Boondoggle Films: Work By Lerone Wilson

***

***

Boondoggle Films is the brainchild of esteemed filmmaker Lerone Wilson, a New York University graduate holding degrees in both Film & Television and Economics.

A product of the Metro Detroit area, Lerone has worked in various research, editing, and production capacities on documentary productions for HBO, PBS, The Travel Channel, and independent cinema. Meanwhile, he has amassed collections of documentary features and shorts, produced and directed by himself. His first feature "No Child Left Behind", a film exploring the education policy of the same name, was selected for various festivals and enjoyed a run on PBS. His following film, "Aardvark'd" explored the world of computer programming. The film enjoyed a stint on the festival circuit as well as airing on The Documentary Channel, and NYCTV.

Blending his unique journalistic prowess with his penchant for emotional tales of humanism, Lerone continues to produce high style documentary television with redeemable social qualities

NEWS ARTICLES About The Films

++++++

" No Child Left Behind"

2005

After spending a year as a student teacher in a New York City elementary school, documentary filmmaker Lerone Wilson explores the effects of President Bush's momentous No Child Left Behind Act on schools across the country.

UPCOMING SCREENINGS/AIRINGS

Detroit Docs International Film Festival
Saturday, November 5, 2005 4pm
Detroit Institute of Arts
Followed by Q&A with Director Lerone Wilson

PAST SCREENINGS/AIRINGS

New York City Theatrical Premiere
Sunday, September 25, 2005 7pm
The Pioneer Theater

Broadcast Premiere
August 28, 2005
WTVS, Detroit Public Television
Sunday, August 28, 2005 2pm

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD!
DVD Features
- 'No Child Left Behind' Program (56 min.)
- Commentary by Director Lerone Wilson
- Trailer/TV Spots
- Extended Interviews
- Deleted Scenes (Including Original Ending)

++++++

"Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks With Geeks"   

2005

Four interns are brought into Manhattan and given 12 weeks to design, develop, debug and ship a program that will change the way computer geeks around the world fix their friends' computers. Boondoggle Films presents a journey through the world of software development from the perspective of a unique upstart, four quirky interns, and the world of The Geek.

BOONDOGGLE FILMS in association with FOG CREEK SOFTWARE presents a film by LERONE D. WILSON

"AARDVARK'D: 12 WEEKS WITH GEEKS"

TYLER GRIFFIN | HICKS-WRIGHT |  YARON GUEZ  | MICHAEL LEHENBAUER  | BENJAMIN POLLACK and JOEL SPOLSKY  with DAN BRICKLIN  and PAUL GRAHAM

Original songs by NONSO UGBODE original music by LERONE D. WILSON

Directed and edited by LERONE D. WILSON 

++++++

Colored Frames

2007

Synopsis

A look back at the last fifty years in African American art, Colored Frames is an unflinching exploration of influences, inspirations and experiences of black artists. Beginning at the height of the Civil Rights Era and leading up to the present, it is a naked and truthful look at often ignored artists and their progenies.

Short Synopsis

A look back at the last fifty years in African American art, Colored Frames is an unflinching exploration of influences, inspirations and experiences of black artists. Beginning at the height of the Civil Rights Era and leading up to the present, it is a naked and truthful look at often ignored artists and their progenies.

Long Synopsis

Colored Frames chronicles the Black artist's struggle for visibility and acceptance. As legendary artist Benny Andrews puts it, Black artists seek to be included or excluded on the basis of quality, "eliminate it on the basis that its not acceptable," Andrews implores, "not because it's Black." The film trumpets the value behind an engaged audience that consumes mainstream images consciously. The film highlights the beauty that comes from variety in representation, as writer and art historian Mary Schmidt Campbell acknowledges about Black art specifically, and the Black experience in general, "we have a lot of beauty to contribute to this country, and I take a lot of pride in that."

With concise interview segments and impressionistic video collages, Colored Frames is a documentary showcasing the works of contemporary Black artists. The film explores the conversation of art and the Black experience and seeks to eliminate years of negative stereotyping and assumptions that come with images of Blackness in America.

