“THE SPACE BETWEEN POWER + PRECARITY” -Premiere event, July 27, 2017
Community Garden outdoor screening cookout - Joseph Daniel Wilson Garden in Harlem
Live music from Olawumi + Ajay Ram x Iblss
Black-owned business vendors - Black Boy Feelings + Ugly Owl clothing company
Films screened - An Ecstatic Experience, My Third Eye, Afronauts, The Consistent Slay
Q+A with filmmakers and cast members
“EVIDENCE OF DEATH AND REVIVAL” - November 3, 2017
Joseph Daniel Wilson Garden, Harlem
Films screened - Swimming In Your Skin Again, Everybody Dies, Baldwin’s Nigger, Rest In Power Malik Carmichael, Are You My Mother?, Weight
Q + A with filmmakers Andre Daughtry, Nova Scott-James, Terence Nance
FUNDRAISER- February 21, 2018
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, UWS
Screening of Cheryl Dunye’s Watermelon Woman preceded by a work in progress screening of Shelby Zoe Coley’s “Talk the Ting”
Q + A with “Watermelon Woman” producer Alexandra Juhasz
Acquisition of 2k+ in donations
“LOVE AT FIRST FILM” - June 16, 2018
Starr Bar, BK
“How we fell for film and why we’re still in love”
Interactive storytelling show where filmmakers and creatives shared their most formative, hilarious, and impactful experiences as lovers of cinema
Platform for who those may not fit into the mold of what society imagines as ‘film nerds’
Cultivated a safe and inclusive community in the process
“UPSIDE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON” - November 10, 2018
All Souls Church, Harlem
Exploring blackness, femininity, horror, and dream-like imagination
Post screening talk back dissecting Night of The Living Dead through a black lens
Discussion of the new age of afro-supernatural storytelling
PRODUCTION OF “BLOOM” MUSIC VIDEO - March 2019
“Bloom!” by Ajay Ram x Iblss music video production
Directed by Ajay Ram, Suzy Swygert, and Purav Virdi
Director of Photography Emir Fils-Aime
Producers Tarik Cummings and Ayala Maurice
40+ members of the Upside community behind and in front of the camera
“SUNDAY FUNDAY” - August 18, 2019
Black Film Festival Panel discussing our experiences with programming and within the community at large
Live music performances from Mad Moon (Akai Solo x Iblss), Keiyaa, Ajay Ram
Panelists from African Film Festival, Black Film Space, and Ways of Seeing
Moderated by Vernon Jordan III
SIMULATED WRITER’S ROOM - July 2020
Collaboration with Black Film Space
Writer’s Room Simulation
Crafting a short film based off of a tagline
Every Sunday in July from 3-6pm
Attendance: 25 allowed within Zoom meeting, over 100 viewers on Youtube
New York Film Festival Panel - September 2020
Part of the Talks section of NYFF 2020
Ajay representing in a panel titled “Outside the Canon” - a discussion about and between organizations that practice grassroots methods of film distribution and exhibition
Other panelists from No Evil Eye, The DocYard, The Eyeslicer, and Light Industry
Watch full talk here
Upside x Film at Lincoln Center present:
“See You At The Séance” - February 2021
Co-created an event for FLC’s Free Talks
Closed out February with a virtual party :)
“Creators who use the archive to commune with the future come together to discuss how they craft translations of Blackness through the bending, wielding, and visual exploration of time. What are the tangible effects of this holy, intangible ritual?”
Panelists included Jourdain Searles (Medium, The New York Times, Variety), Idris Brewster (TRAVELING THE INTERSTITIUM WITH OCTAVIA BUTLER, The Monuments Project), and Vernon Jordan III (See My Dreams Come True, Screencraft 2020)
Preceded by set from DJ Highgnx
Watch full talk here