Making Films That Highlight Shared Humanity

In this episode, host Sandra Abrams chats with Monda Raquel Webb, former EVP of WIFV (and still a board member), and winner of the 2024 Trailblazer Award from the African American Women in Cinema of New York City. Webb is a book author, filmmaker, and performance artist. As an independent storyteller, she is dedicated to telling stories hidden in the crevices of history's pages through her production company, Little Known Stories. In this conversation, we learn why she describes herself as a visual archeologist and the “little known stories” behind several of her film projects. She is currently serving as the Executive Vice President of the Chesapeake Film Festival Board and as a programming coordinator for the Chesapeake Film Festival. Her latest film, “Mother Knows Best” will be released in January 2025. 

Learn more on her Instagram at @mondaraquelwebb 

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Transcript

00:03 - VO (Host)
Quiet on the set. All together Action. Welcome to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video in Washington DC. We bring you conversations with industry professionals for behind-the-screens insight and inspiration. 

00:24 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
In this episode of Media Maker Spotlight, my guest describes herself as a visual archaeologist. If you're not sure what that means, stay tuned to learn more. I'm your host, sandra Abrams, and I'm chatting with Manda Raquel Webb. She's an award-winning author, filmmaker and performance artist and owns Little Known Stories Production. She's a woman in film and video board member and a former executive VP of WIF, as well as a member of the AKA sorority. She is the author of several books. Her film projects include Zoo Valkyrie and Pooch Sitter. Both have won over 40 awards. Manda has two current projects Mother Knows Best and Portraits in Black, honoring our national treasures and we'll talk about them later. Earlier this year, manda won the Trailblazer Award from the African American Women in Cinema in New York City and she has received many honors over the years. Manda, welcome to the podcast. 

01:29 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Thank you. I am delighted to be here and honored, so thank you. 

01:35 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, one of the things I didn't mention in your intro was you went to the University of Rhode Island, so I'm wondering how did you end up here in the DMV? 

01:44 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Well, I was raised here primarily, so I spent my elementary and middle school years in high school here in Montgomery County in Silver Spring, maryland, and I received a basketball scholarship to the University of Rhode Island and it was a great four years, but I was definitely ready to come back home. 

02:02 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Love the fact that you're a local person and you're supporting the DMV once again. That's wonderful, but one of the things I talked about I said in the beginning, visual archaeologists. So what does that really mean? 

02:17 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
For me, it's storytelling, where you use all of your senses to hear, feel, see, touch, to be a part of that moment, whether it's 2024, 2084, 1934, or 1634. I want people to feel something when they look at my work, and a part of that is being able to use, whether it's visuals or words, to envelop, if you will, the user, the participant, like a blanket, so that their feeling is not always joy, but that they are feeling and tapping into their own emotions, and to make the most obscure topic relatable. I hope that helps. 

03:14 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yes, no, it did Absolutely, because it gets me to the film that you did called Zoo, and I had read that how it came about in part was the fact that you saw a photo and it grabbed your attention. So, as you were describing, you know what is. What does it mean? To be a visual archaeologist is to feel something, and this particular photo you definitely felt something, and then you made a film. So tell me a little bit about about the photo and how this film came about. 

03:47 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
It was one of those things, sandra, that I think was just divine. I was trolling Twitter when it was Twitter, several years ago, 2013, to be exact and I saw this picture of a little girl and One side was a little girl, on the other side was an ape, and the subtext an ape, and the subject said a human zoo and said that the on the left, the photo on the left was of. You know, they likened the little girl to an ape and I had a knee-jerk reaction. First of all, absolutely Human zoo, what's that, right? And I'm like how come I never learned about this in school? And I immediately saw a vision and you know, I say it came from God because I'm just not sure where something like that could have come from outside of it Right, I am a faith person. And so it just downloaded, literally like on papyrus, and I saw everything, everything, every nuance, and I said this has got to be a short film. 

05:10
Now. I had self-published a couple of books, but I didn't really know anything about screenwriting. As a matter of fact, I was intimidated by it because it's such a rigorous discipline. When you write, you have a lot of real estate. Figure is discipline. 

