed.
Originally published on NYCinFocus on 17 Oct, 2013.
Every buck counts at seniors’ flea market at Baruch Houses
Every buck counts at seniors’ flea market at Baruch Houses
Seniors in Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side gather every Saturday to make money, find a good bargain and enjoy each other’s company.
Originally published on NYCinFocus on 5 Oct, 2013.
Love in Central Park
Originally published on The Columbialist on 21 Aug, 2013.
Expressing humanity through dancing
Bradley Shelver started dancing when he was four. He left his home in South Africa when he was 18 and got a scholarship for the Alvin Ailey School in New York. He has now lived and danced in New York for 15 years and can’t imagine going back. When Apartheid ended, the new government cancelled all funding for ballet and opera because they considered it elitist. That’s a shame, says Bradley. Art shouldn’t be for only one group of people.
Bradley likes to divide his time between peforming, creating and teaching. He loves the moment when a student has a breakthrough, and their eyes light up.
Bradley has always been a natural performer. He loves to express emotions without saying anything. He says that a dancer’s main goal is to connect with the audience by showing what it’s like to be human. That can be hard because dancers are always trying to be perfect. But you have to let it go. Stop thinking, and just do it.
“Screw what you look like, and screw the steps,” he tells his student. “You have 2 minutes and 24 seconds to make the audience care about you. That’s what dance is about.”
Originally published on The Columbialists on August 27, 2013
Freja Dam 