HIPCINEMA LABS is media arts incubator. We support diverse professionals with creative, educational and entrepreneurial initiatives in film, media and design arts.
HIPCINEMA LABS mission is to develop and produce film works that speak to socially-conscious themes and subject matter. Of particular interest to us is the little known herstory and history of people of the African Diaspora. By centering people of color in our stories, we hope to redress an important imbalance. Donations to our projects are tax deductible via Fractured Atlas.
We Are Free Because of Harriet Tubman
The latest project by mother-daughter filmmaking duo Nadine and Marlene Patterson, We Are Free Because of Harriet Tubman, takes viewers on a journey in the footsteps of one of America’s most courageous abolitionists. Grounded by an original haiku poem by literary luminary and educator Sonia Sanchez, the film includes a soundtrack by Grammy-winning bassist Christian McBride.
We Are Free Because of Harriet Tubman is a meditation on resistance, history and nature. Professor Sanchez’s words speak to us today as many in America struggle to find their own liberation. The imagery is meant to heal and aid the viewer in reflection upon the text.
The four and a half minute film was shot on location in Harmony Maryland, along the Underground Railroad Trail as marked by the state of Maryland and in Philadelphia, where Harriet Tubman found refuge in a community of Free Blacks and Quakers.
If you want to learn more about Harriet Tubman click this Tubman bio by Dr. Linda Clark to learn more about Tubman.
If you are hearing impaired or want to study the text of the film, click this English Text for 5.1 Surround Sound Mix of WE ARE FREE BECAUSE OF HARRIET TUBMAN_June 2020.
2019 Pennsylvania Premiere Screenings of WE ARE FREE BECAUSE OF HARRIET TUBMAN at the Tull Family Theater and the Hiway Theater
2018 Work-in-Progress Screening at the Painted Bride Art Center
We projected on gallery walls a work-in-progress at the Painted Bride Art Center, Friday December 7th, 2018 at “The What’s Happening Happening”. Creative Team – Sonia Sanchez, poet/performer/producer; Nadine Patterson, camera/editor/director; Marlene G. Patterson, researcher/executive producer; Stephanie Malson, camera. Tech – Shot with the Panasonic GH4. Photos by Nadine Patterson and Charline Cravison.
The Incredibly True Unknown Tales of Lewis & Mary Latimer: How Electric Light Was Born into the World aka BLACK POWER
We are developing a six part docu-drama series, of Lewis Latimer’s life and times. The series will have a narrative portion and a mini-documentary at the end of each episode. We selected this hybrid docu-drama form to draw audiences into the post Reconstruction world in a way that uplifts and inspires. All too often we only see Black Americans in dramas that stress our pain and suffering. This series will use both drama and documentary to show the aspirational lives Black Americans lived and the historical facts of the barriers they overcame.
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