E’Jaaz Mason recalls the day Shane Brown walked into his class at New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School. Mason was teaching a course on cinema; Brown was eager to make one. “He’s like, ‘Mr. Mason, I’ve got this story I want to tell,'” Mason recently recalled. “‘I want to tell a story about inner city black boys and what they’re going through.'” Mason told Brown to write a plot summary. Brown gave him one the very next day. It became the genesis for “Like a Ship without a Sail,” a 10-minute short film depicting children of color caught in pipelines from school to prison. Together – and with the help of other students – they shot the film in their spare time. He won the grand prize in the 2019 Louisiana Film Prize junior competition. said Mason. Now Shane Brun is gone. The budding filmmaker was shot and killed on March 26. Police found her body in a canal in Little Woods. He was 20 years old. “Who knows what he might have become?” Mason wonders. “Who knows what he might have ultimately done for this world, especially for the city of New Orleans?” “But now I guess we’ll never know.” “It can be very difficult to hold onto hope that this city and its people can ever emerge from this oppression, sadness and hurt that we have faced all our lives,” he said. “But that’s where storytellers come in, isn’t it?” Mason’s work with Brown inspired him to start the nonprofit Lede New Orleans in 2020. He trains budding storytellers to build their craft by depicting the hardships around them. And in Brown’s absence, Mason says stories are more important than ever. “They remind us that there is hope, there is resilience,” he said. “Keep pushing, keep believing that there is a bigger, brighter, safer New Orleans. And if we all keep hoping and working for it, then I think we’ll get there.”
E’Jaaz Mason recalls the day Shane Brown walked into his class at New Orleans Charter Science & Mathematics High School. Mason was teaching a course on cinema; Brown was eager to make one.
“He’s like, ‘Mr. Mason, I’ve got this story I want to tell,'” Mason recently recalled. “‘I want to tell a story about inner city black boys and what they’re going through.'”
Mason told Brown to write a plot summary. Brown gave him one the very next day. It became the genesis for “Like a Ship without a Sail,” a 10-minute short film depicting children of color caught in pipelines from school to prison. Together – and with the help of other students – they shot the film in their spare time. It won the junior competition grand prize at the 2019 Louisiana Film Prize.
“I can’t help but think that Shane was so ahead of his time, so gifted and so smart to be able to write something like that,” Mason said.
Now Shane Brown is gone. The budding filmmaker was shot and killed on March 26. Police found her body in a canal in Little Woods. He was 20 years old.
“Who knows what he might have become? Mason wonders. “Who knows what he might have ultimately done for this world, especially for the city of New Orleans?”
“But now I guess we’ll never know.”
Still, Mason maintains this story isn’t over — not if others are channeling Brown’s writing spirit.
“It can be very difficult to hold onto hope that this city and its people can ever emerge from this oppression, this sadness and this hurt that we have faced all our lives,” he said. “But that’s where storytellers come in, isn’t it?”
Mason’s work with Brown inspired him to start the nonprofit Lede New Orleans in 2020. It trains aspiring storytellers to build their craft by describing the hardships around them. And in Brown’s absence, Mason says stories are more important than ever.
“They remind us that there is hope, there is resilience,” he said. “Keep pushing, keep believing that there is a bigger, brighter, safer New Orleans. And if we all keep hoping and working for it, then I think we’ll get there.”
