2. How would you describe where you are right now as a creative?

I think that I am in my renegade or menace era of filmmaking. I am realizing that I am having success with creating films that have such taboo subjects such as recovering from sexual trauma or black feminism or patriarchy free weddings or dismantling misogyny within Christianity. I have taken the leap to make these bold films and they were not only received well but they are really successful in the Festival circuit and in terms of Awards. Now, I am in a place where I feel unstoppable and I feel like anything that I want to create, I should go ahead and create that no matter what the subject is. Even with the next project that I am working on, I have never seen anyone tackle this kind of subject in the way that I plan to so I am in a very bold era of filmmaking.

3.A lot of your work explores themes about Black Women (be it feminism, trauma, identity etc) what important aspects do you think should be considered when it comes to representing black women on screen?

If black women are the ones creating the films, I think that that is going to be told from a lens of authenticity because they are speaking from the lens of lived experience. I cannot sit here and say, to another black woman, that there is a right way to portray black women on film because a lot of times we are making films from our personal experiences so there is no wrong way to have a lived experience.

If other people are trying to portray black women’s experience on screen, I would just say it is really important to be delicate and accurate with that. Include black women in the room in key roles whether that be in directing or writing. Having black women as a part of telling our stories is incredibly important for the sake of authenticity

4.You seem to have created your own template for creating- one that works for you and has come to shape all the work that you have done. Why was it important for you to create a space where you can explore your creative voice to its fullest and do what you do with as much freedom as possible?

I didn’t wait for other people’s permission to tell my story. I think a lot of storytelling is stalled because filmmakers can’t find the money so for me Micro-budget Filmmaking was a way that I could continuously create on my own terms because I was doing it within the means that I had. That method came from me simply just wanting to be the captain of my own destiny and not wait for permission from other people to tell my stories.

My stories are not everyone’s cup of tea, not everyone is going to want to get behind a story that is about an anti-capitalist Santa or a patriarchy-free commitment ceremony, not everyone is going to believe that, not everyone is going to want to see that out in the world but I do and some filmmakers do. I wanted to be the person that guaranteed that it did get made and the way to do that was to look at the resources that I have available to me, doing it on a small budget scale and after I did that a few times, with 15/16 films in now, it definitely came out as a necessity for me and not wanting to put my creative freedom in the hands of other people.

5. Have you always been confident in your creative voice or is it something that you had to grow into?

I have always been confident! A lot of people ask me this question and they ask “how do you find confidence?” I have always been this way. Even when I was a kid, I just didn’t like when people told me that I was not capable of doing things because I was a girl or because I was too young. I think my first and biggest pet peeve was people telling me that I could not do something or I was not capable of doing anything, that made me want to learn and prove them wrong and made me want to dive head first into the things that I really was passionate about. I have always been this way and I have taken that into every area of my life, not just filmmaking. It is definitely not something that I had to grow into.

6. Seeing as you are a multi-hyphenated creative, do you have a favourite role/job description amongst the many hats that you wear? And why that specific role?

I don’t think I have a favourite because I think they are all weaved into each other. For me, producing is the most stressful. I can’t say that I enjoy producing but it is the reason why I am a successful filmmaker. If I handed over the schedules, the budgets, the timelines and the contracts over to other people and just waited for them to mitigate and manage all of that then my projects would not get completed in the way that I want them to get completed. If I am putting my time and energy into something, I want to know “where is this going”, “what is the marketing and distribution plan”. Producing, for me, was vital in managing and overseeing my creative process and protect my intellectual property and my creative process as a whole.

Writing and Directing, for me, is just really really freeing. I am very limitless with my writing and my subjects. Yes, I write from a micro-budget lens and a micro-budget landscape- like, I won’t write a script that will cost a hundred thousand dollars to make- I am writing the scripts that can take place in one location with minimal characters. I have parameters that I adhere to but as a whole writing is very freeing. Directing is just, again, going back to protecting my overall vision. There are a lot of stories that I just can’t trust other people to tell in a way that I want them to be told so for me directing was seeing my creative vision through all the way into the edit room and even beyond that.

I think Writing, Directing and Producing all go hand-in-hand and I would not feel comfortable if I was just doing one of those things in any of my projects.

