WHAT IS COLD SWEAT?
Cold Sweat is an edutainment project, produced by Dusky Projects, using scary stories to facilitate tender conversations around navigating bias in school, youth advocacy, and growing up. Through the use of short films that follow tween protagonists as they overcome supernatural hurdles, the project jump starts difficult conversations around taboo subjects and explores healthy ways to survive and thrive. The first chapter, “Wham!” has screened at film festivals, arts organizations, and youth advocacy events and is supported by facilitated talkbacks with expert art educators as well as storytelling workshops. For information on how to bring this project to your community please contact us duskyprojects@gmail.com
THE CONTENT:
"Wham!" is the story of a nefarious soft drink that tries to take over a school. Aquila and friends are some of the best students at 362 MLK Middle School until their classmates break out into mysterious rage episodes. Our heroes must break the rules to find out the truth and save their school. And their futures.
Enjoy clips from the fictional Wham ad campaign as its makers try to recruit unsuspecting students into their evil scheme.
THE ENGAGEMENT:
Our team incorporates students, teachers, and community leaders in the production process through cameos and featured art. For our first production we collaborated with the students and staff at JHS 218 Middle School in East New York and the People's Theater Project in Inwood, Manhattan as well as local vendors.
WHY THESE STORIES?
- According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, people of color accounted for 22% of children’s books characters in 2016.
- In Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas book The Dark Fantastic, she discusses the "imagination gap," where a severe lack of central and non-stereotypical people of color characters in children's and young adult literature is considered a crisis because of its correlation between educational achievement and sociocultural implications regarding "empathy, opportunities, resources, and technology".
- Michael Brody’s study on racial and gender differences in the relationship between children’s TV use and self-esteem states,” Children are affected when they don’t see themselves represented on TV, and it affects them when the young people who look like them are seen doing something wrong."
WHERE WE ARE NOW
"Wham!" was an official selection at MECCAcon International Film Festival, registered under Ava DuVernay's ARRAY, and at Official Latino Short Film Festival where it received nominations for Outstanding Performance By An Ensemble Cast, Best Webisode, and Out of the World Award (Sci-fi/Horror/Fantasy). It was a Semi-Finalist for the Academy Award Qualifying Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, and a finalist for the Short & Fresh Hip Hop Halloween on Revolt TV. We are currently seeking a family friendly distribution platform for the project.
SCREENINGS
2019
- 4/14 Broad Views on Broadway Development Lab, 5-7pm, free staged reading @ The Old Stone House (Brooklyn, NY)
- 5/21 Theatre of the Oppressed, 6pm (NYC)
- 6/1 Youth & Family Empowerment Conference, 11:45am-12:30pm (Brooklyn, NY)
- 6/14 Crosstown Arts, 6pm, free screening & staged reading (Memphis, TN)
- 7/13 Cypress Hills Library, 3pm-4pm, free screening (Brooklyn, NY)
- 7/20 Cinema Block Party, 12pm-10pm, free & open to the public (Brooklyn, NY)
- 9/19-9/21 MECCAcon International Film Festival (Detroit, MI)
- 11/2 NYC Library Ottendorfer Branch, 1pm, free screening and Q&A (New York, NY)
- 11/14 Center for Anti-Violence Education, 5pm (Brooklyn, NY)
- Funding for our 2019 community screenings has been made possible by the Puffin Foundation.
2020
- 11/27-11/30 Official Latino Short Film Festival (virtual)
- 12/26-1/1/21 Kwanzaa Film Festival (virtual)
2021
- 10/23-10/24 AfroComic Con International Film Festival (virtual)
KEEPING IN TOUCH
If you would like to schedule a screening or workshop in your community please contact us at duskyprojects@gmail.com. Community screenings include facilitated talkbacks with expert art educators, cast or crew. You can follow us on IG @ColdSweatNow for updates as well as culturally inclusive resources for young audiences. If you would like to support the project click the button below. Your contributions will go towards future chapters (episodes), screenings, and workshops.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
WI-MOTO NYOKA is a horror and sci-fi writer. She is the founder of Dusky Projects, creating and producing horror & sci-fi projects for young adult and adult audiences.
Awards and honors include: Stowe Story Labs selected project, Puffin Foundation grant recipient, A.R.T/New York Creative Space Grant recipient, Awesome Foundation grant recipient, Velocity Fund grant recipient, Scribe Video Finishing Grant recipient, Nightmares Film Festival Best Short Screenplay Award Winner, 13 Horror Screenplay Award Winner, Oregon Short Film Festival Best Horror Teleplay Award Winner and more.
As an educator she collaborates with a variety of organizations to build multicultural learning environments. Through the use of Speculative Fiction and creative disciplines such as music, film, and performance, Ms Nyoka designs and implements family friendly curriculum and programming to address literacy, creative problem solving, and the importance of youth advocacy. She is a published author, a regular contributor to The Last Girls Club, and a member of the advisory committee at The Door.