Beyond stilettos, booze, and cash, adult nightclubs are a community of professionals seeking acceptance and finding connections with other social misfits. As the women of The Pony gentlemen’s club dance for customers, they each forge their own path — despite the stigma — to make a living and express their artistry.
Transcending stereotypes of strip club culture, Mirage: Illusions of Pleasure and Power, offers an intimate glimpse into theatrical fantasy and the hardworking artists in the adult entertainment industry. The feature documentary pulls back the veil of social and political taboo at The Pony, a small gentlemen’s club in Pensacola, Florida.
The feature-length documentary investigates the space between the empowerment of women taking ownership of their bodies and exploitation inevitable in a patriarchal society. An intimate glimpse into sexual theater, Mirage: Illusions of Pleasure and Power explores the social and political dynamics of adult nightclub entertainment and asks what is the cost of this fantasy. Illustrating the thrill and tedium of the hustle, the documentary centers the stories of people who work in a stigmatized subculture where, mostly men, buy and sell the illusion of pleasure.
This is a character driven film. Offering an intimate portrait, the participants traverse the inner workings of the club economy while navigating personal challenges and relationships in their everyday lives. An ensemble of powerful women transcend the screen, reach into the psyche of the viewers, and invite an audience to imagine an existence ripe with passion and purpose. This film will contribute to global conversations about women, gender, and equity. These women do work that is both shamed and envied, their stories are unique but their situations are a result of a society that values good girl appearances but seeks youthful sexual promiscuity. To be human is to be sexual.
Check out our sizzler on our Instagram page:
@miragedocumentary
(2022)
Synopsis
Looking backward to move forward, Kehinde Ishangi, an African American choreographer, searches to uncover the truth about her absent father’s choices and reveals the real enemy of the Vietnam War.
In the feature documentary, Not My Enemy, director Kehinde Ishangi paints a picture of the traumatic and dehumanizing impact of the Vietnam War through the experiences of African-American soldiers. Weaving between a fictional narrative and real-life interviews with Vietnam veterans, the documentary dance film becomes a harrowing reminder of how an aimless and violent war left indelible scars on a generation of Black men and their families. Those who made it out of Vietnam returned home only to find another war raging in their backyard, the battle for civil rights. Inspired by dialogue with her father, a Vietnam veteran, Ishangi examines the nightmare of combat, the deeply psychological aftermath, and the effort to heal from these lifelong wounds.
Goals
Not My Enemy is more than a film, it is a community engagement initiative. The film will be used to initiate dialogue for those grappling to heal from the pain of war and to diminish the stigma placed on them when they return home. News reports confirm that veterans still struggle to receive proper aid post-war. Not My Enemy offers a way for empathetic audiences to create social change and support some of the United States’ most valuable and vulnerable citizens.
Screenings
-2022-
November 2022 Veterans Film Festival, Sydney Australia
December 2022 Veterans Film Festival, San Francisco
January 2023 Screendance Miami, Miami FL
January 2023 Denton Black Film Festival, Denton, TX
May 2023 American Dance Festival, Durham, NC
August 2023 American Legion Hall Senior Center, Denton, TX
Director: Kehinde Ishangi
Executive Producer: Kehinde Ishangi
Producer & Editor: Tiffany Rhynard
(2018)
Synopsis
Part dance film, part documentary, Black Stains depicts the reality of living while black in the United States, and persistently asks the question: why do we not see black men as human?
Inspired by the personal experiences of Trent D. Williams, Jr., an African American choreographer, Black Stains addresses the systemic pattern of racial profiling by the police. Interviews with black men encompassing a broad spectrum of age, background, and experience illustrate personal human stories that bring abstract issues into sharper focus. Woven together with robust athletic dancing, the film invites a conversation about how to best navigate complex racial issues in a country that refuses to make amends for its troubled past.
Black Stains is currently available to view on Coreocinema.
