Speak Up Productions

10/30/2024

So our film Vision will be showing at St. Louis International Film Festival on Nov 14th at 5pm. You can get all the details at the link below.

One other cool thing about SLIFF is that it is an Oscar Qualifying short festival, so there is a small, small chance we could get shortlisted for an Oscar if we win an award at the festival. Here is to hoping:)

Narrative Shorts 18 – African-American Experiences

10/16/2024

Excited to share that Vision is a finalist for the Best Short Film with ICVM's Crown Awards! The winner will be announced at NRB Christian Media Convention In February!

10/10/2024

Did you know the Mayor has a Youth Cabinet? Neither did we til we had the opportunity to show Vision to them and have a Q&A afterwards. They asked a ton of great questions and noticed a number of nuances in the film.

Big thanks to Lakesha Robinson for the opportunity and for Theodore Simpson IV and Zion Thomas for joining director Dan Parris! One of our big asks was that they would encourage Mayor Tishaura O. Jones to watch the film....so we will see:)

09/11/2024

We had the chance to watch the Uncharitable Movie the other night after recommendations from friends. It is a powerful documentary about how we limit nonprofits from making a larger impact on the world in how we expect them to keep overhead costs low. They used nonprofit examples we are very familiar with like charity: water and Invisible Children to communicate their point as well as plenty of other nonprofits.

If you are in the nonprofit space, we highly recommend viewing it. As filmmakers, it demonstrates the exponential impact marketing, film and stories can have on changing the world if we would just let nonprofits invest in bold ideas.

We would love to hear other folks thoughts on it.

Featuring Edward Norton and heads of major charities, Uncharitable obliterates obsolete ideas about giving, re-shuffling the saints and sinners. Inspired by Dan Pallotta, whose TED Talk on charity was voted the most persuasive TED talk of all time, it’s powerful call-to-action is to abandon our sa...

09/06/2024

Excited to share that our film Vision was accepted to the Awareness Festival in Los Angeles and will screen at the Regal LA Live theater on October 2nd at 8:45pm. You can buy the tickets here: https://awarenessfestival.org/buy-tickets/

They even used our thumbnail to promote the shorts block! This is a great fest and the 3rd film I directed to screen there over the last decade. Hopefully some of my Biola University School of Cinema and Media Arts friends could make it out to see the film:) Unfortunately I won't be able to attend though:/

08/20/2024

Excited to share that Vision is an official selection in the St. Louis International Film Festival. It will be screening in Mid-November. More to come on this and other screenings of the film soon!

08/16/2024

A lot of folks have asked us questions about getting the MO film tax credit since we were the first MO based filmmakers to qualify with Vision. This video explains the whole process really well:

This video is a brief overview of the Motion Media Production Tax Incentive Program. For more information, please go to mofilm.org.

07/22/2024

Great screening last night of Vision at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase! A wide variety of powerful films in our block ending with a screening of Vision. Appreciate everyone who came out and looking forward to our next screening at the The Crossing church in Chesterfield on August 6th. More details at our website www.visionthefilm.com.

07/19/2024

Your next chance to see Vision is only two days away at 5pm on Sunday at the Hi-Pointe theatre near Forest Park as part of the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. Get your tickets at https://www.cinemastlouis.org/24th-annual-st-louis-filmmakers-showcase

Check out this interview Zion (our lead actor) and Emmett Williams (festival director) did with St. Louis Public Radio on St. Louis on the Air:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4m4hmg_C-M

The Cinema St. Louis’ Annual Filmmakers Showcase (July 19-28) is dedicated to screening films that address locally relevant topics or have writers, editors, ...

07/11/2024

I'm really excited about all the great films coming out in just a few weeks at the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase. There are two feature films that I have seen and would highly recommend. They are both very well done, heartfelt and taught me some powerful things.

First is the opening film edited by my friend Lucas J. Harger called the Lions of Mesopotamia. You can see the teaser here: https://vimeo.com/974753439/3ddf0405ff?share=copy . This film is about soccer, war, peace, friendship, politics and so much more. It premiered at SXSW and is excellently done. If you are of Iraqi origin, they are offering this film for free to you and will have a Q&A led by my friend Aisha Sultan. The director is even flying in for it! Don't miss this.

The closing night film is by my friend Ben Scholle and is called Catching Bullets. It is all about gun violence in St. Louis and people on the ground working with youth trying to prevent this violence before it starts. It reminds me of a St. Louis version of Steve James "The Interrupters". Anyways, this is an incredibly important film for our city and will be a meaningful discussion starter.

Get your tickets here: https://www.cinemastlouis.org/24th-annual-st-louis-filmmakers-showcase

Oh ya, and don't forget to come see Vision as well which screens at 5pm on July 21st!

Screening Friday, July 19th at the Hi-Pointe. Purchase tickets at https://stlshowcase24.eventive.org/schedule/6681a71adf5ae5004f90c382

07/02/2024

We are excited to share your next chance to see our film Vision! It will be having its festival premiere at Cinema St. Louis' St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase on July 21st at 5pm. You can buy tickets and get more details on this awesome festival at https://www.cinemastlouis.org/24th-annual-st-louis-filmmakers-showcase or go to our website www.visionthefilm.com. One super fun thing is they used our poster, created by Jordan Bauer, as the cover art for the festival!

Our lead actor Zion Thomas and myself will be in attendance for Q&A alongside a number of other short films.

06/06/2024

Check out this great feature by the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis about our new film Vision (www.visionthefilm.com)!

After four years in the making and with the help of a talented team, the St. Louis-based inspiring short film Vision is out now. The story focuses on St. Louis-based, inspiring short film Vision follows Louis, a teenage artist living in North St. Louis who acquires a pair of sunglasses that empower....