Speaker 1: Welcome to J dot M, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Welcome everybody.
Speaker 3: Oh it is so so, so so so good to
Speaker 3: be here with you today. Welcome to J dot L
Speaker 3: the podcast. And you already know. I am here with
Speaker 3: my wonderful sister friends, Aga Grady dans La.
Speaker 2: That's her.
Speaker 3: I'm the marvelous liar safe claud I guess that's her.
Speaker 4: Yes, No, that's her.
Speaker 5: That's her radio. That's me, that's me.
Speaker 1: She's down paying herself today, ladies and gentlemen, because she
Speaker 1: has lashes.
Speaker 2: When she's so fine. At this point, she's so fine.
Speaker 1: She feels she needs She's trying to take it down,
Speaker 1: but it's unnecessary.
Speaker 5: I woke up like this.
Speaker 2: This is Matthew's flattening with me with your eyes.
Speaker 5: You know I go further with that than you do you.
Speaker 3: I mean, life is still liking, she said, I love it. Look,
Speaker 3: I'm sitting here with my sister friends. I am putting
Speaker 3: some moisture in my hair before I get my fue lox.
Speaker 3: Y'all know how important it is for our hair to
Speaker 3: be moisturized. Right for so long we watched so many films.
Speaker 3: We need bad wigs with the with the lace showing
Speaker 3: we've seen, We've seen. I've had some bad wigs myself.
Speaker 2: I will it's time for healing. It is, this is
Speaker 2: a purge.
Speaker 5: Come on, come on, Sheila, come on, don't talk.
Speaker 2: About the Sheila we've had.
Speaker 3: We've we've definitely seen ourselves in a lot of lights,
Speaker 3: and some of.
Speaker 2: Them definitely have not been flattering.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I'll say for myself that I feel like Shila is
Speaker 3: not my favorite look. But I definitely felt like this
Speaker 3: is this was somebody who was someone who was genuine,
Speaker 3: like there was a there's there's people like that right now.
Speaker 3: It's we were living under the thumb under some husband
Speaker 3: or some wife, some somebody you know that's trying to
Speaker 3: control them or negate their existence. We've seen it a
Speaker 3: lot and so many films, and now we're reaching a
Speaker 3: place where.
Speaker 1: We've got movies like Woman Knamn I mean, super powerful Honey,
Speaker 1: where the skin is the skin is shining, the colors
Speaker 1: are jewel toned.
Speaker 2: What right do you understand me? Liter a low of.
Speaker 3: It all, the glove, the glow of it all, the
Speaker 3: bronze yes, the red and the orange underneath the brown.
Speaker 3: Like finally, you know where we're really starting to see
Speaker 3: representation in a way that that that really glorifies who
Speaker 3: parts of us are.
Speaker 2: You know, you can.
Speaker 3: Definitely can never put us in any kind of boxes.
Speaker 2: That wouldn't be fair.
Speaker 3: And on speaking on that note, we have some amazing
Speaker 3: guests right now talking about what we're looking at. On
Speaker 3: on a normal basis, everybody grab their Netflix or their
Speaker 3: Prime or their whatever BT, whatever it is that you're
Speaker 3: looking at. And these two ladies definitely make an impact
Speaker 3: on what we have seen and what we will see.
Speaker 3: Ladies and gentlemen. Sierra Davis, Hello, Hello, Hello, And I
Speaker 3: was just you know how I always say who it
Speaker 3: is and then you say hello, it's the same right,
Speaker 3: And doctor Jamika Anderson Hello, Hello, ladies, agent please please please,
Speaker 3: let's talk about all the things.
Speaker 4: Come on.
Speaker 1: Yes, these yummy women, yummy who are getting to talk
Speaker 1: to today, Well they have a lot of credentials, but
Speaker 1: what brings them to us today is they have created
Speaker 1: an amazing program for young black girl filmmakers called Black
Speaker 1: Girls Film Camp and it is really just, I mean
Speaker 1: an amazing program. You know a lot of us know
Speaker 1: about youth programs this that, especially as with kids. I
Speaker 1: put my kid in this thing and that thing, and YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 1: Some of it's great. Some of it was a waste
Speaker 1: of your time and money. We all know how it goes.
Speaker 1: But I will have to say, I have six kids.
Speaker 1: I don't I have paid for many a camp. Okay,
Speaker 1: this y'all already know. I have gone to many a program.
Speaker 1: I have sat through program ooh, girl girl, many a
Speaker 1: program Okay, all right, many a thing have said they
Speaker 1: was going to do a thing, hallelujah, and they did
Speaker 1: not do a thing. But in this particular situation, this
Speaker 1: has been a very unique and beautiful experience as from
Speaker 1: the parental side, just to see black women create a
Speaker 1: thing and follow through with the thing and just nurture
Speaker 1: specifically and intentionally into black girls. And y'all know how
Speaker 1: y'all already, ma'am, you already know how I feel about
Speaker 1: these things.
Speaker 6: This is great. This is tried and through through asis family.
Speaker 6: This is how we know. This is this is the
Speaker 6: good ship right now.
Speaker 4: Really, I don't come. I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't come with the trash, you understand me.
Speaker 5: I don't do it because I.
Speaker 2: Know it's russ out here in these parental streets.
Speaker 1: Okay, and particularly when you have black girls, when you
Speaker 1: are raising black girls, this is a particular type of challenge. Okay,
Speaker 1: So anyway, that was my that was my intro, my
Speaker 1: emo intro. But yes, indeed, ladies and gentlemen, Sierra Davis
Speaker 1: and Jamiica Anderson, y'all. One of y'all is a doctor, right,
Speaker 1: come on, and doctor Anderson.