Awards
Best Film Under 15 Minutes, NewGrounds: Dance Film Collection
Best Dance Documentary, Screen Dance International (2021)
Attention Grabber Audience Award, kNOwBox Dance Film Festival (2020)
Visionary Jury Award, kNOwBox Dance Film Festival (2020)
Best Film, Experimental Dance & Music Festival (2020)
Jury Award, ScreenDance Miami (2018)
Screenings
-2021-
January 2021 Denton Black Film Festival, Denton, TX
March 2021 Screen.Dance–Scotland's Festival of Dance on Screen, Scotland
April 2021 Flick Fair On Demand Film Festival, online
May 2021 Idaho Screendance Festival, Boise, ID
May 2021. Utah Dance Film Festival, Orem, UT
September 2021 Screen Dance International, Detroit, MI
September 2021 I Will Tell International Film Festival, London, UK, Florida, USA, Trinidad/Tobago
-2020-
February 22, 2020 Queens Underground Black & Brown Film Festival, NY, NY
May 1-June 1, 2020 Rogue Dancer On-Line Screening: Black & White Showcase
May 22, 2020 EnCore: Dance on Film, Decatur GA
July 7, 2020 Experimental, Dance & Music Festival, Toronto, Canada
September 10, 2020 Mexico City Video Dance Festival, Mexico City, Mexico
September 23, 2020 Charlotte Film Festival, Charlotte, NC
October 10, 2020 Fuselage Dance Film Festival, Seattle, WA
October 2020 Portland Dance Film Festival, Portland, OR
November 2020 InShadow–Lisbon Screen Dance Festival, Lisboa, Portugal
December 2020 South East Dance, Brighton, England
December 2020 KnowBox Dance Film Festival, Dallas, TX & Seoul South Korea
-2019-
July 17, 2019 Moving Body Festival, Varna, Bulgaria
September 19, 2019 London International Screendance Festival, London, England
-2018-
January 20, 2018 ScreenDance Miami, Miami FL (Jury Award Winner)
April 7, 2018 Moving BROWN body – Moving Image Festival, NYC
April 14, 2018 Dance Camera West, Los Angeles CA
April 19, 2018 Langston Hughes African American Film Festival, Seattle WA
July 7, 2018 Movies by Movers, American Dance Festival, Durham NC
Oct 14, 2018 San Francisco Dance Film Festival, San Francisco CA
Oct 21 & 24, 2018 Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema, Boulder, CO
Oct 21, 2018 Coco Dance Festival, Port of Spain, Trinidad
November 4, 2018 University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC
November 10, 2018 Greensboro Dance Film Festival, Greensboro, NC
CAST & CREW:
Co-Directors: Trent D. Williams Jr. & Tiffany Rhynard
Choreographer: Trent D. Williams Jr.
Cinematographer: Tiffany Rhynard
Editor: Heather Mathews
Composer: Farai Malianga
Cast: Jerel Hercules, Taariq Lewis, Daniel Morimoto, Michael “Mikell” Pinkney, Larry Rosalez, Ersom Williams, Trent D. Williams Jr., George Whitehead.
Producers: Heather Mathews, Tiffany Rhynard, Trent D. Williams Jr.
(2016)
Awards
Television Academy Honor (2018)
Best Documentary, North Louisiana Gay & Lesbian Film Festival (2017)
Social Justice Film Award, Southern Poverty Law Center (2016)
Special Programming Freedom Award, Outfest Film Festival (2016)
Distribution
Logo TV in partnership with American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
Forbidden is available for viewing on Amazon Prime and through educational distributors Kanopy and Pragda.
Synopsis
When Moises Serrano was just a baby, his parents risked everything to flee Mexico and make the perilous journey across the desert in search of the American dream. After 23 years growing up in the rural south as an undocumented queer man, Serrano is forbidden to live and love in the country he calls home. He sees only one option—to fight for justice.
Serrano’s story illustrates the intersection of queer and immigrant issues and offers a different vision for LGBTQ Latino youth who grow up in the rural south surrounded by white faces and homophobic attitudes. Serrano has found dead rats in his mailbox and white crosses on his porch, the threats are palpable and real. Coming to this country without papers (documentation) is not a criminal offense, and yet undocumented immigrants are routinely placed in detention centers, sometimes with their young children, where they face prison like conditions. With such a strong emphasis on education and upward mobility in the U.S., it shouldn’t take a young person like Serrano, who graduated at the top of his class, seven years to go to college.
Ways to take ACTION
dance film (2014)
Synopsis:
From opulent drawing room to grocery store, Invisible Queens peers behind the image of domestic laborers to reveal human portraits of women whose work provides the backbone for our daily lives.
