Drawing Breath

Director: Risa Puno

Producers: Dina Graham, Stephanie Gaweda

Director of Photography: Stephanie Gaweda

Talent: Leyla Aghayeva, Terry Cooper, Yvette Dingwall, Carolina Do, Mieko Gavia, Omar Hurlock, Chang Liu, Yannick Mirko, Tzena Nicole, Nia Rodriguez, Insu Song, Ryan Thompson

Production Manager: Dylan Flasowski

Production Designer: Cristina O'Neil

Art Assistant: Trent Dahlin

1st Assistant Camera: Yasmeen Jawhar

Camera Intern: Sinan Tuncdemir

Gaffer: Timothy Gilligan

Key Grip: Michael Digioia

Swing: George Haley, Kevin Hillier

Hair and Makeup Stylist: Derek Medina

Set Production Assistant: Grace Sturgeon

Set Production Assistant: Bryan Cardenas

Editor: Joseph Reinhart

Color by: Company 3

Colorist: Emily Bailey

Color Producer: Ray Stanton

Covid Compliance Officer: Keensen Chambers

Equipment Rental: Handheld Films

Production Supplies: Street Team Studios

Truck/Auto Rental: Edge Auto Rental

Consultants: Alissa Mayers, Maythinee Washington

Production Company: Graham Cracker Media

about this project

Drawing Breath in a video installation feature by artist, Risa Puno.

The project features 12 people of color expressing a range of complicated emotions through their faces, bodies, and breath. As racialized people, our safety and acceptance is often dependent on our cultural utility or ability to assimilate. However, Risa wanted this project to simply focus on how we feel and breathe—without needing to blend in, code switch, or prove our worth. By centering this involuntary and necessary act of respiration on a 100 ft wide outdoor screen in the middle of New York City, the intention behind the project was to make it clear that, no matter what we are feeling, we have a right to exhale.

Graham Cracker Media produced this project in collaboration with Risa Puno Studios. The final installation includes an interactive section with text where each person breathes deeply at their own pace, taking in what they want to keep and releasing what they want to let go of. Each inhale and exhale is as unique as their fingerprints. I invite you to breathe along with them, matching your rhythm with each of theirs.

This project was commissioned by Arts Brookfield for a super wide format 100 ft outdoor screen in Manhattan West plaza. The excerpts shown were reformatted to better fit computer and phone screens.

Drawing Breath is open to the public and will be shown at Manhattan West plaza from 12-5pm on these days in 2023: Wed 2/1, Sun 2/5, Thurs 2/9, Mon 2/13, Fri 2/17, Tues 2/21, Sat 2/25, Wed 3/1, and Sun 3/5.