The Winners of the 3rd Annual Urban Mediamakers Film Festival 2004 Have Been Announced!

We offer heartfelt thanks to all filmmakers, musicians, guest judges, Urban Mediamakers members, supporters, volunteers, and all participants for joining us this year. Because of YOU, the 3rd Annual Urban Mediamakers Film Festival 2004 was a wonderful success!

UMFF 2004 Film Category Winners...

Best Feature Film

"Charm City" -- (Baltimore, Maryland) An urban drama about survival in Baltimore City. It shows real life problems and sociological issues facing urban dwellers, specifically young African American men and how they deal with these issues. Derick Thomas, Producer/Director.

Best Editing - Feature Film

"MindGame" -- (New York, NY) In this sci-fi drama, New York City becomes the battleground for a personal and psychic war between two individuals and a government that wants to control them. Written by Milo Stone, Shawn Martinbrough and Joseph P. Illidge, Verge Entertainment Production.

2nd Place - Best Feature Film

"Street Tales of Terror" -- (Richmond, Texas) The story of three thugs who terrorize a homeless man who witnessed them commit murder. While pleading for his life, the homeless man tells the trio of three "true" tales of terror and revenge. J.D. Hawkins, Producer, Hawk In Flight Productions.

3rd Place - Best Feature Film

"Winning Lisa" -- (Atlanta, GA) Sometimes love is a roller coaster ride. When is it time to get off? This is a love story about two people trying to find their way back together through spiritual growth, forgiveness and redemption. Nikki Young, Writer, Director and Producer. Starring Nikki Young and Miko Defoors

Honorable Mention - Best Feature Film

"Music Therapy 101" -- (Atlanta, GA) The story of one woman's battle to overcome her personal demons in order to achieve greatness as an R&B musical artist. The film is filled with original music and a powerful message that encourages its audience to believe in the power of one's dreams of success. Kirsten Person-Ramey, Writer/Director, Cool People Entertainment, LLC.

Best Story - Short Film

"State of Grace" -- (Atlanta, GA) A tale of the desperate struggle of two mothers finding common ground, friendship, and healing within a world marred by crime and incarceration. The film features Deborah Lacey (Devil in a Blue Dress, Five Heartbeats) and Joy DeMichelle Moore (Dancing in September). Ron Mayes, Writer, Director. Layle Sewell, Producer, Todd Dos Reis, Director of Photography.

Best Overall Short Film

"Man Made" -- (Los Angeles, CA) A comedy short that takes the cliché" man made" to another level. Deborah E. Ward, Producer, Erma Elzy-Jones, Director, DEW Productions.

Best Editing of a Short Film

"Man Made" -- (Los Angeles, CA) A comedy short that takes the cliché" man made" to another level. Deborah E. Ward, Producer, Erma Elzy-Jones, Director, DEW Productions.

2nd Place - Best Short Film

"Peep Game" -- (Philadelphia, PA) A lighthearted tale of an arrogant young woman's attempt to enjoy some leisure reading at an outdoor cafe and how four very different people that trickle through a nearby bus stop will perceive her. But she soon learns that beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. Brian C. Thompson, Writer, Director and Producer, Forward Motion Films.

3rd Place - Best Short Film

"Solitaire" -- (Richmond, MA) Solitaire's first and last encounter with her father is his death. An edgy, off-kilter experimental narrative about how death brings families closer together.
Theodore Collatos, Director

4th Place - Best Short Film

"Red Eye" -- (Brooklyn, NY) What goes through a person's mind in the blink of an eye? Could you let an assumption made in a split second influence your judgment? Those are the questions this short film seeks to explore. Kevin Gordon, Director, Gordon Pictures.

Honorable Mention - Best Short Film

"Hit" -- (Marietta, GA) Murder for hire is this name of the game.
Jay Williams, Writer/Director.

Best Creative Short Film

"S.P.I.C. - The Storyboard of My Life" -- (Jersey City, NJ) An award winning illustrator narrates stories while he draws. By speeding up the sync of the movie by 4000 times, the film flows just as a projected film, but it is all storyboards. Robert Castille, Illustrator.

Best Animated Short Film

"Love Sick and Love Sick 2" -- (Los Angeles, CA) These animations are about a girl who has a crush on a boy but has difficulties in expressing her feelings. When she gets the boy's attention, things go awry. Tsaiyun Mou, Director.

2nd Place - Best Animated Short Film

"Elegy" -- (Foster City, CA) An animated story of an elderly man playing with his marionettes, making them as if to dance, and reminisces about a lost love. Nadine Takvorian, Animator.

3rd Place - Best Animated Short Film

"Time Square" -- (New York, NY) A dynamic 3D animation that's driven by the universal attraction to Times Square. Viewers experience the reality, myth and pulse of this urban icon through the artist's eyes. Muriel Magenta, Artist, Director; Gene Cooper and Michael Hickman, Animators, Patricia Clark, Editor.

Best Shorty Short Film -- (Less than 5 minutes)

"Moved" -- (Atlanta, GA) A repressed telepathic eventually uses his power to save a damsel in distress. Jim Issa and Scott Iippolito, Producers. Jay Hunt and Jason Jones, Editors.

2nd Place - Best Shorty Short Film -- (Less than 5 minutes)

"Stormy Monday" -- (Atlanta, GA) A short film that brings a visual to the blues song "Stormy Monday." Mark Williams, Director.

3rd Place - Best Shorty Short Film -- (Less than 5 minutes)

"The Wine of Love" -- (Uzbekistan) A short film from the Cinedictum collection. Shavkat Karimov, Writer.

Best DocuMusical

"Broke, Struggling and Still Independent" -- (Atlanta, GA) This is the first feature length production from BrownAge Pictures. It documents the lives of four female Atlanta-based musicians - Phillippia, Taffether, Jill Rock-Jones, and Carmen Liana. These four musical powerhouses are stripped down to the only thing that matters - the music in their souls. Spurgen Brown, Writer, Director, Editor, BrownAge Pictures; Loraine Foushee, Producer, Videographer; and Tyga Lee, Sound Mixer, Original Film Score.

Best Documentary

"Silence: In Search of Black Female Sexuality -- in America" -- (New York) A candid and compelling documentary that looks at the reasons for sexual silence in the black community is illustrated through historical facts and testimonies that date back to slavery and the black church experience.
Mya Baker, Director, Shoot Film Not People Production.

2nd Place - Best Documentary

"Turned Out: Sexual Assault Behind Bars" -- (East Cambridge, Massachusetts) This exceptional documentary illustrates that prisoner abuse in not "totally un-American," as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claims, but a domestic crisis. Abuse of American prisoners - by guards or fellow inmates - occurs regularly in US prisons. Sexual abuse is particularly troubling: one out of every five men is raped while incarcerated and, when they are released, the sexual violence follows them out onto the streets. Turned Out looks behind this grim statistic to uncover the social and power hierarchies that bolster the tradition of prison rape. Jonathan Schwartz, Director, Interlock Media; June Cross, Senior Producer; Danny Trejo, Narrator; C-Nile, Musik

3rd Place - Best Documentary

"Love of Making Love" -- (Atlanta, Georgia) This documentary opens the viewer's insight about young men and women as 12 urban individuals come together to skillfully express their thoughts and understanding of the 'love-lust scale' of society. This film puts the fire into reality TV! Ardrae Jackson, Director, DraeJackson Films.