05:26 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
When you write. 

05:26 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
You have a lot of real estate, but a good screenwriting is precise. It's almost scientific in a way, using poetry and prose. 

05:36 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Yes, Because it has to jump off the page without having that image. It has to jump correct In order for somebody to say okay, yes, I'm going to make this film. 

05:49 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
I didn't doubt for a minute that for this particular message, for people to learn more about it, that it had to be a film, and so I just set about it. I went to a retreat in Costa Rica for screenwriters and I did a lot of research. As my screenwriting teacher would say, you know, when you can teach, you can teach a monkey to write a screenplay. But the elements that they taught us, like meditative writing and understanding that you know, with every character we write, that's from within, they had hypnosis for writers. So it was a type of environment where, you know, it was just a few of us. We were in the jungle in Costa Rica. It wasn't the glamorous Costa Rica that people may think about and everything was big. You know we had to watch out for the crocodiles and you know those bananas bats flying around, but we would have yoga. 

06:43 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I'm not sure why I chose Costa Rica, but it sounds like you did get a lot out of it, including crocodiles. 

06:50 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Oh my gosh. But you know it's also a way to embrace your fear and to harness it, and so out of that the script was written. You learn so many lessons when you're especially when you're doing independent film At this point I was earning them on my dime people who had contributed and what you have in your head versus what goes on a page, versus what is shot, versus what is edited, versus what is the final product, are like oh, hopefully they're not too different, but they're going to be different just by the very nature. Fortunate it is still on the film festival circuit. You know most films die after a couple of years, but Zoo Vocal Show continues to live globally and I feel really blessed. 

07:48
And now were you a member of WITH by now, at this point, you know I was Because Kimberly Skirm at the time was the casting casting director and she had introduced me to Melissa Houghton, and because of Kimberly I was able to get a couple of cast members for Zubalka Shelf. So yes, I was. It's been a while. 

08:12 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Right, and you actually did meet somebody through another film festival who actually spoke German, who added to this film the realism, added to that, from what I read, oh, donna, well, you know, interestingly enough, she didn't speak German, but she did. 

08:29 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
I met her at the festival. Oh, ok, all right. 

08:34
She took upon herself to like really challenge herself. Because I said I really I want people to, I want this to feel global. We shot it in my backyard, right. So it's supposed to represent Germany 1958. How do we do that? So I thought that speaking in different languages would add to the authenticity of being at a World's Fair in 1958. So, yes, she spoke with her friends who were German to make sure she had her intonation correct. And yeah, that was Donna. Yeah, great, that was a good connection, yeah. 

09:04 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Wow, all of that for a short film that's still on the film circuit. Congratulations, manda, that's fantastic. 

09:11 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Yeah, I just think that you know the concept of a human zoo. Although they haven't had any legally since then, I do believe that the concept of a human zoo is still in play and we're seeing it play out in a sense in politics this very day. And really the overall crux of the film is for us to look at one another as equals, look at one another as human, and that's my tagline let's all be human, right, and so that message doesn't change, unfortunately. Right, yeah. 

09:50 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Right Humanity, be the best you can in your humanity. 

09:53 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
It's so true, Be in a much better place. I think and I used children for a reason. And children are so pure. You know, a lot of times we're taught hate, we're taught prejudice, but if you look at things from the eyes of a child, the purity and the openness and the love that I just you know, coupled with our common sense of mother wit, that the world really would be a better place. 

10:19 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, speaking at Film Festival, I read that you've served as a juror on numerous film festivals, from Maryland to France, and then you also were a juror on the NAACP Image Awards, so I guess one. How did that come about? And if other people are interested in being a juror, how does how does someone go about doing that for people who are are watching this podcast and for members of WIF you? 

10:44 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
know, sandra, it is primarily I've been asked, and there are some film festivals that are still, to this day, annually serve as a juror, but you know that's, I don't think there's a book or any type of. You know, how do you become a juror for a film festival? 

