“VUE NOIRE” first Bronx-based motion picture company officially accepts the Creative Talent and Corporate Underwriting Grant of $2.5 Million Dollars on Monday, August 25th, 2014 at 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time–Bronx, New York.
Eighteen year old Filmmaker Ani Akpan, born in Nigeria, Africa, arrived to New York City at age 4 along with his parents, brother & sister. The Akpan family, refer to the Bronx as “home”. Both Mr. & Mrs. Akpan are public school teachers in the Highbridge Community where they also raised Ani and his siblings while simultaneously managing an array of successful entrepreneurial endeavors.
Ani inherited a passion for video production from his Father, Imeh, who also stressed the importance of academic excellence, leadership skills, and social responsibilities. This led Ani toward developing himself as a freelance contractor in multimedia at age of 16. Additionally, it positioned Ani for the acceptance to the prestigious Browning High School where he consistently excelled in all of its diverse aspects.
Ani experienced one-on-one grooming by Director Spike Lee, as a result of winning a string of web-based short film projects. In January 2014, his indie films ignited a significant viral buzz through his self-published website. It garnered an international audience and ultimately the attention of studios execs from Warner Bros. Pictures who offered their support via access to Creative Talent Foundation–a charitable organization & endowment operating the largest film, TV, game, & theater operation purposed to scout, market, & provide corporate support to the world’s most prolific filmmakers & cinematographers at the onset of their careers.
The teenager made his most ambitious move to-date when he agreed to take up the program’s grueling and strenuous submission process in the pursuit of cooperative, distribution, and marketing support of more than Two Million Dollars; all while maintaining his full-time scholastic, volunteering, family, & church responsibilities.
It would be more than five months before Ani would see the end of the Foundation’s review process, and on that final day he sat with his parents and production partners, in great anticipation, as he open the certified mail that would convey the results of their efforts. On July 28th, Ani Akpan soared to yet another height as a co-recipient of the Creative Talent Grant as well as a major distribution cooperative venture agreement thereby supplying the proverbial “greenlight” for Akpan’s first feature film as well as the realization & first tangible step toward opening the Bronx’ first motion picture lot exactly upon the location where he dreamed of making music videos and epic films as a young boy.
On Monday, August 25th, 2014, at 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time, Ani Akpan, parents Imeh & Enobong Apkan, and his production partners officially commemorate day by the formal acceptance ceremony of the $2.5M Cooperative Underwriters Agreement & Creative Talent International Grant as well as the ceremonial groundbreaking, debut, and launch of the Bronx’ first studio lot; Vue Noire LLC. Akpan will also present the first exclusive and media junket debut of the company’s first feature film project. The occasion will be marked by additional presentations by Time Warner Executive Lucinda Farrow, and New York City Metropolitan Press Club.