Treatment

Colored Frames launches with a visual introduction to the variety, both thematically and stylistically, of contemporary work by African American artists. It immediately showcases its nuanced style of collage and conversation by leading the audience through a brief recollection of historical circumstances that have defined the Black experience in America. Through these all-too-real anecdotes of a history scared by prejudice, the film sets the stage for an honest dialogue from a talented pool of artists, historians, curators, dealers and collectors hungry for an equitable depiction of art by African Americans.

The film dissects the socialization of the Black artist in America by documenting the inherent inequalities present for all people of color, especially Black people. The film gives voice to the truth of the limits an artist comes in contact with when trying to be part of a world as fantastic as fine art. Artists like Ed Clark and Michael Singletary recall their days abroad in Paris as expatriate artists searching for that unconditional attention which can be the only breeding ground for art with any growth potential. "I went there with a lot of pain," Singletary recalls, "but they were judging me based on my art."

At the center of Colored Frames is an exploration of the conflict between Black artists and the mainstream art society in America. Abstract painter Howardena Pindell likens the Black artists' experience to an old Japanese proverb which urges the community to hammer back in any nail that sticks out - providing a perfect metaphor for the institutions of art which historically grant little understanding to most Black artists, instead squeezing them into one category, or ignoring them entirely. Legendary painter Benny Andrews attests to the excessive frequency of gallery shows themed as simply, "Black Show." And here we learn of the struggle, physical and through their work, of artists like Benny Andrews to push through the barriers upheld by long standing institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Discussing the negative perceptions surrounding Black art, curator Linda Goode-Bryant speaks of attempting to find gallery space and being rejected because the building owner assumed she was in the business of showing "Black velvet paintings." Here the negative images perpetrated by most of the mainstream, notably Blaxploitation films and posters, provides a glimpse into the psyche of exclusion that refuses to accept the Black artist as legitimate. However, here we also get a complex questioning of the situation as artist Francks Deceus states that many audiences "subscribe to a lot of commercialism," which ultimately recycles the same stereotypical images for mass consumption.

Colored Frames moves on to explore the question of rejection of the abstract style, both inside and outside the Black community; raising the question of communal self-validation. Here the film contemplates the challenges to artists just trying to paint a wide spectrum of the Black experience - from darkly complex, to simply joyful - and speaks to the value of art in that it is all that is left after generations have passed on.

The importance of a film like Colored Frames is underscored by the recent death of a legendary artist like Benny Andrews to whom the film is dedicated. The film is a social document which brings to the forefront the works of a long ignored people. As Andrews states in the film, the goal of the artist is to pass forward the influences of others. Colored Frames is the realization of Andrews' words. It provides the truth about contemporary Black art; it is not a collective of the same old images, but a vibrant and much-alive cornucopia of strong themes, vibrant ideas and 'colored frames.'

Lerone Wilson - Executive Producer/Director/Edit

Boondoggle Films is the brainchild of esteemed filmmaker Lerone Wilson, a New York University graduate holding degrees in both Film & Television and Economics.

A product of the Metro Detroit area, Lerone has worked in various research, editing, and production capacities on documentary productions for HBO, PBS, The Travel Channel, and independent cinema. Meanwhile, he has amassed collections of documentary features and shorts, produced and directed by himself. His first feature "No Child Left Behind", a film exploring the education policy of the same name, was selected for various festivals and enjoyed a run on PBS. His following film, "Aardvark'd" explored the world of computer programming. The film enjoyed a stint on the festival circuit as well as airing on The Documentary Channel, and NYCTV.

Blending his unique journalistic prowess with his penchant for emotional tales of humanism, Lerone continues to produce high style documentary television with redeemable social qualities.

Contact: lerone@boondogglefilms.com

Nonso Christian Ugbode - Producer

A native of Nigeria, West Africa, where he was born and lived with his family until May of 1997. At fifteen Ugbode moved to Brooklyn, New York and consequently completed his high school and undergraduate studies - the latter with a BFA at New York University. He has had chance to work in both film/TV and theatre; directing the 2003 off-Broadway remake of Rebel Without A Cause.

His resume also includes work in London with the BBC's Art department where he gained a love and deeper understanding for documentary filmmaking while working on a short documentary entitled The Devil That Danced On Water, which aired on BBC Four in May of 2003

++++++