7. What was your “AHA!” moment when it came to pursuing a career in Film and Television?

I don’t have a career in Filmmaking. Filmmaking, for me, is an outlet. I have a full-time job. Personally, I know that the day that I am depending on my films for my income is when I will lose the control that I have. Making a film because I am trying to pay my mortgage or because I have bills to pay is a completely different story than making a film because I want to tell the story. I am not keen to sell it or licence it to the highest bidder because I am trying to turn a profit but rather I want to take the time to see exactly where I want this film to go. Maybe that is with a small distributor, maybe it is with a very niche audience- I have that flexibility and I always want to maintain that flexibility and I can do that because I am not relying on my film to sustain me financially.

While I was in graduate school and being taught that you write these scripts, go out to Hollywood and try to pitch, try to break into rooms, try to meet these executives. To me, that didn’t seem sustainable, it seemed like a rat-race and something incredibly overwhelming in a market that was already over-saturated with a bunch of filmmakers trying to do the same thing. I just didn’t want to do that.

8. In your opinion, seeing as you have a lot of accolades under your belt and definitely more to go, what kind of impact do you think comes from having platforms that showcase, celebrate and teach about micro-budget filmmaking?

When I started making micro-budget films consistently and working a full-time job, I just got a lot of questions. A lot of filmmakers were asking me, “How are you doing this? How do you maintain all of this? How do you consistently create?” So I started having one-on-one consultations but that got really overwhelming because I was overbooked. Filmmakers from all over were trying to book me for consultations. I started hosting workshops with film festivals but that also became overwhelming so I decided to just put it in podcast format. A very simple 15 episode podcast – I wanted it to be three seasons, 5 episodes each for Pre-production, Production and Post & Distribution. By the time filmmakers go to the end of the episode, it would have taken them through the entire production process. Now, the podcast has helped over thirteen thousand listeners from across the globe

Platforms, like the Micro-budget Filmmaking Independent Podcast, that give filmmakers the hope that they can do this practically have really set out a positive impact. It shows them that you don’t have to run off to L.A and be a starving artist just to be a filmmaker. You can be a filmmaker and still have a roof over your head, sustain yourself and work a full-time job. I think because of that, the market and audience for micro-budget filmmaking is really broad and because of that it has a really positive impact.

9. Collaboration is great but I realise that when you find yourself within a collaborative space, a lot of your ideas can get sucked into what other people think looks better/feels better/works better so I want to know- how do you, personally, create a balance between collaborative thinking but also keeping the integrity and authenticity of your idea?

First and foremost, by making sure that I am in the key roles. I am the producer in all of my projects which means that the majority of the time, I am funding my projects. In this way, the decision-making inevitably falls on me because I am paying for it. Also putting myself in the director role, at the end of the day the creative decisions fall on the director. In the writer role too, I am dictating the script so putting myself in those key roles is a way for me to, again, protect my overall vision.

I think when it comes to collaboration; I really like collaborating with people that I actually like as people. People suggest cinematographers all the time or they say “Oh, you know, you should work with this person” or people will reach out to me all of the time but I need to get to know you as a person and I need to like you outside of filmmaking in general. This is because if we have an established rapport then we’re going to have mutual respect for one another and we’re going to respect what we’re each bringing to the table creatively.

10. I think we talk a lot about the hardships that black women face within the film and television industry, which are important aspects to discuss, but I want to know- what, in your opinion, is the best thing about being a black woman in the film and television industry?

It is just very nuanced. It is really cool being able to create stories from the lens of my own lived experience which is very layered. It could be through the lens of blackness, the lens of womanhood or through the lens of queerness. Basically through the lens of all of the elements and I think that that makes storytelling, for me, a lot more exciting. I think that my identity is definitely a wonderful addition to my storytelling and it might also, arguably, be the basis of my storytelling.

11. What’s the biggest take away that you want people to grasp from your catalogue of work?

Well I hope that they watch the films, first and foremost. My goal is for my films to start a conversation and change perspective whether that be about intersectionality, black feminism or body autonomy- I am hoping that they take away something that inevitably starts conversations and slowly starts to make the world a better place. Outside of that, I hope that they are encouraged to create what the heck they want to create, how they want to create it and in the way that they want to create it.

12. Which one of your films is your most favourite and why?

I think that “Unlearning Sex” is just always going to have a special place in my heart. It took a lot of courage to put that in front of the world and after I did that, it was like a catalyst for me feeling like I really could make anything that I wanted to make. “Unlearning Sex” snowballed a lot of my very controversial films and because that was the catalyst for it, that is always going to be the film that just has a special place in my heart.