Co-founders Ewurakua and Ewuradjoa Dawson-Amoah present The Melacast Network — Breaking the Lens

Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022
Time: 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Location: The Institute of Contemporary Art— ICA/ Boston Seaport Studios
100 Pier 4 Blvd, Second Floor

The Melacast Network is a platform built to connect BIPOC actors, directors, and crew with the opportunities, talent, and resources needed to tell culturally rich & diverse stories in film.

Join cofounders Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah (pictured) and Ewuradjoa Dawson-Amoah for an introduction to the origins of the Melacast Network, who they're helping and where they plan to go.
www.themelacast.com

Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah, Co-founder of The Melacast Network

Canada born, US raised, Ewurakua grew up in a tiny town in New Jersey.

During her childhood, she immersed herself in storytelling and various music genres. Eager to be a “borderless storyteller”, her interests span from comedy to horror, and she plans to create work in various genres and mediums.

Ewurakua’s work has been recognized in numerous film competitions, including Fusion Film Festival, Raindance Festival, Cinequest, Toronto Black Film Festival, NFFTY, and received the Tony Hawkins Award for Excellence in Sound Design.

In August of 2020, her short film “To the Girl That Looks Like Me” was named a finalist in the Alternative/Experimental category of the 2020 Student Academy Awards. Ewurakua’s To the Girl That Looks Like Me is part of the Scene in Color Film Series, presented by Target, with the film available to watch on Rotten Tomatoes, MovieClips Indie Channel, Peacock, and the NBC App.

She’s worked with notable figures like Serena Williams, Queen Latifa, Janelle Monae, and Tabitha Brown and collaborated with USTA, Cricket Wireless, AT&T and MTV.  In 2020 she launched The Melacast Network, a platform focused on connecting BIPOC actors, directors, and crew.

Ewurakua is currently working as a commercial director in NYC. She loves to travel, train in Shito Ryu karate, and make music.

Ewuradjoa Dawson-Amoah, Co-founder of The Melacast Network

Ewuradjoa is Co-founder of Melacast and CMO. She is deeply passionate about creatively connecting people with employment opportunities that match their unique skill set while keeping diversity and equity at the forefront. She jumped at an opportunity to proactively narrow the equity gap that exists in the film industry.

Ewuradjoa holds a BA in Journalism Media Studies from Rutgers University and currently works as an HR Business Partner for a fortune 500 company. At Melacast, Ewuradjoa works to develop the brand and create engaging content to help people of color in film develop as professionals.

Cofounders Adam and Aaron Peterson present Alluder-The App Made for Film Students

Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022
Time: 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Location: The Institute of Contemporary Art— ICA/ Boston Seaport Studios
100 Pier 4 Blvd, Second Floor

Join brothers Aaron and Adam Peterson in discussing Alluder - a mobile app and video annotation platform that enables students to easily add notes, research, and feedback to commercially available and independently made films and TV.

Alluder was built after Aaron (NYU ’24) spoke with hundreds of film students and was made to connect students, improve grades, improve films, and save students time. The two will demo the app, share progress, and then answer any questions!


Adam Peterson, CEO & Co-founder, and Aaron Peterson, CPO & Co-founder, College Student

Based in New York, NY Adam and Aaron are two of the founding members of team Alluder. During the early months of quarantine, Alluder came to be after the two brothers grew tired of constantly looking up information about a show and being sent to dozens of different siloed platforms (Fandom, Reddit, Google, Youtube, etc.). What started as an idea to create a centralized database for film has since become a platform designed to help film students.

Prior to founding the company, Adam was a headhunter in emerging technologies and Aaron was a full-time student. Adam and Aaron both attended NYU, Adam receiving his B.A. and M.A. in Psychology and Aaron currently a member of the Class of ’24.

Adam was born in New York, and moved abroad to Warsaw, Poland where Aaron was born. After living in Warsaw for 7 years, the two then lived in Utah and Connecticut before heading to NYC.

Founder Serene Wang presents Looking at Life Planning Through a Design Lens

Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022
Time: 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Location: The Institute of Contemporary Art— ICA/ Boston Seaport Studios
100 Pier 4 Blvd, Second Floor

Serene Wang explains the architecture behind her school consulting, career and life coaching company: how using design thinking to map out your life journey will help you better understand yourself academically, professionally, and when setting life goals. 

By combining school consulting with career coaching and life coaching, Elitelink Education aims to become a GPS for students to successfully navigate their academic and career paths, receive their dream offers, and achieve their life goals.

Serene Wang, Founder and CEO of Elitelink Education 
Serene Wang is the founder and CEO of Elitelink Education. She is a passionate educator, entrepreneur, instructional designer, public speaker, and media influencer.  Her achievements have gained her recognition as an Individual with Extraordinary Achievement in the U.S.And she is listed in the Top 10 Outstanding Chinese Talents by All America Chinese Youth Federation and the American Chinese Public Diplomacy Association.

Her specialty is in instructional design, language training, and research in artificial intelligence. She is one of the best seller authors of language learning. She serves as the advisor and coach for many U.S. and international companies. She is also engaged in many education institutions' teacher training programs as the program developer or trainer.

Awarded as the top 10 digital instructional designers and Key Opinion Leader in Education, Serene has taught at Columbia and New York Universities. Each of her online live-streaming courses has more than 20 thousand students participating at the same time, and her teaching videos have over 20 million views.

www.elitelinkadmission.com/

Founder Chris Hope presents The Loop Lab and Why We Do What We Do

Date: Saturday, October 29, 2022
Time: 1:00PM - 2:00PM EST
Location: The Institute of Contemporary Art— ICA/ Boston Seaport Studios
100 Pier 4 Blvd, Second Floor

Join Chris Hope, Founder and Executive Director of The Loop Lab as he shares the journey that led to founding a BIPOC-led nonprofit social enterprise specializing in media arts internships and digital storytelling in Greater Boston.
www.thelooplab.org

Chris Hope, CTS, Founder and Executive Director of The Loop Lab

Chris Hope, CTS (He/Him) is the founder and executive director of The Loop Lab. Hope graduated from Tufts University, and then received his Masters at Harvard Divinity School. He now serves on the board of advisors for MassHire, is on the board of AVIXA, and is a Creative Community Fellow for the National Arts Strategies.

Hope is also an accomplished Audio-Video professional and runs his own DEI and staffing company, Equity Intellgence LLC.