11:03 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Right, that's why I thought I need to ask you this question, because I said, oh, that sounds really interesting. So you, know. 

11:10 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Okay, I'll tell you a couple of things. When I attend a festival, I throw my whole self into it. I try to go to as many screenings as I can, if I meet the filmmakers, to support them. As storytellers, we really just want to tell our stories to others and have them appreciate it, whether we want to make you laugh, cry or think, we just want other people to see it. And I'm very intentional about that. And when I ask questions, I'm very thoughtful about those questions, and so perhaps others look and say, oh well, maybe she would be a good person to. You know, because I've never asked anyone why they asked me to be a juror Other than you know. Ok, or maybe I don't have time, but I really do love the arts. I respect it. I think it takes a lot of courage, and you know one of my favorite quotes Nina Simone mentioned it when she said the duty of an artist is to reflect the times. And you know. 

12:12 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I. That's a fabulous quote from Nina Simone, Fabulous, fabulous. So I just. 

12:20 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
I look to reflect those times and my actions and my words and what I feel is part of my duty as an artist. That may not help others, but I would say, if I were to think from a strategic standpoint, how can I do something like this is to get to know the curators of the festivals and build a relationship with them. Right, a sincere one and ask perhaps you say you know people are always looking for people to be jurors right, and just ask I love this festival, I've been attending it for X amount of years. I really think that my opinion may be helpful and I would love to volunteer my time. So I just think that the building of relationships and establishing that trust is a really important part in life, in anything, but especially if you want to get involved in something like this. 

13:15 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
I read that you are the Executive Vice President and Festival Programming Coordinator for the Chesapeake Film Festival. What is special about that particular festival? 

13:25 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
The Chesapeake Film Festival. I got involved a little over nine years ago as an attendee and I really appreciated the way that the festival curators treated the filmmakers. It felt very special and we talked about it, you know, and I gave her feedback like this is great. I've been to several festivals, but this one stood out because of these particular factors, and so in the past few years I have helped to if I saw a film that I thought might be a good fit. Chesapeake is, in the Eastern Shore, very historic part of Maryland as well as the environmental, just beautiful country, and I'm like, well, you know, I think maybe I can help. I can bring some diverse films here and you know, part of my ilk is to ensure that the voiceless have a voice. So whether that voiceless be disabled, lgbtq plus minorities, I'm here for it, right and so to be able to bring that kind of aspect into the programming gives it more dimension, if you will, and I enjoy it. I truly do. We've had some good films. 

14:41 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Absolutely. That's wonderful. So I think they had their film festival recently. So we've got another year to go before the next one. Yes, for next year, for 2025. Yes, so, but not only are you involved in film, but you're also involved in poetry. So tell us, you did some, you perform poetry. So I, I cause I said that in the beginning you're a performance artist, so I was like, okay, that's unusual for some of our with members. So tell us about the poetry. 

15:13 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Well, it's, you know, another form of storytelling, right? So I have been writing since I was about eight or nine, and I have two poetry books that I've self-published. One is called A Peek Into my Soul and the other is Life is Like a Soul Train Line. 

15:30 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Soul Train. I remember that show. 

15:33 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
And you know, I was gosh, I don't know, somewhere in my 20s when I started thinking about my mortality. And you know, I said, well, if I did have, if I was going to be eulogized, what would that look like? And I thought about the things that I really loved and I didn't have anything to show for it. And you know, instead of having excuses like oh, I don't have enough money, I was like you know, I'm just going to write, I'm just going to publish a poetry book, right? And so the first time I published it was to have something on the books in case I passed. And then the second time, I published it. 

16:10
It was morbid, but it was, it was. It was really a fun experience and I mean, I took poems that I had written on napkins and you know, back in the day I didn't even have a typewriter, you just wrote, you know. 

16:23 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, some people listening may not even know what a typewriter is, like you do it for young people. 