Speaker 2: We paid a lot for them credentials.
Speaker 5: We don't want. Let's name this organization. The Black Girl
Speaker 5: Film Camp is what we're talking about, the black.
Speaker 1: Black girl.
Speaker 2: Already. Doesn't that sound exciting to you?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the parents that have daughters, Like, isn't that exciting
Speaker 3: that there's a way to actually fist fight, to actually
Speaker 3: fist fight? All of the the bell shit. Okay, it
Speaker 3: is so much of it that we are. We are
Speaker 3: not on some little island and everyone is all the same.
Speaker 3: That there's layers and there's there we're black girls, an
Speaker 3: Onion Toney and its careers.
Speaker 5: It's a lot of careers too. I'm like, I don't.
Speaker 6: Really want to dive into this with the ladies y'all,
Speaker 6: because I'm like, when one decides they want to do
Speaker 6: a film, a film camp for black girls, how do
Speaker 6: you even figure out what areas you want to dive
Speaker 6: into to expose them to please?
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, the burst the birth. Okay, So I had
Speaker 4: been in this media space for quite some time.
Speaker 7: I had actually started doing some work immediately out of
Speaker 7: college and media literacy. Didn't know what the name of
Speaker 7: that was at the time. I just knew I wanted
Speaker 7: to talk about media messaging what we consume, like really
Speaker 7: become more critical with the type of music, the type of.
Speaker 4: Content that we're watching.
Speaker 7: And so I really kind of found my way, you know,
Speaker 7: like that internal guide and being in the space when
Speaker 7: I was working with youths because we're influenced and sometimes
Speaker 7: we're not knowing is helping us unpack the content we're consuming.
Speaker 4: And really really think about how it's.
Speaker 7: Influencing our lives and how we engage and how we
Speaker 7: think and our beliefs, our ideologies.
Speaker 4: But needles to say, been in this space for a
Speaker 4: while with.
Speaker 7: Creating youth programming, but it wasn't until I went into
Speaker 7: pursuing my PhD that I started doing research and I
Speaker 7: wanted to hone in on black girls specifically, and of
Speaker 7: course I started learning about a lot of the disparities
Speaker 7: in schools because I got my PhD in curriculum and
Speaker 7: instruction and with literacy, Black girls have the lowest literacy
Speaker 7: proficiency rate in our country out of their gender peer group.
Speaker 7: Black boys a number one. Yeah, so black boys is
Speaker 7: number one, but out of the gender peer group black girls.
Speaker 7: So black boys then black girls. If you're looking at
Speaker 7: everyone but gender peer group, I situate out of all girls,
Speaker 7: black girls have the lowest.
Speaker 4: Okay, black boys, I think eleven.
Speaker 7: Percent are passing their reading tests and nineteen percent of
Speaker 7: black girls are passing their beatings.
Speaker 4: So then when you look at tech proficiency, same thing.
Speaker 7: Black boys number one, black girls number two, but out
Speaker 7: of their gender peer group, they're the lowest. So you know,
Speaker 7: I'm doing this work with media, and of course we
Speaker 7: already knew there's issues with representation, you know, but then
Speaker 7: you know, you dive deeper and you see only two
Speaker 7: percent of Black women are the ones behind the camera, directors,
Speaker 7: filmmakers in the industry.
Speaker 4: So it was to me it was a no brainer.
Speaker 4: We gotta do something about this, and there's.
Speaker 7: A there's an opportunity here to really bridge the gap
Speaker 7: between literacy in store because we have literacy rich lives
Speaker 7: it might not be reflected in your eccentric curriculum that
Speaker 7: we're seeing in schools, but we have stories and we
Speaker 7: engage in literacyes in different ways than what they have
Speaker 7: packaged and program for us to learn in school.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I gotta stop you. I gotta stop you.
Speaker 2: Please please reiterate this.
Speaker 1: We engage in literacies definitely, man, Definitely. The reason why
Speaker 1: I had to stop you there is because I need
Speaker 1: people to hear this. There is a very specific way
Speaker 1: in which we are told that our children must learn
Speaker 1: and be literate.
Speaker 2: It is very eurocentric.
Speaker 1: It is not indicative of the multiple ways that we
Speaker 1: are already proficient. That we're already proficient, right, So instead
Speaker 1: of instead of letting us know that those things are
Speaker 1: valid and validating those proficiencies, we put them into other
Speaker 1: situations in which they are not proficient and then tell
Speaker 1: them they are illiterate.
Speaker 2: So I'm very clear, I want to make sure.
Speaker 1: That this pH I ain't got no PhD.
Speaker 7: But had said, yes, there's a thing now called black
Speaker 7: girl literacy, so I got to just even shot shot
Speaker 7: that out the there's a field, a field called black
Speaker 7: girl literacyes. The ways in which we know are the
Speaker 7: ways in which we make meaning. Understanding the importance of
Speaker 7: multimodal texts, like I have to have workshops with people
Speaker 7: and say, you know, yeah, three year olds are reading.
Speaker 7: When I see those McDonald archers, that's that's a symbol
Speaker 7: that means something, that means McDonald's before. They're not a
Speaker 7: spell it, it still is. There's different modes of text.
Speaker 7: There's visual, there's oral, there's gestural. Our gestures is literacy.
Speaker 7: So just understanding that there's different ways in which we
Speaker 7: make meaning and we understand and we communicate.
Speaker 4: That's a part of Black girls literacies.