Documentary Film (2012), 52 minutes
Synopsis:
Little House in the Big House takes you inside the gates of the Southeast State Correctional Facility in Windsor, Vermont where forty-five women build a single-family home from start to finish. Under the instruction of the tradeswomen's group Vermont Works for Women, these women find the tools necessary to build a house and construct a sustainable future. The documentary chronicles the process of building the second home in the program and features the stories of four women during their time inside prison and follows their progress after their release. Witness the significant triumphs and the harsh complications of trying to make lasting changes as the women navigate a faltering prison system. Little House in the Big House was the first documentary project for Rhynard and galvanized her desire to create films focused on social justice issues and draw attention to inequality in our communities. The documentary screened at festivals throughout New England and received best documentary at the Central Illinois Feminist Film Festival.
To purchase a DVD or download, click here.
dance films (2013)
Synopsis:
Ballet's Child is the first work by the creative team of choreographer Donna Murray and poet Lani Scozzari with collaborative work by filmmaker Tiffany Rhynard. The poetry of Ballet's Child tells the story of a young girl, whom at age 7, was told to “lose five pounds” at an audition where she stood in a line of girls in black and pink. The journey told through words and movement is one of dysmorphia and complicated coping rituals while in pursuit of technical artistry. We follow the speaker through her darkest moments only to be lifted and touched by her strength, desire and empowered choice to live.
dance film (in post-production)
More information coming soon!
Shared Space encapsulates on-going research into dialogical practices with improvisation through movement and language. Investigation seeks further understanding of how we move together as a culture, community, and social structure…how to do we best share space?
Past Performances/Exhibitions:
ACCelerate Creativity & Innovation Festival (April 2022)
FAR Fellows Research Night (April 2019)
Evening of Dance Pre-Show Performance (October 2019)
Center for Innovation open rehearsals (Fall 2020)
Dancers pictured right: Callee Egan, Maria White, Ariel Douglas
This project is about people. It is about seeing, seeing beyond labels and yet recognizing the assumptions we habitually construct. The goal is to subvert our conventional notions of normal and expand our capacity to understand people.
Something Strange
music video, Corinne Danielle (2015)
Something Strange is a co-written song by Corinne Danielle and Manny Cortez and was produced by the talented Larry Luv. The video was shot in downtown Gainesville, Florida. Special thanks to Maude's Cafe and production assistants Itarah Godbolt and Larry Rosalez.
Purchase the track!
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/something-strange-single/id1026169280
See sampling of Rhynard's choreographic work for the stage.
(in Post-Production)
Millicent Johnnie
Producer, Writer, Director
Tiffany Rhynard
Producer, Director of Photography
Synopsis
Ma Negresse is a narrative film project centered on the work of Grammy-nominated fiddler and singer Cedric Watson, co-directed and produced by award-winning choreographer Millicent Johnnie and filmmaker Tiffany Rhynard. Distinguished interdisciplinary artist and renowned dancer Anjali Austin is featured in the film. The goal of the project is to celebrate and archive the rich tradition of Zydeco music and dancing, and preserve the disappearing French Creole language featured in Watson’s music. The film was shot on location in Thomasville, Georgia, at the Mitchell Young Anderson Museum, a historic home built in 1831 and African American owned since 1887. The centerpiece of the film is Watson’s performance of the original French Creole song, Ma Negresse. Two original works: Live Oak, written and performed by Austin, and Ma Negresse written and performed by Millicent Johnnie support Watson’s music and serve as visual interpretation of the song.
Produced by Sisters Unite Productions under the 319 brand.
Millicent Johnnie and Tiffany Rhynard established 319 Productions, a newly formed film company creating content that place BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities and women at the center of their stories, an anomaly in the film industry. Johnnie is a two-time United States Artists nominee in Dance and Creative Capital Award winner with New Orleans based Mondo Bizarro. Rhynard’s award winning documentary, Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America, received a 2018 Television Academy Honor for its airing on LogoTV in partnership by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
@LiveFeedback is a live performance piece that is alive, breathing, and constantly recalibrating to meet the moment. Rooted in a process of active listening that values the intersection of multiple voices, this ensemble of artists built a space to explore, play, and discover a world beyond pre-planned movement and ideas.
Choreography & Performance: Josiah Barnham, Coralie Duvert, Isabell Hagley, Ashleigh Hartnett, Sam Hulka, Gemma Leary, Kimberly Milan, Anna Paterson, Camille Pepper, Feyikemi Portier, Khorii Tinson, Maria White
Music & Performance: Farai Malianga
Projection Design & Performance: Chris Cameron
Camera & Performance: Tiffany Rhynard
