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Logline

Connected is a multimedia experience comprised of a feature documentary film and an exhibition of large-scale photographic prints that reflect on peaceful protests: the documentary is a poetic documentation of various protests held in Pittsburgh intertwined with a participatory coming-of-age portrait of a Pittsburgh teen who has never participated in a protest; the exhibition consists of 40 framed images from peaceful protests held in Pittsburgh that are approximately 68 x 98” in size.

Synopsis

Connected juxtaposes the protester and non-protester without making judgements about either. The film captures Kierra’s experience of coming of age in both a pandemic and during a time of mass political, social and racial protests. Kierra’s story is an exploration of what it is like to watch a Black Lives Matter protest from home and fear for a black father who she has not spoken to in years, while sitting next to a Black stepfather who avoids discussions of race and protests. Kierra also provides an examination of what it is like to see scores of white people supporting racial justice in the streets while listening to her beloved Trump supporting white grandmother describe Black protesters as “the N-word with the hard er” at home. Kierra gives insight into what it is like for a biracial girl to loose her sense of self while participating in her white family’s tradition of attending predominately white dance studios, then suddenly finding herself while attending a Black dance company’s summer camp – and she reveals how the style of her hair reflected her sense of self in both settings.

In the end, Kierra’s story is a meditation on hair: she explains that how she has treated and what she has done to her hair is emblematic of how she has thought of and what she has done to herself. Connected exposes the complexity of America’s relationship with race by showing a white mother and her Black daughter take a journey to repair the Black daughter’s hair and spirit from the effects of a Brazilian Blowout with the attention and care of natural twist outs. Connected juxtaposes a racially mixed family confirming their love for one another with social justice protests forcing a country to reckon with its inherent racism.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Gregory Scott Williams, Jr — Writer/Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Photographer/Editor
Gregory Scott Williams, Jr. is an award-winning Artist. His current project, Connected, is a multimedia project that includes a feature documentary film and an exhibition of large-scale protests images. To date, Connected has been awarded an Advancing Black Arts in Pittsburgh Grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation; a Creative Development Grant from the Heinz Endowments; a Community Arts Program Grant from Duolingo; a Pittsburgh Cultural Treasures Initiative Grant from the Ford Foundation, Heinz Endowments and PACE; and a Foundation Directed Grant from The Pittsburgh Foundation. Connected was also selected to participate in an Artist Residency with Film Pittsburgh in 2023 and is currently scheduled for a solo exhibition at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center in 2027.

Greg has been nominated for a Golden Quill Award and a Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award. His films have received an Audience Award from the Pittsburgh Short Film Festival, a Paul Robeson Award from the Newark Black Film Festival, and Best Short Narrative Awards from the Los Angeles Film Festival. Greg has also been selected to participate in IFP’s Spotlight on Documentaries, Black Public Media’s 360 Incubator and Fund and Film Independent’s Project Involve.

Greg attended Morehouse College and NYU’s Graduate Film Program.

Germaine Shaw Williams, PhD — Executive Producer
Germaine Shaw Williams, PhD is currently the Senior Program Officer for the Arts at the Wayfarer Foundation. He previously served as the Vice President for Development at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History and was appointed to the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He is an arts leader with more than twenty five years of experience in the cultural sector. His career has been defined by managing organizational change, facilitating strategic planning, and developing programs of support for artists. Germaine has served as a panelist for ArtPlace America’s National Creative Placemaking Fund and was a founding member of the Pittsburgh Arts Research Consortium. He served on the City of Pittsburgh’s Taskforce for Summer Youth Employment, Pittsburgh Today’s Key Indicators Project, the board of Grantmakers of Western Pennsylvania, and the governing group and state taskforce responsible for developing the Cultural Data Project (now DataArts). He has taught in the graduate arts management program at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College. A native of Chicago, he holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and received his doctorate degree in Social and Cultural History from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Seith Mann — Executive Producer
Seith Mann is a Morehouse College alumnus and a graduate of the Graduate Film Program at New York University. His thesis film, five deep breaths, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, won Best Narrative Short at the 2003 IFP Los Angeles Film Festival, and the 1st Place King Award and The Carl Lerner Award for Film with Social Significance at the 2003 New York University First Run Festival. It was also selected to screen at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival and the Cinefondation Competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. To date, Seith has directed over seventy episodes of television, been nominated for a DGA Award and received a NAACP Image Award for Directing for his episode of Friday Night Lights. Seith was the Creator and Executive Producer of The Breaks, a drama series that aired on VH-1 and BET. He directed the pilot and served as executive producer on the first season of Raising Dion. Most recently, he directed every episode and served as an executive producer on #Freerayshawn, Quibi’s first dramatic series. A few of Seith’s other television directing credits follow:

THE BREAKS – BET
BALLERS – HBO
ELEMENTARY – CBS Television Studios
THE WALKING DEAD – American Movie Classics (AMC)
HOMELAND – Showtime Networks
NURSE JACKIE – Showtime Networks
JERICHO – CBS / Paramount
SHARK – CBS / Twentieth Century Fox Television Studios
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS – NBC / Northern Entertainment
ENTOURAGE – HBO / MoVilla Productions
MEN IN TREES – ABC / Warner Brothers
COLD CASE – CBS/Paramount/Jerry Bruckheimer TV
GREY’S ANATOMY – ABC/Touchstone
THE WIRE – HBO / Blown Deadline Productions

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.