Speaker 7: Me using my hands right now when I do this,
Speaker 7: that means something, right, So there's different different ways in
Speaker 7: which we make meaning. And so I really became really
Speaker 7: passionate about that, like, Okay, how do how can I
Speaker 7: center Black girls literacies? Our stories that have been historically marginalized,
Speaker 7: our stories that are not being captured by us. I
Speaker 7: think it's really interesting. Even when we first pitch Black
Speaker 7: Girls Film Camp for girls to come in and pitch
Speaker 7: their stories, they want to tell a lot. I don't
Speaker 7: want to tell stories about black boys. They main subject
Speaker 7: in characters a black boy. I'm like, no, baby girl
Speaker 7: we sent to black girls in this space. Your film
Speaker 7: topic need to be about a black girl.
Speaker 1: One more thing, I want to make sure that people
Speaker 1: didn't miss this, Okay, don't miss this part that when
Speaker 1: black girls have an opportunity to tell a story. Oh listen,
Speaker 1: I know what you're saying. We have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: tell a story. Can you tell our stories about but
Speaker 1: when our.
Speaker 2: When the brother Yeah, but why don't.
Speaker 5: We got that?
Speaker 6: We're gonna have to ask the black men in film
Speaker 6: organization to see who they are about?
Speaker 1: Yeah, our honey, let's go back on all the films
Speaker 1: that the brothers have made. All right, you're right, ma'am, well, ma'am, okay, anyway,
Speaker 1: but I just I didn't want to interrupt.
Speaker 3: Let's go Typically, stories that are told by black men
Speaker 3: about black women tend to be traumatizing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm trying to find an exception, ladies cer traumatizing?
Speaker 5: Did Jamiica?
Speaker 6: No, no exceptions, there's no exceptions.
Speaker 4: It's tough. It's tough, have y'all.
Speaker 7: Are y'all familiar with with books like Real to Real?
Speaker 7: What's My what's my lady name? She just passed away?
Speaker 7: Black woman scholar wrote Real to Real. She dissected Spike
Speaker 7: Lee's work.
Speaker 1: I remember, yes, yes, I've never read that. I've never
Speaker 1: read Real Toil.
Speaker 4: She did a lot of work in that space.
Speaker 7: Even the films that are of the culture that have
Speaker 7: been created by black men, that's.
Speaker 4: For the culture, for black culture, our classic mans.
Speaker 7: A lot of the ones that have been created, we're marginalized.
Speaker 4: It's usually centering trauma on our and stories.
Speaker 5: Some of us have just ignored it and like, well,
Speaker 5: you know what if.
Speaker 1: We go with the classics we have, you know, so again,
Speaker 1: I think probably what we're going to get to, the
Speaker 1: good middle ground we'll get to, is where we can
Speaker 1: understand that we can have something that we love and
Speaker 1: critique it still and that that does not that does
Speaker 1: not negate what it has been to us. And that's
Speaker 1: the problems. Oftentimes we just cannot hold a multiple truth
Speaker 1: like a thing can be, it can be problematic and
Speaker 1: still be something that was was needed to be made
Speaker 1: at the time. And I they don't age well you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So and it's fine, especially in
Speaker 1: something like film like it's a it's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a new art form as as as you know, historically.
Speaker 4: You know, trauma films.
Speaker 5: I was just saying about the color purple.
Speaker 7: We reenact the films Outstill that's all the time I
Speaker 7: speak color purple.
Speaker 6: And the women of brutes of place, I'm like, oh, that's.
Speaker 2: Really lord, you we speak color purple. That's a language.
Speaker 4: It is absolutely okay.
Speaker 1: I think I say I gotta go to school about
Speaker 1: three times a week.
Speaker 2: I say that it's in the cooler on the shelf.
Speaker 3: Everything you see my phone honds on the coolers in
Speaker 3: the cooler on the shelf.
Speaker 2: I do who shep who y'all? This is bad though,
Speaker 2: this is bad. When I want to say something about
Speaker 2: my husband.
Speaker 1: For the kids, I be like this, am I.
Speaker 8: More real talk after the break.
Speaker 1: So, Sierra, the thing is, you know, with you all
Speaker 1: being focused on this and understanding the need and necessity
Speaker 1: for it, it's like you're starting from a scratch. I
Speaker 1: think a lot of times we see a need and
Speaker 1: the many of us, especially in our community and particularly
Speaker 1: black women, we're looking at these needs in our community
Speaker 1: and we want to be involved and we want to
Speaker 1: create something. But creating something from scratch, it just feels
Speaker 1: like a big problem. You have this big need, right
Speaker 1: and you have this desire to do something, So like,
Speaker 1: what does the beginning of this look like? Is it
Speaker 1: the two of y'all in the home office make a
Speaker 1: phone call? I mean, what does this look like in
Speaker 1: the beginning of it?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 9: So when I came on, Jamiica actually started this in
Speaker 9: her PhD program.
Speaker 4: She had a grant, so.
Speaker 7: It started off as project and so I came the
Speaker 7: first year actually as a creative coach, and then I.
Speaker 9: Started gett a little bit more involved. I end up
Speaker 9: being over like logistics and recruitment and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: I was rilling her in. She was she was. I
Speaker 4: didn't know the setup was real, but it was a
Speaker 4: good setup. So so I came in on the other
Speaker 4: side of it.
Speaker 9: It's like one of the contracts that individuals and so
Speaker 9: it was such an amazing and beautiful, you know experience.
Speaker 4: I'm a creative heart at heart.
Speaker 9: I have a background in finance, but I also do like,
Speaker 9: you know, planning and event planning and stuff like that on.
Speaker 4: This, you know as well. So I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker 9: You know, normally you're not trying to support her other
Speaker 9: you know, nonprofit. I am not the media, and you know,
Speaker 9: I don't like to do.
Speaker 4: Anything half as excuse me.
Speaker 7: Or anything, and so I couldn't be fully committed as
Speaker 7: I wanted to be.
