It's Time: CDC releases new slate of World TB Day (2020) PSAs produced by Ascender Films

Even the middle of a pandemic related to novel Coronavirus COVID-19, Ascender Films team is pleased to continue to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the production of TB messages for World TB Day 2020.  This is our fourth year doing this work and we are always thrilled to work with the talented team at the CDC Division of Tuberculosis Elimination as they document the stories of U.S. TB survivors.


CDC World TB Day Messages (2019)

This week the CDC released a series of World TB Day (2019) video PSAs produced earlier this year by Ascender Communications, Inc.

We are proud to assist the efforts for the wonderful team at the CDC Division of Tuberculosis Elimination (DTBE). According to the CDC web site,“This annual event commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes tuberculosis (TB). World TB Day is a day to educate the public about the impact of TB around the world.  CDC, along with our partners and colleagues around the world share successes in TB prevention and control, and raise awareness of the challenges that hinder our progress toward the elimination of this devastating disease.”

We are proud to be a trusted member of their team. For more information about TB or World TB Day. Please visit:https://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/default.htm


Our New Home

Our New Home

Ascender Communications Expands To New Office in Capitol Hill, Washington, DC

We are thrilled to announce that earlier this month, Ascender relocated to historic Barrack’s Row. Yep, we are back in Capitol Hill.

That’s where our journey began in the bedroom of a 2nd floor condo on Pennsylvania Avenue SE,  just 13 years ago.  It’s been a long time coming thus far. We survived The Great Recession. The 2011 DC Earthquake. Even the rise and fall of Walter White and we are poised for even greater things to come.

Our business is a start-up again. At this pivotal juncture, our projects and core team have expanded too. While we remain excited for what the future holds, we can’t help but acknowledge the enormous amount of work it took to get here. Being is business is like walking a tight-rope over a fiery mountain range, with one side tied to heaven, and the other to the gates of hell!

Okay—it’s not THAT bad. But there have been some really scary moments. But what makes it all so worth it—and so addictive—is that there have been so many more wonderful, life-changing moments along the way. And, we have met some really great people too.

Our new facility will allows us  increased client meeting space and post-production and animation and motion-graphics capacity, with separate Avid Media Composer® and Adobe Premiere ® editing Suites.

We are humbled to remain a thriving black-owned, boutique creative agency in Washington, DC. However, with greater capacity comes an greater responsibility to our clients and ourselves. This turn is all about improving our output and producing a solid body of high-quality work, bit-by-bit, day-by-day.

That remains the key to our longevity and financial success.  You gotta LOVE and MASTER your craft. Passion alone won’t do it. Nor will fancy digs.

May we forever rise to meet every challenge, forever learning and reaching for new creative heights.


Desiline Victor Project

Client: Advancement Project, Inc.
Producer: Leila McDowell
Director/Editor: Paul Grant
Camera A: Paul Grant
Camera B & Audio Assist: Joshua A. Washington

 

Every now and again, our work allows us to touch history.  It's an electrifying yet fleeting moment. But we are thrilled to work behind the scenes while great stories that define the times in which we live unfold in front of our eyes.

Desiline Victor, a 102 year-old, Haitian Immigrant, was told  she had to wait up to six hours to vote in the 2012 Presidential Election at the polls near  her North Miami residence. Desiline persisted through the heat, the long lines and having been wrongly returned from the front to the back of the line because  it was though that she had the wrong paper work proving her residency.  Three hours later, she emerged from the polls with her "I Voted" sticker and throngs of cheering people, to become the symbol of voter frustration and for much need revamping of the U.S. voting system/ process.

Ascender was tapped by Advancement Project, Inc., a non-profit civil rights advocacy group, to document her experiences in Washington immediately leading up to her being an invited guest at the 2013 State of The Union Address.  Save for a few technical embellishments, this was story that ended up telling itself--and inspiring millions in the process.