Spotlight on: Aaron Ingram
By Swarna Vadhirajan
Swarna Vadhirajan sits down with the guru of ActNow Foundation, the brooklyn-based indie film organization
My first encounter with Aaron Ingram, the Executive Director of ActNow Foundation, was at a small film screening gathering at club Level V. Looking back, his demeanor as he approached me was of calm humility, easily the remnants of his middle-class Bronx upbringing. And that seems to have set the tone for his aspirations with ActNow.
His childhood memories were colored with diversity, mainly his ethnically mixed friends scouting out food from each others’ houses. It was “hard but good,” he says of his childhood, adding that he wanted to be a fireman when he grew up. He drew his biggest inspiration from his mother, who constantly planned community events, family get-togethers, church choir practices, and Christmas gatherings. After some watching-from-the-sidelines, he took after her, now successfully running his own not-for-profit foundation to showcase up-and-coming as well as seasoned short-film makers.
His vision is driven by the undercurrent in his feelings that “the black middle-class community is underrepresented.” His biggest message?—“that we [the black middle-class] count.” Echoing the sentiments of popular thought, he says that the face of the African American in media is a skewed one with negative connotations. He tries to bring to the forefront an assortment of issues near and dear to the individual filmmakers, with the message that there is more to the African American experience than the negative stereotypes of the ghettos, projects, and crime. So what is his favorite movie, I asked. “Nothing But a Man – it symbolizes a brother trying to figure out how to make it work,” he replied. And that is the genre he tries to feature in his screenings—human experiences—but unique to that of the African American lower-, middle- and upper-class.
The screenings are usually packaged in themes from love and relationships to family, race and sex, relating the issues in an almost mini-series fashion. I went to his most recent film collective on June 14th—this time it was a father’s day theme. His day had started before 8:30 in the morning with jury duty, a day no different in busyness than his normal hectic days of making phone calls, planning for future collectives, culling film submissions, coordinating his small staff and handling administrative duties. Only this day, he had his event to set up—not getting to do so until after the duty let out, after 4 in the evening, leaving less than two and a half hours for everything from transit time to orchestrating the people and event.
A gracious host, he greets each attendee himself, his humility continuing from the day before when we had met. He even takes time to politely direct guests who aren’t there for the viewing. Throughout, he stays alert, monitoring the sequencing and timing and the noise level. Every so often, he confers with his staff, specifically the announcer, about progress. “The sponsors should be here soon,” he tells me. It was just the kind of turnout he’d hoped for, about seventy-five people, a mix of corporate and common folk with a predominantly black demographic. The atmosphere was light with a lounge-y feel with soul music serenading in the background and muffled chatter filling the room when the movies weren’t playing. The short films, however, invited intent attention from the viewers with bursts of loud reactions from laughter to gasps.
Continuing his mother’s tradition, to Aaron, it is as much throwing a successful party as bringing film connoisseurs together—from securing the venue and involving the right sponsors to giving his guests a powerful yet entertaining experience. With urban musical interludes before and after each film, complementary drinks to ‘grease the wheels,’ Q&A sessions for aspiring as well as experienced film-makers, actors and those interested, and games and raffles to close, calling his theatrical productions ‘screenings’ would simply not do.
Acting is his first passion, with live-theater snagging an extremely close second. How this passion surfaced from a former bank teller, pension fund employee, and life guard is that much more intriguing. A dancer, yes, an ex-girlfriend, takes credit for exposing him to acting classes. Slowly, he pursued acting and still acts on the side. It was the frustration he felt faced with limited roles that led him to bringing artists together whose talents may otherwise stay hidden.
To his own credentials, he’s produced short films and plays but Aaron is most interested in rounding up talent, expanding his presence from his current Brooklyn-based operation to Manhattan and eventually inaugurating a prestigious awards festival solely for short films. But to do so, the funding is crucial. Trying to strike the balance between remaining a grass-roots and ‘for-the-people’ effort yet gaining popularity for sponsorship is his toughest challenge. A friend of three years notes that he is known for his kindness and generosity but if there is one attribute Aaron says people should know about him, it is that he is not a quitter. With that attitude, he’s sure to achieve his goal; after all, he’s come quite a long way from when he’d just started. As for something most people would not know about him, he says he has a cat named Pookie.