Speaker 4: So when she came along, it just happened. The time.
Speaker 4: It was just like perfect.
Speaker 9: So the first year when it was a pilot project,
Speaker 9: it just kind of took off.
Speaker 4: We weren't ready for where it was going to go,
Speaker 4: and it was like beautiful. It was so amazing. And
Speaker 4: she was like year is this.
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, sah, what year is this?
Speaker 4: Twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: One?
Speaker 7: Yeah, so in pandemic and pandemic and so so we
Speaker 7: went through, you know, went through everything the time, and
Speaker 7: everything laid out great.
Speaker 4: It was amazing.
Speaker 9: And so she was like, see, you know people are approaching
Speaker 9: me saying they want to be on a board. You know,
Speaker 9: we got an organization, you know, you want to turn
Speaker 9: this into an organization.
Speaker 4: I was like, let's do it.
Speaker 9: Like we had no idea where the worlds would lead us,
Speaker 9: where we would go.
Speaker 4: We was like, okay, forget it, you know, let's do it.
Speaker 4: Do it. I was all in.
Speaker 9: You know, when your friend has an amazing vision and
Speaker 9: something that you're also very passionate about, you I mean,
Speaker 9: come on, jumping.
Speaker 4: We say, let's let's go.
Speaker 2: Girlfriend calls you on the phone and saying I want
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 4: A podcast that you're You'd be like, yeah, great, like.
Speaker 2: Shaer, I ain't doing nothing.
Speaker 4: So that's that's how it started.
Speaker 9: Yep, we were we were literally at home because like
Speaker 9: I said, we were still like the pandemic was still
Speaker 9: very much here.
Speaker 4: We were at home.
Speaker 9: It started out that we went into that first year
Speaker 9: as a national organization and it took off, and Jamiica
Speaker 9: Knemy and she was like, you know what, see how
Speaker 9: about you know, because you wanted to have some kind
Speaker 9: of like in person, you know, components. So things started
Speaker 9: to ease up a little bit, you know. And in
Speaker 9: twenty twenty two and so she was like, let's go
Speaker 9: to l A.
Speaker 7: I think we should take the girls l I was like, okay,
Speaker 7: my nerves but hold on, oh wait, wait wait, oh
Speaker 7: you know cause me I'm shut down COVID.
Speaker 2: She is you need the balance I need?
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah we do.
Speaker 9: And my mind goes all to all the details that
Speaker 9: is going into that. I said, give me a minute
Speaker 9: the process and let me pray on it and we'll
Speaker 9: come back. I was like, okay, okay, I thought about it.
Speaker 9: I was like, Okay, what does it take to make
Speaker 9: this happen?
Speaker 4: I was like, let's do it.
Speaker 9: So next thing, you know, we in La. Your two
Speaker 9: were in La. We don't forty plus women across the nation.
Speaker 9: We've partner with.
Speaker 4: USC, one of the biggest film the biggest film.
Speaker 9: School in the nation, and it's just kind of been
Speaker 9: like history CANDUs, it was it.
Speaker 1: I want to take this opportunity to ask you guys,
Speaker 1: so you guys can tell the listeners just the just
Speaker 1: the kind of basic framework of the camp, because like
Speaker 1: I think we're talking about the l A retreat, which
Speaker 1: is amazing, but I want to talk about, like, you know,
Speaker 1: how you guys set up the camp, what did entails,
Speaker 1: how do you get the girls?
Speaker 2: What is the process? So just kind of runnings through
Speaker 2: that part.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a lot, So it is right.
Speaker 7: Right, the quick version, I guess it's a twelve week camp.
Speaker 7: Were actually gonna extended to sixteen weeks next year the
Speaker 7: tweaking things.
Speaker 4: So it's a twelve week program. It's hybrid.
Speaker 7: Okay, we do a call where we announced applications are open.
Speaker 7: We only take ten girls nationally, Okay, so only ten
Speaker 7: that's because the investment is over ten g's plus per girl,
Speaker 7: so it's only ten girls.
Speaker 4: We take. It's very intimate, it's very all. We we
Speaker 4: eat it with you. How many okay?
Speaker 7: So literally over two hundred plus girls applied after last year,
Speaker 7: after year two, we had close to one thousand girls
Speaker 7: on the waiting list on so we actually had to
Speaker 7: be strategic about the application process where we take it
Speaker 7: down to only being open twelve weeks in now video
Speaker 7: pitch submission.
Speaker 4: So we thought that that weed some things out.
Speaker 7: Whoever, whatever, girls are hungry, they gonna get it done right.
Speaker 7: And so we still got over two hundred applications, so
Speaker 7: we had.
Speaker 4: To go through those two hundred.
Speaker 7: We didn't break it down to about forty girls we
Speaker 7: interview and then after out of those forty girls, we
Speaker 7: selected ten.
Speaker 4: Across the nation that get brought on further for the cohort.
Speaker 7: But each girl gets a contracted creative coach, so we
Speaker 7: bring in black women creatives that are doing work in
Speaker 7: creative spaces and film production projects that serve as the
Speaker 7: each girl's creative coach. We then also interview black women
Speaker 7: editors across the country too, and we.
Speaker 4: Select ten black women editors.
Speaker 7: A lot of these women that are coming in this
Speaker 7: is an experience for them too. A lot of them
Speaker 7: have never been in LA A lot of them come
Speaker 7: here and say this is a this is a healing
Speaker 7: space for them. They're healing through working with these girls
Speaker 7: on their project. So it's Turntons is so much that
Speaker 7: we didn't realize so quickly. So far, so far, we
Speaker 7: have a multi generational environment.
Speaker 4: Help me, MOSTI generations generation, you understand I'm saying.
