A Day in Color
Composer: Noah Simpson + Filmmaker: Shilpa Sunthankar
Read Kristin Thiel’s interview with filmmaker, Shilpa Sunthankar.
Directed by Shilpa Sunthankar, music composed by Noah Simpson, produced by Tara Johnson-Medinger, cinematography & editing by Gary Nolton, production assistant and photographer: Benjamin William Adams, production services provided by Limbo Films, performances by Northstar Native American Dancers: Perry Thompson, Shawna Ridgebear, Soraya “Yaxla” Medina, Ballet Folklórico Corazones Alegres Dancers: Laisha Solis and Danika Montoya, Afro Latin Fusion Artist: Malik Delgado, Bharatanatyam Dancer: Sridharini Sridharan.
Shilpa Sunthankar is a screenwriter, director, and producer with an affinity for stories about different cultures in coexistence, thanks to her background as an Indian-American woman raised in the “cowboy country” of Colorado. She graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts after interning for BBC London and attending the 35mm Filmmaking Master Class at FAMU in Prague. Her recent short film, Working Lunch (2018), inspired by the proliferation of hate graffiti after the 2016 US presidential election, premiered at the Toronto South Asian Film Festival and received a Regional Arts & Culture Council project grant. Her other short films, The Company of Thieves (2011) and Biography of an American Hostess (2004), have won awards including “Best Director” at the Los Angeles FirstGlance Film Festival, and have been licensed by the ShortsHD Channel, IndieFlix, and the CBC. Her feature script Seeta’s Demon (in production) was showcased at the C3 Conference at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival. She was awarded the SAGindie Fellowship to attend the 2019 Stowe Story Lab for developing her first feature film, Continental Divide, an outdoor thriller taking place on the US-Mexico border.
Music Title: “Cahava Springs” by Noah Simpson, performed by Noah Simpson (flugelhorn), Jack Radsliff (electric guitar), Jon Lakey (bass), Ken Mastrogiovanni (drums), recorded at Crossroads Productions, recorded by Sacha Muller, mixed by Sacha Muller, mastered by Dana White.
Pacific Northwest performer, composer, and forward-thinking improviser Noah Simpson’s approach to the trumpet is modern, energetic, dynamic, and attentive. Early in his career, he performed in The Young Sounds of Arizona, The Paradise Valley Community College Monday Night Big Band, and many Scottsdale Community College combos. Later he attended Portland State University, studying with his mentors George Colligan and Darrell Grant. Simpson has worked with George Benson, Lewis Nash, Bernard Purdie, Alex Acuna, Ralph Peterson III, Jaleel Shaw, Sean Jones, and Dennis Rowland. He has toured the US with Ron Artis II, Climbing Poetree, The Polyphonic Spree, and Dirty Revival and has performed at The Nash, The 1905, Montavilla Jazz Festival, PDX Jazz Festival, Jack London Review, and the Creative Music Guild Outset Series. His recent work includes a feature on Barra Brown’s new single release, NOAH, and arranger credit on the PDX Jazz educational presentation, The American Refrain: Jazz and Modern Music.
We would like to acknowledge that these beautiful lands are the original homelands of the Wasq’u (Wasco) and Wana Łama (Warm Springs) people. The Wasq’u (Wasco) and Wana Łama (Warm Springs) people ceded nearly 10 million acres of this land in the treaty of middle Oregon in 1855 while retaining regular and customary hunting, fishing, and gathering rights. The Tribes inhabited this area seasonally and clearly established their presence here. As a result of the treaty of 1855, the Warm Springs Indian Reservation was created. In 1879 the Northern Paiute people were moved to the Warm Springs Reservation. The three distinct tribes became known as the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. It is also important to note that although the Klamath Tribes did not inhabit this area, the Klamath Trail ran north and south through this region to the great Celilo Falls trading grounds. We acknowledge and thank the original stewards of this land. It is our hope that our guests continue to honor and care for the land that we hold dear to us.