OUR STORYVisions Blu Institute (VBI)
Visions Blu Institute is back. Why? We’ve been seeing a different need from when we started. The African American community is constantly bombarded with negative images, media, music and social media content. Visions Blu Institute is currently focused on providing an outlet to create positive-oriented content. During the last couple of years, we’ve created a couple of short films: “Tell Someone” and “The Nell”. “Imminent Checkmate”, another short film, will premiere in 2024 . Karon Hamlet, founded Visions Blu Institute in 2002 as a non-profit organization dedicated to educating, empowering, engaging and motivating African American youth and adults (aged 9-49) in the area of visual media and the business behind television and film. At the time, there weren’t many ways for the general public, specifically African Americans, to learn about the business of television and film directly from industry professionals, outside of schools. As a beginner in the industry, Karon received a lot of questions about getting into it. Also, as a person interested in learning more, she decided to create a vehicle to allow those people to access information sharing and networking with professionals at the same time. Thus, the Visions Blu Film Symposium was born. Volvo Cars, Kodak and American Airlines were the premiere sponsors for the inaugural Visions Blu Film Symposium. The Symposium proudly ran for five years, conducting panels, film screenings and networking at affordable prices to make it accessible. Additionally, we produced youth programming and networking events for a few years before going dormant. Since then, we have re-imagined our mission and evolved into empowering, emboldening, and encouraging content creators of all ages to develop, execute and distribute authentic and powerful narratives. Our perspective is we need more creators than consumers. Still, we continue to include the business of television and film processes through-out our filmmaking and programming endeavors. We envision an audience of color, particularly African Americans, being inspired by our unique, positive message-oriented story-telling, subsequently increasing cultural confidence and improving lives. Additionally, our projects hire people of color (youth and adults) to work as crew, actors, actresses, caterers, editors and sound mixers for example. Ultimately, we challenge negative perspectives with positive narratives. We believe “change your story, change your life”. Visions Blu Productions LLC (VBP) is our production company. Strategic brand story-telling and authentic engagement that connects with a target audience is key in every industry. Our goal is to assist entrepreneurs, non-profits and individuals with developing their unique story and thrive in their respective industries. Tell us your why, we"ll curate your who. |
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VBI SAMPLE CONTENT & PROGRAMS |