Speaker 1: So you're having people who are currently working in that industry,
Speaker 1: but then but but not necessarily at the top of it,
Speaker 1: but people who are who are also burging you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, who are older but in itt and
Speaker 1: they're getting contracted to work with these young girls. So
Speaker 1: they are creating a team. So they are working together.
Speaker 1: So this is this is meeting soul.
Speaker 7: They're working together to support this black girl's vision. So
Speaker 7: they're being contracted to invest in what she has in
Speaker 7: her brain to help make it come to light and manifested.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and within these ten girls, are they all have
Speaker 6: different interests in the film world or are they all
Speaker 6: writers or they want to be directors?
Speaker 5: Like, what's the difference So the.
Speaker 7: Main premise of this program is you come in in
Speaker 7: your interests in writing and directing, but you may also
Speaker 7: be interested. But that's the core of what we're doing,
Speaker 7: the storytelling aspect and bringing a black girl's story to screen.
Speaker 4: But in the camp, this is enough. It keeps getting better.
Speaker 4: I ain't gonna lie. Keep getting better. I wish I
Speaker 4: was in the camp, right.
Speaker 7: So we have amazing black women that also service their advisor.
Speaker 7: So we have granted those women that come in they
Speaker 7: have an advisor over there. So we have a post advisor,
Speaker 7: post production advisor, and a production advisor, post our post
Speaker 7: production advisor.
Speaker 4: She has an OSCAR.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 7: And you know, she was on everything everywhere, all at once,
Speaker 7: and you know, like all of these amazing you know,
Speaker 7: she's first black woman editor in the NBA, and so
Speaker 7: she's our post production and then we have a production advisor.
Speaker 4: These are women that are in in the industry that
Speaker 4: come in.
Speaker 6: Literally, as you were talking, I was like, I was
Speaker 6: sitting here thinking, I'm about to volunteer my girlfriend who's
Speaker 6: an AFI graduate that's been working on the administrative side,
Speaker 6: because I think a lot of times people don't understand
Speaker 6: the way budgets and things like that come together too.
Speaker 5: So she does all that stuff for like a lot
Speaker 5: of major shows.
Speaker 4: I was just like, bring it out.
Speaker 5: Okay, I got it, I got it.
Speaker 7: So they're getting mentored, those black women creators are getting
Speaker 7: mentored by industry because they're that's their supervisor for the
Speaker 7: work that they're doing with the girls.
Speaker 4: So that's how that works.
Speaker 1: And so what we're doing is a very real trajectory.
Speaker 1: A lot of times in creative spaces, there is not
Speaker 1: a space where people can have like like I said,
Speaker 1: there's not it's not trajectory driven where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you this one experience. And even in
Speaker 1: sports like I have my kids were in sports, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: you go and you do au or you do da
Speaker 1: da da da da. But it's just like sometimes you
Speaker 1: need that consistent mentorship so people can so that young
Speaker 1: people can actually see what their life could be like.
Speaker 6: And a holistic idea of this industry and what they're doing.
Speaker 6: Because that's why I wanted to make sure that while
Speaker 6: writers and directors, but they still know how things get made,
Speaker 6: you know what I mean, like how what what where
Speaker 6: writers are in the big scheme of things and yeah, yeah,
Speaker 6: we're saying writers a lot and is making me nervous saying.
Speaker 1: Y'all, I know, but please, y'all, I want you to
Speaker 1: speak on what happens during the camp sessions.
Speaker 2: Yes, because these are serious.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So we have a slate of women speakers that
Speaker 4: come in.
Speaker 7: I mean, these girls have heard from Gina Prince byfe Wood,
Speaker 7: she came in, y'all were talking about earlier.
Speaker 4: They have women that are in the.
Speaker 7: Industry like Connie Orlando, who's over you know, with BT
Speaker 7: and they're coming in and they're doing workshops with them.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think we had over fifty black women
Speaker 7: in the industry, Like, these are showrunners. These are the
Speaker 7: writers on these TV shows that were watching. We we
Speaker 7: had we just had what's my girl Name?
Speaker 4: Yesterday r.
Speaker 7: Karen Parson's old Hillary. She all she writes now the
Speaker 7: old school Hillary. And we had the showrunner.
Speaker 1: For bel Air, yes, for the original Hilary Hillary.
Speaker 4: And we had the showrunner now for bel Air the show.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the showrunner Belair is a black woman.
Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely, so yeah, real.
Speaker 6: Quick, real quick, because people hear that. Civilians hear the
Speaker 6: words showrunner, they know it's a big deal. They think
Speaker 6: about Shonda Rhimes, that's.
Speaker 5: A black woman. Literally, do y'all.
Speaker 6: I'm sure y'all have some small numbers about how many
Speaker 6: black women are showrunners in this business.
Speaker 4: Yeah, once again, the numbers are extremely low.
Speaker 7: I mean behind the scenes you're literally talking about under
Speaker 7: five percent. But I will tell you a lot of
Speaker 7: black women there's more opportunities with them to get in
Speaker 7: into the TV industry than in the film with getting
Speaker 7: onto shows, whether that's writers, showrunner, you know, directing. That's
Speaker 7: why a lot of the black women directors you're now
Speaker 7: seeing these opportunities open up with like thea Tasha Smith
Speaker 7: and the.
Speaker 4: Teary a lot of the TV with the streaming and.
Speaker 7: The TV shows, but films like they'll come in and
Speaker 7: they'll tell you it's I also want.
Speaker 1: To point out the fact that we do have an
Speaker 1: executive producer on this call. We want we have we
Speaker 1: have a a an executive producer of a television show
Speaker 1: on this podcast.
Speaker 4: All right, Yes, oh shit.