16:33 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
I put together, peek Into my Soul and then Life is Like a Soul Train Line, which is, you know, it's really just an encapsulation of life and all of its forms life, love and those lessons. You know that we learn as we mature, and I do perform on occasion, and so I'm going to be looking to make one of my poems into a performing, a performance piece that was in the memory of George Floyd, and so hopefully that'll be edited by sometime in the spring and I'll be able to share it with you. I just enjoy it. 

17:07 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Wow, that's really fantastic that you're doing something. Is this new? Have you talked to anybody else about this piece that you're doing? And it's about George Floyd or it's a memory of him? 

17:19 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
piece that you're doing and it's about George Floyd or it's a memory of him. It's dedicated to him. It's dedicated to him. It looks at our history as a whole, about us becoming better people and learning from the mistakes that we made in the past. But a part of that learning is accepting, you know, accepting bad behavior and wanting to change it Right and to reconcile that and then to heal, especially when it comes to Black and white relations and Indigenous people in this country. 

17:44 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, speaking of relations, one of the things I read was during the pandemic, you curated a monthly discussion series entitled the Healing Chronicles and I thought we've talked about, because of the pandemic, a lot of talk about mental health and self-care and tips. And tell us, what did you learn and what can you share from the Healing Chronicles that you learned about mental health and self-care? 

18:11 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
That series. Can I just say, sandra, you know how you've you feel helpless about certain things, and the pandemic impacted us all and it manifested in different ways. And so I said to myself I want to do something. I'm not quite sure what, but I want to do something that I think can uplift people. And then I had this idea about the Healing Chronicles and to be able to look at topics that maybe is actual a visual manifestation of saying the quiet part out loud. Right, you know people are still asking for it, but it just took a lot out of me, you know, to produce it and I'm not that technologically OK, I'm like maybe a B minus C, but I think that that type, that concept for a show could go a lot further. But it was created with so that participants could feel safe, could feel as if we were in one another's living rooms and we're talking about those things that may be considered taboo but are necessary to address in order to move forward. 

19:24
You know, ruth Ginsburg said, before she died, so prolifically like how are we going to talk, how are we going to talk about race relations and not mention race? It was an exact quote. Right, that's not an exact quote, but you know, we gotta, we gotta be able to turn this thing on its head and we have to be honest about it. If not, what's the purpose? And again, we're seeing a lot of this play out when it comes to our gender. In a way, it's election Right, but we got to be honest about it. Mm-hmm Right, women are dying. 

20:01 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Right. But, we got to be honest about it. Mm-hmm Right, Women are dying. Absolutely, Absolutely no. There was two people in Texas. You know an 18-year-old, yes. 

20:12 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
We have to talk about it and we have to understand and own our power that we're not helpless. We are in a world that is considered a superpower in a nation. So you know, so that's just. I mean, I'm pretty much a happy-go-lucky person, but I do believe that it is a part of my calling to be able to bring these things to the surface in an artistic form and educate, entertain and uplift all of us, because we're all kind of broken in a way, right from something. So we see it in one another and we acknowledge it and we embrace the light and we lift one another. Like this is what we have to do, that's what I believe. 

21:02 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Absolutely no. You is what we have to do. That's what I believe. Absolutely no, that's you're so right on that. And speaking of what you're doing going forward, you have another short film that you're doing Mother Knows Best and is that the one where our current president of WITH, connie St John, was part of your crew? 

21:20 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Yes. 

21:22 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So Connie goes, I'm going to be, I'm going to help. 

21:26 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Monda with her film. I was approached to direct it a couple of years ago and Mother Knows Best. Basically, in a nutshell, is about an embittered Italian widow who has a 30-something failure to launch truly failure to launch son, who is engaged to a Jewish woman and when she finds out she hits the ceiling because the way she grew up, you do not. Those are things you do not do. She is not one of them and she pulls out. She's not Italian and she pulls out all the stops in order to break up this engagement. But we find out that she's got, you know, she's got a past and she's got lots of skeletons in her closet as well. And it's because she's buried those skeletons skeletons without addressing them, acknowledging them and healing Right. It's made her a miserable person and it touches everyone that she comes in contact with until it does it. 

