Image-Making is.
/Political/
By infusing an image with political meaning, metaphor, and symbolism there is possibility for audiences to feel inspired by the work and get involved with the various forms of political activism through art, community engagement, and public awareness campaigns.
/Liberating/
I prioritize creating images that resist the reductive narratives of the Black lived experience by the dominant society. I find freedom by making images with care, intention, and love.
/Ancestral/
Sight is a gift given by God by way of the way of ancestors, those who came before me. They watched. They looked. They saw, even when watching could have cost them their lives. Seeing is a radical act. It is from the Ancestors I receive visions of the image.
/Aesthetic/
Black is beautiful. Black Aesthetic. Moving in and out of the shadows. Revealing and at the same time concealing. What then? Cornrows. Locs. Gold grills. Fish dinners. Fly ass whips. Jazz. Love. Shea butter.
Devon "Vonnie" Smith (b.1991, NorthSide Milwaukee, WI) is a research-based cultural worker, who. uses various modes of documentary production to preserve Black diasporic histories, with intentions of disrupting and dismantling systems of erasure. His cinema practice deviates from conventional forms of storytelling and narrative, and instead utilizes experiential aesthetics to engage viewers and participants in the work. Vonnie is currently based in Dallas-Fort Worth with his wife and three children. He is a Professor of Practice in Film Production at the Southern Methodist University.
Vonnie has shown work at Milwaukee Short Film Festival in Milwaukee, WI, Milwaukee Film Festival in Milwaukee, WI, Gallery 400 in Chicago, IL, Hayti Heritage Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, Experimental Tuesdays at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, WI, National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C, Violet Crown Theatre in Dallas, Texas, Angelika Theatre in Dallas, Texas, and the Luminal Theatre in Brooklyn, New York.