Speaker 2: Wants to mention.
Speaker 5: That that's an executive producer.
Speaker 6: And however, the show runner thing is that's a whole
Speaker 6: it can't which narrows it down.
Speaker 3: Yes, there are a lot of jobs in television and film. Okay,
Speaker 3: first off, and for for anybody who's listening that isn't
Speaker 3: aware but interested, there's a lot of jobs that are
Speaker 3: really really important because it does take a village to
Speaker 3: create a show. If the makeup artists don't show up,
Speaker 3: you're screwed. If the camera people don't show.
Speaker 2: Up, you're screwed. If lighting doesn't show up, you're screwed.
Speaker 3: So there's there's a lot of textures that that are
Speaker 3: really important. I personally think besides the direct that the
Speaker 3: showrunner is honestly one of the is the most important
Speaker 3: job because if you're someone or if your kid maybe
Speaker 3: has a little OCD, you know that's beneficial quite frankly
Speaker 3: in that position. Someone who is like serious about organization
Speaker 3: and understanding where pieces.
Speaker 2: Go at all times.
Speaker 3: You have a career in film, my darling. You know
Speaker 3: so many other things, but particularly in that because when
Speaker 3: the showrunner is bad, or isn't organized, or doesn't seem
Speaker 3: to communicate well with others, you got a whole seventeen
Speaker 3: hour problem a day on your hands, and those days
Speaker 3: can be exceptionally brutal. They don't have to be if
Speaker 3: you know what you're doing.
Speaker 6: What's the sister that's a showrunner for all the power
Speaker 6: series because I know she. I can only imagine Courtney Camp,
Speaker 6: good God, Courtney Camp the things and just for all
Speaker 6: those powers properties, like I said, and they're not I know,
Speaker 6: they're not a lot of Courtney Camps. So I'm like
Speaker 6: when I when we know them, I know, we got
Speaker 6: to say their names when it comes to like.
Speaker 1: I want to mention this thing, g that the amount
Speaker 1: of growth for this program in just two three years
Speaker 1: now two.
Speaker 4: Years is an organization as an organization years the camp.
Speaker 2: Actually right, you know too.
Speaker 1: I mean it's just phenomenal, you know, And I'm very.
Speaker 2: Glad you say that it's scary.
Speaker 1: What are some of the things that you all are
Speaker 1: very serious about making sure stays the same with all
Speaker 1: the change and all of the opportunity and all of
Speaker 1: this growth.
Speaker 2: What are what is this? What is like.
Speaker 1: The Black Girl film Camp, like mantra, the thing that
Speaker 1: you will always keep as as a central goal.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, I feel like I've been talking a lot, so
Speaker 7: you want to take this one.
Speaker 4: We definitely want to keep it very intimate.
Speaker 7: And the thing that is very important to us is
Speaker 7: I know you spoke earlier about having to pay for
Speaker 7: all the different camps and stuff like that this camp
Speaker 7: is completely free.
Speaker 4: I don't think we said that this camp is completely
Speaker 4: free to all of the girls that are that are
Speaker 4: a kid, and so that is something we do not
Speaker 4: want to lose.
Speaker 9: We don't want to take that away because I think
Speaker 9: that's something else that makes us very unique.
Speaker 4: Because when you think about and you talk about all
Speaker 4: the great.
Speaker 9: Things and experiences and all the opportunities and just every
Speaker 9: everything about this organization, you know, people would think like
Speaker 9: how much it comes.
Speaker 4: You know, it costs the girls nothing.
Speaker 9: When we say that we're creating this space for them,
Speaker 9: that this was created for them.
Speaker 4: It was for them.
Speaker 9: We don't want them to They don't have to come
Speaker 9: out of the pocket for anything.
Speaker 4: Everything.
Speaker 9: All of these opportunities are just building the relationships. I
Speaker 9: think that is key is that we maintain a free
Speaker 9: program for the girls.
Speaker 4: And that's why we like to keep it intimate and
Speaker 4: then keeping on because it could be a headache.
Speaker 9: You know a lot of a lot of women together,
Speaker 9: a lot of black women together and stuff. But I
Speaker 9: think keeping on, like thinking about the big picture of
Speaker 9: the community and the relationships that we're going to be
Speaker 9: growing that are going to go on and on and on,
Speaker 9: and one day you're gonna look up and you're gonna
Speaker 9: see all these pockets of black women that's popping up
Speaker 9: and taking over.
Speaker 4: You be like, what happened? Like where did they come from?
Speaker 9: Black girls know that's where they came from. Because we
Speaker 9: just we just we want to keep that. We want
Speaker 9: to continue to have all of this amazingness, all this
Speaker 9: black magic come together every year and build the system,
Speaker 9: this network and let these girls know that it is possible,
Speaker 9: like because you know, Jill, you spoke to it earlier.
Speaker 9: There are so many different jobs. There's so many different
Speaker 9: career possibilities and.
Speaker 4: Found that we just do not know about.
Speaker 9: And that's the other beautiful thing I love about the
Speaker 9: Organization's although we focus on the storytelling and the directing,
Speaker 9: we bring in women from every single part of the industry.
Speaker 9: So those girls who do want to be an editor,
Speaker 9: they have exposure to that. Those who want to be
Speaker 9: into in set design and costomy, they know that that's
Speaker 9: in avenue. Like I mean, even I'm learning stuff about myself,
Speaker 9: like oh, I absolutely could go into There's a lot
Speaker 9: of women that have been like Connie Orlando. I feel
Speaker 9: like I am Connie. We have the exact same story
Speaker 9: in life. I was just like, man, is that that's me?
Speaker 2: That's that's all that.
Speaker 7: Was messaging there when Connie was speaking talking about she
Speaker 7: got her degree in finance, and she's said, this is.
