Short Film: RIVER QUEEN: WINTER’S END, 17min., USA, Musical

RIVER QUEEN: Winter’s End is the first leg of a musical voyage through the waters of life. Gibson’s directorial and artistic debut, the beginning of her study and reintroduction of the modern rock-opera, where the pairing of libretto and symbolic imagery rule, and the omnipresent narrator (played by Gibson’s 90 year old grandmother) tells the story of our protagonist as she traverses into a musical world of magical realism steeped in the black American experience. Set in Louisiana, RQWE is directed, written by, and starring the composer herself Grace Gibson as she navigates her journey from who she thought she was to the truth of her life’s purpose. Primarily shot in her 250 year old French-Quarter apartment by an entirely black local crew, the film is a love letter to all the generations Grace’s Baton Rougian family and to the city of New Orleans through her eyes. Stylistically it is an ode to the craft the music video & the old-school musical, while blending in aspects of documentary film-making: all the source footage derives from authentic 60 year-old family movies captured by Gibson’s late grandfather, along with 10 years of home videos Grace has shot to document her family through times of triumph and struggle. This film is the beginning of an on-going self portrait of an artist in the making and the people & experiences that made her. Thank you so much for your time and consideration!

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