Our latest narrative short film And What Happened After That? premiered at this year's 30th Annual New Orleans Film Festival in the Louisiana Shorts: Right Place, Wrong Time block. It screened two times during the festival, with its debut on October 19th at the Prytania Theater, followed by a second screening on October 21st at the Contemporary Arts Center in the Festival’s Ranch Theater. And What Happened After That? marks our third time at the New Orleans Film Festival (NOFF) and our return to the Fest since the premiere of our feature-length film Woke in 2017. It’s always a joy to screen our work at NOFF, and we were very excited that both screenings were well attended and received good feedback and questions. Some people shared that they would have benefited from a film like this in high school that mirrored their experiences. A question that we received multiple times was, “Well, what happened after that, and when can we watch it again?” Our goal is to continue to bring you more quality films that blend entertainment and health through the IWES lens.

What Happened Before That?

After consolidating our social media channels that focused on youth health and rights into one, unified outlet - Catapult - our Media & Communications Team set out to create short films to exemplify the 4 main pillars of Catapult, which are: Act (social justice); Grow (positive youth development); Educate (sexual health); and Feel (emotional well-being). The end result was And What Happened After That?, which was shot at Benjamin Franklin High School (major thanks!!) and told through a series of five short episodes that could also be combined to create a full short film. The first four chapters highlight the four pillars of Catapult (Act, Grow, Educate and Feel), while the fifth vignette ties the story together. And What Happened After That? is designed to complement IWES’ positive youth development programming by showing how feelings (emotional well-being), actions (social/reproductive justice), health education (comprehensive sex ed), and life skills (personal growth, goals, and dreams) impact healthy relationships and decision-making. It comes directly from what we have been observing for many years in classrooms across the Greater New Orleans Area. While these events may not have all occurred in one day of implementation (to our knowledge), they could, and each vignette touches on a different aspect of the decisions and calculations a high schooler makes as it relates to their mental and reproductive health, and general well-being. It also helps to remind us of some of the issues youth bring with them into the classroom and to always operate from a space of compassion and recognition that many youth are “Sad, not Bad.” While we screened the film as a whole, the chapters can be shown as standalone pieces in the classroom or community-based venues to spark discussions on each theme.

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER FOR AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? HERE!

SO, WHAT WILL HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE?

In addition to showing the film in classrooms, in November we will also release it on our newly launched website and social media platforms – Mosaic - IWES’ new hub for all of our media, both new content and past pieces. We mentioned the Catapult consolidation earlier, and this was created in the same vein. You may have previously seen our films Back Story and Woke on separate sites, but as we continue to grow and create new, diverse projects, instead of creating new accounts for each one we will bring them and their myriad themes and modes of expression together on the aptly-titled Mosaic website and social media pages. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date with our upcoming screenings, events and releases, and of course to see all of the behind-the-scenes footage and sneak previews we can share!

For more information about IWES’ Media & Communications or to see our films, please contact Iman Shervington via email (iman@iwesnola.org) or phone (504-599-7712).