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A screening and workshop about community-driven art and the politics and pragmatics of partnering
Slought is pleased to announce QUEST, a screening and workshop about community-driven art and the politics and pragmatics of partnering, on Saturday, May 11, 2019 from 5-7:30pm. The event will feature a screening of the documentary QUEST (2017), followed by a conversation and workshop with director Jon Olshefski and members of the Rainey family, including Christopher "Quest" Rainey, Christine'a "Ma Quest," and PJ. It is presented in partnership with CAMRA and QUEST Impact, and with the support of the Center for Media at Risk and the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania.
Filmed with vérité intimacy for nearly a decade, QUEST is the moving documentary portrait of the Rainey family living in North Philadelphia. Beginning at the dawn of the Obama presidency, Christopher "Quest" Rainey and his wife, Christine'a "Ma Quest," raise a family while nurturing a community of hip hop artists in their home music studio. It's a safe space where all are welcome, but this creative sanctuary can't always shield them from the strife that grips their neighborhood. Epic in scope, QUEST is a vivid illumination of race and class in America, and a testament to love, healing and hope.
The workshop and conversation at Slought will engage how art and media are rendered by, and help to render, the realities of all those involved. This workshop will give participants an opportunity to reflect on their collaborative media/art-making projects, as well as gain tools for navigating these spaces moving forward. It will be guided by the following questions:
— What is a story about your community that you wish was being told?
— What narratives about your community are you totally sick of?
— How can you collaborate with other media/art makers to tell this story?
— What resources can you use to navigate these collaborations?
Jonathan Olshefski is an artist and documentary filmmaker. In 2017 he was named as one of 25 New Faces in Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine and mentioned in the New York Times as one of "The 9 New Directors You Need to Watch."Olshefski strives to tell intimate and nuanced stories that honor his subjects' complexity by employing a production process that emphasizes collaboration, dialogue, and relationship to amplify their voices and reflect their points of view in an artful way.
Christopher "Quest" Rainey has been into music since the 80's, from breakdancing to beatboxing. Over the years he watched hip hop become hard core, new jack, chanting, and many others, but always still a form of RAP. He created Everquest Recordings as a way to help teens in his area, but it quickly grew into a family. He also became a cohost on 96.1 & 900am WURD's "The New World View" radio program, and directed a video shoot, Daily on the Block, starring Pep Shooter and co-starring Meek Mill. He has performed studio recordings for almost 20 years with local celebrities like Ron Geez, D Mack Kings, and 23P.