22:36 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
So, yes, Well, what's going on now? Like which stage of the filming process are you for? You know when can. Is this something that people can expect to see soon or next year? Sure. 

22:49 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
So we have the final edit is in and the press kit is. The media kit is done, so we're going to be up. You're pretty, yeah, oh yeah, that's it with you. Are we going to be up? You're pretty, yeah, oh yeah, that's it with you. So next year and I'll probably work with Connie Women in Film and Video to do a diverse showcase at American Film Institute I did one a few years ago and two so we can show that in other films from different voices across the US and maybe overseas as well. We'll see, but the plan is for to do a festival circuit run and then we'll kind of figure out what distribution might look like and who might be the best entity to distribute it. 

23:34 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's wonderful. And how long did it take from the time you started writing the script to the time you actually, you know, opened up that camera lens and said, okay, action. 

23:44 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
Well, the person who bought it to me there was a script, but I looked at it and I said, please, I beg of you, can I start from script scratch? But she's like I trust you, Manda, go right ahead. So so, to answer your question, it took um about nine months. We, I think, yeah, we had 10 versions of it, um until we, you know, until we and that was in June 20, we're in 2024. So we shot in June 22. Very low budget, but for me, if it's social impact, I'm like we don't have to have a lot of money to make statement Right. And again, we're talking about humanity. Let's all be human and just because we learn something and grow with it doesn't mean it's necessarily the right thing. So we have a responsibility, responsibility to ourselves to question it. We know the difference between right and wrong. So and yes, there's always gray area, but that mother knows best does address that and I think that people are going to enjoy it. This is some tough language, but overall I think they're going to enjoy it. 

25:04 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
Well, I keep hearing the word humanity, be our best selves, diversity these key words I'm hearing, you know, and throughout talking to you, and I guess one of the questions I had was what do you want people to take away from your films, your books, your poetry? And I have an idea, but maybe you can just articulate it a little bit further, Pull that thread a little more and flush it out for all of us. 

25:29 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
I would say from a granular standpoint and a loving kind of auntie way, I just want to leave you better than I found you, whatever that looks like, not in a huge ego way, but in a way that you've been touched and if there is something that needs to change, that you would want to make that change. You know, if it's something that you didn't know, now you know right and I really want to imbue you with joy that when it's all said and done, when we do, when we're loving on one another, there is joy and gratitude for just being here. People have so much going on from a health perspective, from a financial perspective, from fractured family relationships. There's always something going on. But you know, if we look at the bright spots and we continue to focus on that bright spot, it's just going to get bigger. 

26:28 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
That's all we can do these days. So, Manda, I wanted to ask you before we go you have talked about your films. You talked about the Chesapeake Bay Film Festival. Is there any particular website or social media handle that you want to share with people that? 

26:44 - Monda Raquel Webb (Guest)
if people want more information, Well, I'm on Instagram under Monda Raquel Webb, and I'm a multi hyphenate so you might sell real estate, so you might see any number of things on that. I see any number of things on that when I post, you know. But Chesapeake Film Festival you know, you can Google that and Women in Film and Video. Of course, I love this organization. I'm just, I'm enamored with it and I respect it wholeheartedly for all of its years of service and do we continue to grow and touch women and men nationwide? Really, you know, even though we're Women in Film and Video, dc, we do touch folks all over this country and throughout the world. So I'm proud. 

27:36 - Sandra Abrams (Host)
We're proud to have you as a board member as well on Women in Film and Video. So thank you, Manda. Thank you, Manda, so much for joining the Media Maker Spotlight podcast. 

27:45 - VO (Host)
Thank you Thanks for listening to Media Maker Spotlight from Women in Film and Video. To learn more about WIF, visit w-i-f-f-v. Victororg. This podcast is created by sandra abrams, candace block, brandon ferry, tara jabari and jerry reinhardt and edited by michelle kim and inez perez, with audio production and mix by steve lack audio. Subscribe. To continue learning from more amazing media makers, please visit medium makerspotlightcom for more information.