Speaker 4: You, So who would have known? Like you know, who
Speaker 4: would have done.
Speaker 9: But it's so many different avenue, so many places where
Speaker 9: you can you can find your niche.
Speaker 4: And I just think it's beautiful.
Speaker 7: So I think those are a couple of key things
Speaker 7: that we that will not change. It's the intimacy of
Speaker 7: it and being free to.
Speaker 9: The girls and just creating this community and having our
Speaker 9: contract to editors and creative coaches and just continuing to
Speaker 9: build that with the.
Speaker 4: With the organization. So I mean, drik, I know you've
Speaker 4: got some other things, but that's my I mean, no,
Speaker 4: you summed it up.
Speaker 7: I mean, I know Isaja was mentioning earlier about AAU
Speaker 7: and I was like, we always say that is the analogy.
Speaker 7: We like, this is about to be the a you
Speaker 7: for black girls in Field were grooming you in early.
Speaker 10: We're gonna take a quick break and then we'll be right.
Speaker 2: Back, y'all.
Speaker 1: Are already doing so much more even you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, Then then then it's done. And I mean
Speaker 1: because like I said, I've done a AU and football
Speaker 1: and trackt you know what I'm saying. But also too,
Speaker 1: I want to say this too, and specifically for those
Speaker 1: who are listening who do philanthropic work or do programs
Speaker 1: for young people something as a parent that's super important
Speaker 1: to me from EDGIC from an educational standpoint, which I
Speaker 1: saw you all impossible. That's because you have a background
Speaker 1: of education that I saw you all address its outcomes.
Speaker 1: I think I love outcomes, data, feedback.
Speaker 2: So much of what we do in community lacks this.
Speaker 5: What do you mean when you say outcomes ages?
Speaker 1: So just paying attention to what happens to the girls
Speaker 1: after they leave the program and also investing in their
Speaker 1: lives after they.
Speaker 2: Leave the program.
Speaker 1: There's commitments that prior cohorts have to have to come
Speaker 1: back and volunteer. They come back and they serve in
Speaker 1: mentorship spaces for the other girls who are coming up
Speaker 1: behind them. So there's a lot. So there's that part.
Speaker 1: There's also feedback and data from parents and from participants
Speaker 1: about how to improve the program, about what their experiences
Speaker 1: have been. And so I think to start out in
Speaker 1: this place is so important, you know what I mean
Speaker 1: in a world where we privatize education and there's no
Speaker 1: oversight and there's so much about all these different ways
Speaker 1: that we can educate young people, but people just get
Speaker 1: tons of grant money, that get tons of private funding,
Speaker 1: and no one pays attention if these ideas are even working.
Speaker 5: Some kids of.
Speaker 1: Things sounds good and it's like, yeah, that sounds so great,
Speaker 1: that's fabulous, but then it's like it doesn't actually meet
Speaker 1: anybody's needs, and it's like and you don't know.
Speaker 2: Unless you engage.
Speaker 1: And one of the things I'm saying, like I said,
Speaker 1: and I give kudos to you all for doing this,
Speaker 1: but I want people to listen because I know there
Speaker 1: are people listening to this podcast are like, Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have this program that I want to pitch, or I
Speaker 1: have this thing that I want to do, or I'm
Speaker 1: currently doing a program. I want you to really hone
Speaker 1: in on outcomes and feedback and grows. Yes, y'all talk
Speaker 1: about outcomes and feedback.
Speaker 6: I'm kind of curious for this last class because I'm
Speaker 6: in Los Angeles right now and it feels like the
Speaker 6: world is on a tilt from what's going on with
Speaker 6: the writer's strike. And I think a lot of people
Speaker 6: don't understand that while the writer strike is happening, all
Speaker 6: the jobs in the middle are being impacted. I mean,
Speaker 6: I'm hearing from friends they getting fired this week, next week,
Speaker 6: that week. So how do y'all continue the motivation in
Speaker 6: this special time? And I'm asking too for myself, I'm like,
Speaker 6: what do you foresee?
Speaker 5: Is this this impact on the industry?
Speaker 7: You know what I mean?
Speaker 6: Like where we're going from here? Because it doesn't seem
Speaker 6: like it's getting I get it.
Speaker 7: So many things are going through my head right now.
Speaker 7: One the smoke and mirrors. We deal with that. So
Speaker 7: we have worked with so many trying to partner with
Speaker 7: so many organizations, and like this whole like just outward
Speaker 7: facing illusion of what something is and it really isn't
Speaker 7: It has been like we went into that so much,
Speaker 7: and so anything that we got going on, we're not
Speaker 7: putting it out unless it is really happening, Like this
Speaker 7: is what we're doing, this is what has happened, This
Speaker 7: has been committed.
Speaker 4: We're not promising nothing unless it's you know, committed.
Speaker 7: So we we really pide ourselves on being authentic and
Speaker 7: what we deliver, what we promise, and what we create.
Speaker 4: What we're creating in this space.
Speaker 7: I think for me honestly is when when we talk
Speaker 7: about the industry and what's happening, what I've learned is
Speaker 7: that this project, in this program is more than just
Speaker 7: about the industry, if that you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: So one of our speakers we had come in, I
Speaker 7: think Christine Swanson, she's a director, and Christine was talking
Speaker 7: about just creatives, like when you're a creative, there's just
Speaker 7: this natural being inside of you that you need to create.
Speaker 7: It's not even about the money, like we will invest
Speaker 7: our all in a project because it needs to be birthed,
Speaker 7: like it's just it's it's just in our in our existence.
Speaker 7: When you're creative to produce something and it means everything.
