Shoga Films

Race, Sexuality & Music: A Visual Community of Black Queer Renaissance: Non-profit for media production & film

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

We’re 59% funded — $29,645 raised of $50,000.
Bessie Shows Her Ass isn’t just a film. It’s a tribute to the Empress of the Blues — bold, unapologetic, unstoppable.
27 days left to fund this story.
Join us on Seed & Spark: https://t.co/WUcOZ307qI

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

“The Knowing” selected for Cinema Diverse

“The Knowing” has been selected for the 17th edition of Cinema Diverse, Palm Springs’ LGBTQ film festival.

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

New "Shoga Speaks" Podcast: Exploring Jewish Identity & Rabbi David Philipson's Legacy. Shylock's Influence, Treyfa Banquet's Role in Reform Judaism Rift. #ShogaSpeaks #JewishIdentity #PodcastDrop

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

This lovely 15th century woodcut depicts the exsanguination (look it up) of a Christian child for the unholy requirements of Jewish ritual, a medieval slander that lives on to the present day. Such is the subject of our opening blog.

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Today, as we near the end of the month containing Trans Awareness Week, we unveil the latest (short) short in our Queer Harlem Renaissance series, “Rockland Palace.” The Harlem ballroom of that name hosted the largest and queerest drag ball of the late 20s and early 30s.

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Centenary: Bessie Smith Releases “Downhearted Blues”

In 1923, Bessie Smith released her first recording for Paramount Records, “Downhearted Blues,” written the previous year by blues pianist Lovie Austin with lyrics by Alberta Hunter.

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

The Faggots’ Ball

Rockland Palace was the home of the Hamilton Lodge Ball, the largest of the drag balls during the 1920s and early 30s. Founded by the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows in Harlem, Lodge 110 was set up as a fraternal order for affluent African Americans.

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Harvey Milk Day, celebrated each year on May 22, memorializes the gay rights advocate who was assassinated in 1978. Ten months after becoming the first openly gay person elected to California public office, where he served as a San Francisco city supervi… https://t.co/BATYeiDVPP

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

The Shoga Newsletter Drops

And our theme this issue is The Blues. The Blues cuts through a lot of our work, from our very first music video from 2005, “Ma Rainey’s Lesbian Licks,” to our coming fundraising campaign to fund a killer narrative short about… https://t.co/YqzgzV50YL

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Shoga’s “Ma Rainey” Podcast Drops on Her Birthday

This year we celebrate Ma Rainey’s birthday, April 26, by publishing the conversation we had with Black queer activist Natasha Johnson, “A Queer/Feminist Take On ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Although the … https://t.co/qd6xEuZOwl

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

The Karnofsky Family

When Louis Armstrong was mostly a street urchin in New Orleans, he began hanging around the children of an Eastern European immigrant Jewish family by the name of Karnofsky. Louis began working on the father’s rag cart along with t… https://t.co/Nm4FLvCJRH

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

RIP Maurice Jamal

Shoga mourns the untimely death of actor/producer Maurice Jamal whose groundbreaking work in “Dirty Laundry” and “The Ski Trip” brought sympathetic (and funny) visibility to Black gay men in the movies and on TV. Jamal wrote, produced,… https://t.co/IDWHC850zg

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Happy Celebrate Diversity Month from Shoga Films!
April is Diversity Month, a time to celebrate and recognize our unique backgrounds, cultures and traditions.
Shoga Films believes in building an inclusive workplace culture and environment where everybody… https://t.co/VyK20KBEOd

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

“The Lonely Child”

On Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, as instituted in Israel, we send a shout-out to our consulting producer, Marc Smolowitz, who is producing and directing a documentary revolving around the composition and legacy of a Yiddish … https://t.co/QIuTZ01fJy

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

The Hollywood reporter, reports that Pose star Billy Porter is set to play James Baldwin in a feature based on the life of the legendary novelist, essayist and activist for Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group Motion Pictures.

Porter and Dan McCabe will pen … https://t.co/PovBuvekRy

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Fine Clothes to the Jew by Langston Hughes

Fine Clothes to the Jew is the title of Langston Hughes’ second collection of poetry, published in 1927. After the critical acclaim of The Weary Blues (1926), this second volume was, especially for the Black pr… https://t.co/nLxEIYCcF6

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

“The Tropics in New York”

This exquisite piece of nostalgia appeared in Harlem Shadows by Claude McKay, the first substantive volume of poetry (1922) that presaged the literary blossoming of the Harlem Renaissance. “The Tropics in New York” reminds us t… https://t.co/eaXIJrxko9

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

April Newsletter Celebrates National Poetry Month

Every now and again we revert to our literary roots. Since February is Black History Month and March is devoted to Women’s History, we take the opportunity to celebrate National Poetry Month in April. Gi… https://t.co/BuoFMv5y82

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Passover Begins

The eight-day celebration of Passover begins this evening. Jews the world over will sit down to the interminable Passover seder, a ritual feast which involves retelling the story of Exodus.

But who needs a haggadah when we can now sit a… https://t.co/h8sDI4yTEz

[Shoga Films @shogafilms]

Pioneers of Female Empowerment - Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters was one of the biggest names and had the longest active career out of any of the first crop of blues singers to gain fame during the 1920s. She only passed briefly through a blues phase before g… https://t.co/6kd0bTH1rS