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The Sun Rises in The East film

Role: Designer, animator

The Sun Rises in The East tells the inspiring true story of The East, a pan-African cultural organization built by young people in 1970s Bedford-Stuyvesant. The feature documentary by Tayo Giwa and Cynthia Gordy Giwa of Black-Owned Brooklyn preserves the rich legacy of The East through interviews with members of the organization. In their own words, these members recount how The East transformed Brooklyn, creating dozens of self-sufficient businesses and institutions, a jazz scene that drew world-famous artists, and an epicenter for Black political contemporaries. The East's impact continues to shape Brooklyn to this day.

I had the incredible opportunity to design the film's title, recreating The East's original logo and drawing inspiration from the organization's radically cool original flyers. The title also features Bayard, a font from Vocal Type, a Black-owned type foundry dedicated to increasing diversity in the design industry, that echoes the signs from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. I was also commissioned to design the film’s opening type animation sequence, setting one interviewee’s poetic description of The East in motion.

The film premiered at BAM in February, 2022 and went on to screen in various film festivals in 2022. You’ll see the poster I designed for the premiere below as well. The Sun Rises in The East is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, YouTube Movies, and Google Play.

Following the film’s release, I was asked to create an educational discussion and activity guide for use in the classroom. The guide features group activities and exercises such as “how to make a protest sign.”

The film title, inspired by The East’s original logo

An earlier film poster, created by artist Jelsen Lee Innocent set the color palette and sunrise design served as inspiration for the premiere poster

I designed a discussion and activity guide to accompany film screenings in the classroom. Click the cover below so see the guide in its entirety.