By OLU ALEMORU, Staff Writer
Story Published: Jul 21, 2010 at 5:13 PM PDT
Story Updated: Jul 21, 2010 at 5:13 PM PDT
A local writer poised to break out into the mainstream has had a weekend to remember with the scheduled debut of a short work that celebrates one of her heroes.
Florida-born Rene Rawls, who lives in the historic West Adams district of Los Angeles, wrote and produced “Sule and the Case of the Tiny Sparks,” an animated short that celebrates the life of Nelson Mandela in “making an imprint to change the world around them.”
The film is one of five entries chosen last year for a competition sponsored by 46664, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and New York’s Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All Access program, which awarded five $10,000 grants for short film concepts to mark the first annual Mandela Day Tribeca All Access Award.
Taken from Mandela’s prison number, 46664 is an initiative to inspire individual and collective action towards an AIDS-free world.
The entries were uploaded to the Tribeca website Monday, a day after Mandela celebrated his 92nd birthday on July 18.
The short introduces Sule as a young Sherlock Holmes, a wise and brash African child who helps other kids solve their problems and learn life’s lessons through the meaning of proverbs.
Rawls, who has optioned a feature script, “Homecoming Queen,” slated to begin production this year, teamed up with twin animation directors, Shawnee and Shawnelle Gibbs, an Oakland-born duo who she met through the Organization of Black Screenwriters.
“We met up with Rene in October and she asked us if we would be interested in working on the project,” said Shawnee. “The story of this tiny little detective was such a cool idea. There are few stories set in Africa. It’s a really inspiring, positive message.”
She added: “After seeing our reels and bios, they approved us and we started gathering a team of artists to work on the character designs, storyboards and animation.
“We only had a few months to get it done, but we were blown away by the team’s work.”
Meanwhile, Rawls, a recipient of the renowned Guy Hanks and Marvin Miller Screenwriting Fellowship, has also traveled to various cities across the country teaching screenwriting and filmmaking to high school students.
“I found out about the competition this time last year and immediately knew I would submit something because I have so much love and respect for Nelson Mandela,” said Rawls, who has an English degree from Hampton University and a graduate degree in communications from Georgia State University.
“I used to teach high school English and one of my favorite books to teach was [Nigerian author Chinua Achebe’s] ‘Things Fall Apart,’ a book full of proverbs. I’d talk to my students about proverbs and they would get the meanings. One student came to class one day and said, ‘Yeah, we’re proverb slayers.’ That stuck in my mind, and two or three years later I birthed this character Sule, a young proverb detective and initially did a picture book. Then, when I heard about the competition I knew he’d be right for the story.”
Taking to her laptop, Rawls wrote the script in an 11-hour writing session and then traveled to Florida to see her mother.
“I got an e-mail notification and instead of the ‘Thanks for entering your work,’ it said, ‘Congratulations, your script has been chosen,’” recalled Rawls.
“I was jumping up and down and screaming. But my mother was like, ‘Just give thanks to the Lord, baby.’”
To get the look and feel of an African village, Rawls drew on a trip she made to Ghana and also ran it by a Nigerian friend.
“For me the main theme of the story is to do what you can and that may influence others,” added Rawls.
"It has been a goal of mines for some time to start a project where I can take dolls with straight hair and customize their hair to have ethnic styles and textures."
"As a young girl, I remember loving to play with my dolls...mainly with my Barbie dolls."
"I thought the dolls where beautiful; but always noticed that my African American dolls did not look like me. Their features did not look like mines. And their hair certainly did not look or feel like mine! This did affect my view of what beauty was. In articles, videos and news stories such as Black Girls Want White Dolls, What a Doll Tells Us About Race, Black Doll White Doll, White and black children biased toward lighter skin & A Girl Like Me - it is apparent that this is something that affects many young people, and that there is a need for positive community change."
"The Naturally Beautiful Hair Barbie Doll project is something that I hope will help to bring a positive view of what ethnic beauty is. There is a serious need for our young girls to be able to have dolls that look like them. It is something that affects their self esteem and confidence, and how they few themselves. There have been quite a few studies done that show that African American boys and girls often think of black dolls as bad and white dolls as good. Of course, this is not something that the parent is teaching their child. So why are they getting these mixed messages about good and bad skin color, or good and bad hair? It all has to do with the images they see as they grow up. If a child is constantly looking at images, dolls, television, books and magazines - and only seeing beauty as something or someone with non-ethnic features and long, straight hair - then they are going to assume that this is what beauty is. It is something that has hurt our young people for centuries. But each day we learn that it is important to show them and teach them that their beauty is beautiful."
~ Karen Byrd
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