{"id":6507,"date":"2021-10-01T15:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T15:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/?p=6507"},"modified":"2021-12-19T02:51:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T02:51:58","slug":"shaun-m-mathis-first-place-winner-of-the-2020-pviff-jaro-short-film-competition-discusses-colorblind-and-the-creative-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/shaun-m-mathis-first-place-winner-of-the-2020-pviff-jaro-short-film-competition-discusses-colorblind-and-the-creative-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun M. Mathis, First Place Winner Of The 2020 PVIFF JARO Short Film Competition, Discusses \u2018ColorBlind\u2019 And The Creative Process"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Shaun M. Mathis, the first place winner of the 2020 PVIFF JARO Short Film Competition for his film ColorBlind<\/a><\/em>, spoke with JARO\u2019s Tomeka Winborne to chat about the inspiration behind his Award-winning short film, the process of creation, and upcoming projects. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mathis was motivated to learn the art of filmmaking while working on his third book. Each page would come alive in his mind as a potential scene, and this prompted him to delve into screenwriting, which is a major contrast to writing books. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ColorBlind<\/em> was fueled by a 2016 police killing of an unarmed Black man local to him in Georgia. Initially wanting to seek revenge in destructive ways, a close friend of Mathis offered advice that led to the creation of the short film. \u201cIf you want to do something, do it in your art,\u201d he said. Thus, a script was born.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 20-minute drama centers on Mark, a white police officer who is plagued by guilt and remorse after he mistakenly kills an unarmed Black teenage boy. In recent years, there have been a copious amount of films portraying the deep injustice of Black people murdered by the American police force, but Mathis\u2019s ColorBlind<\/em> explores this disheartening yet highly pertinent subject with an unnerving twist that takes an already agonizing situation multiple steps further. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although we are rightfully furious about the ongoing killings of Black people at the hands of police, what is most distinctive about <\/strong>ColorBlind<\/em><\/strong> is Mathis\u2019s ability to approach a tragic situation from a place of understanding by humanizing the officer in the film, who was filled with a genuine sense of unbearable remorse. In its most important takeaway, Mathis urges viewers to remember this truth: \u201cWe\u2019re all connected, and we\u2019re closer than what we think we are. Nobody is immune to having a racial tragedy happening to them.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently, Mathis is working on a documentary called My Black Poly Life<\/em>, which centers on Black polyamorous couples throughout the United States. A forthcoming project includes Unicorns<\/em>, a feature film about four ex military Black females who visit a cabin to fight off a racist family that targets Black women. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Shaun M. Mathis accepts 1st place award with JARO’S G. Lynne Alston-Leonard<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mathis also won the second place prize for the 2017 PVIFF JARO Short Film Competition as the director of <\/strong>BLKMGC<\/em><\/strong><\/a>. Stay up to date with Mathis\u2019s future endeavors by following him on <\/strong>Instagram<\/strong><\/a> and visiting <\/strong>www.laconicproductions.com<\/strong><\/a>. Learn more about the making of ColorBlind on JARO Podcast<\/a>. Read more about ColorBlind<\/em> in JARO\u2019s <\/strong>review<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaun M. Mathis, the first place winner of the 2020 PVIFF JARO Short Film Competition for his film ColorBlind, spoke with JARO\u2019s Tomeka Winborne to chat about the inspiration behind his Award-winning short film, the process of creation, and upcoming projects.  Mathis was motivated to learn the art of filmmaking while working on his third […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[1059,31,1174,1057,436,51],"class_list":["post-6507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-tv","tag-colorblind","tag-featured","tag-jaro-pviff","tag-pviff-2020","tag-shaun-mathis","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}