The Power of Words: Jasmine Velez

Tribeca Film Fellow Jasmine Velez was busy throughout The Power of Words initiative as she worked on two distinctly different project. With the interactive project Truth Booth by Hank Willis Thomas (Question Bridge), she worked alongside another film fellow, Tatiana Jenkins, to assist in this installation where people are invited to enter the booth and record their opinions and thoughts as they finish the statement: "The truth is…" Playing off the Nelson Mandela quote: "The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed."

She was also paired with filmmaker Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake) for the film A Fork, A Spoon and A Knight, working off the Mandela quote: "Difficulties break some men but make others." In the above video she speaks about working with Nair and how the message behind Mandela's words has inspired her drive as an activist.