Connected, produced by Jeffrey Lindsay Relf, is an accompanying film montage to Nick Cave / Jack Cave The Color Is Fashion Exhibition. Connected is a tribute to Black and Brown aesthetics centering around Queer community, traditions, and values like dance and fashion.
The film features elements of Harlem’s Ballroom scene, such as voguing and break dancing while also incorporating its important origins of African dance. In reference to the title, the film is used to connect these African dance traditions with the Ballroom scene in Harlem, pointing out the similarities between the two. An additional element to the film is the connection to the 1978 film adaptation of The Wiz. The Wiz is a film production of a classic musical that tells the story of The Wizard of Oz through an African American lens. Clips of The Wiz intertwined with all of these important cultural elements cement this filmwork as a cultural timepiece.
Jeffrey Lindsay Relf , Filmmaker
A creative hybrid from Chicago’s South Side, Relf is a writer/director/producer. Focusing on Black subcultures, and obscure Black stories that ride under the radar, and are often ignored, or suppressed, Relf is an emerging creative offering a unique and fresh perspective.
Relf has written four feature-length screenplays, “85”, “An American Punk Tale”, “Burgen”, and the 2022 Gen-X dramedy “Almost 50”. He was selected to screen in Outfest/Showtime’s “One-Minute Film Competition”, which propelled him to write, direct, and produce the 2018 short film “Jesus Children of America” shot with the iPhone 8 (runtime 15-minutes). In 2019, he was selected for CMG/Festival de Cannes’ short filmmakers program, where his short screenplay “Baggage” was produced and premiered during the Cannes International Film Festival.
Relf packaged his first docuseries project “The Color of Fashion”, and received CNN/Film Independent’s Original Documentary 2020 Fellowship, as well as produced the Bronze Lens 2020 Award-Winning “Best Short Film”, “Catching Up”, starring Luke Cage’s Thomas Q Jones. Relf’s reimagined black and white Christmas short film “Another Xmas Dinner”, starring Trans-actress Kyler O’Neal was an official selection of Out South and Bronze Lens 2021 film festivals, was nominated for “Best Indie Short” under $1500 at the 2021 Florence Film Awards, and won the “Best Actress Award” at the 17th Annual NYC Downtown Short Film Festival. He is currently in development for his next feature length screenplay, “Turned”.