Speaker 7: It's fuel just to have people believing and putting in
Speaker 7: and supporting that, it's just it's almost like a part
Speaker 7: of just breathing air, like you just have to create it.
Speaker 7: And I think that beyond the industry stuff, there just
Speaker 7: needs to be a space for black girls to create
Speaker 7: authentically and to feel valid, validated, to feel value to
Speaker 7: feel like their stories and they just need to be
Speaker 7: heard exactly space to cry. I mean, there need so
Speaker 7: much crime going on and it can't just need a
Speaker 7: space like that. It's the girls and a dot women.
Speaker 4: It's just but they.
Speaker 6: Also want to make a career out of it too
Speaker 6: as well, right they do.
Speaker 7: But I think when you're when you're working with creators,
Speaker 7: it's not the same kind of situation as somebody that's
Speaker 7: just trying to get a job in corporate America.
Speaker 5: But I'm on this.
Speaker 6: I'm saying it because I'm in the hustle, because I
Speaker 6: am a creator my life, and I see that things
Speaker 6: are changing in a sense in that way of like
Speaker 6: opportunities and you're going to have to be even more
Speaker 6: creative about the opportunity, not just the idea.
Speaker 1: Yes, And you know what interesting too that you know
Speaker 1: obviously there's so many not so many, but you know
Speaker 1: the emergence of you know, content creation as a kind
Speaker 1: of media to be a creative in. And then of
Speaker 1: course you know you have people who are editing, lighting, shooting,
Speaker 1: you know, tiktoks.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think there's a very huh nothing.
Speaker 5: I just said, but not right now. This ship is
Speaker 5: shut the fuck down.
Speaker 4: This is a big deal. This is his story.
Speaker 5: So I'm just I'm literally like, how do you encourage people?
Speaker 5: I get it, we would need to get our creativity out.
Speaker 5: We just need to be able to say it.
Speaker 6: But after we do that and we realize we also
Speaker 6: want to make money because we want to be able
Speaker 6: to do this for a living so we don't have
Speaker 6: to have a regular job, how do we encourage the
Speaker 6: youth that it's gonna be all right, you're gonna.
Speaker 7: Be up collab, collaboration, building our own, building our own
Speaker 7: I'm sorry, y'all said, were good building our own ship
Speaker 7: and say, yeah, they're to create, create our own opportunities.
Speaker 4: And that's why platforms that have been.
Speaker 7: Designed us to be independent creators are also revenue makers,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean? And so and sometimes that's
Speaker 7: that's where the cross worlds are in life, when you
Speaker 7: are were I go there, go through the publishing right
Speaker 7: where somebody and I'm only getting a percentage? Or do
Speaker 7: I go independently and make my money? And so and
Speaker 7: if you go independently, you can do more if we
Speaker 7: come together.
Speaker 4: As a course.
Speaker 7: So I think that this is kind of leveraging us
Speaker 7: in an opportunity way to think outside of the box
Speaker 7: of just kind of situating ourselves to work for someone
Speaker 7: or for our created creativity to be like received, like
Speaker 7: keys accept my work.
Speaker 4: You know, Yes, I bring my team.
Speaker 7: I built a team and we're gonna build and we're
Speaker 7: gonna put this ship out here because we know it's great.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying, and it's gonna be received.
Speaker 2: It's a good time, you know what.
Speaker 1: A girlfriend of mine sent me a sent me a
Speaker 1: video of KICKI Palmer, who who I just I don't know.
Speaker 2: She's she's a fave.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I was watching talking about advice to young
Speaker 1: black women creators and she has said something very similar
Speaker 1: in the sense of that she said, you know, never
Speaker 1: be afraid to create at every single level where you are,
Speaker 1: no matter even if it's a small thing.
Speaker 2: She was just like, and it reminds me also too.
Speaker 1: I've been on lots of panels and people say, well, oh,
Speaker 1: advice you give young artists. And it's interesting because I
Speaker 1: told my own child this. I said, Look, community is everything.
Speaker 1: People think it's about who's above you, who's going to
Speaker 1: give you the opportunity, and it's almost never the person
Speaker 1: above you. It's always the person too you're left and
Speaker 1: your right. Who's your biggest resource. It's your homegirl, your
Speaker 1: friend who does this, or this person you met at
Speaker 1: this thing or that thing, and kind of pulling together community.
Speaker 1: And it's like, yes, people who are further ahead than
Speaker 1: you may have wisdom for you, and they may actually
Speaker 1: open up a door for you, But who helps you
Speaker 1: to execute is the strength of the community that you have.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what Kiki Palmer was saying, was that, look,
Speaker 1: your biggest resources, who can help you to make it
Speaker 1: happen at the level where you are and that and
Speaker 1: I feel like for us and particularly with black women,
Speaker 1: this is a thing we have always understood. This is
Speaker 1: something that we always have known. This is also a
Speaker 1: practice that we've always done. And even though they threatened
Speaker 1: to take away certain things in spaces and those spaces
Speaker 1: get threatened, we're always at the bottom of those spaces anyway, and.
Speaker 2: So we're already Yeah.
Speaker 3: That's that's that's you know. It started off like a
Speaker 3: you know, something free for the internet, you know, yeah,
Speaker 3: but the consistency of it, ooh, consistency you know, creating
Speaker 3: something and being intentional about it, like on a regular basis.
Speaker 3: I know, the AGA and myself, you know, we definitely
Speaker 3: did those those thirty two dollars gigs, you know, because
Speaker 3: we wanted to Yes, you know, because we wanted to perform.
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes you won't make any money, you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes it'll just be enough to put in your gas
Speaker 3: tank or to buy your transpass to get where you're going.
Speaker 3: But you know, if it's something that you really want
Speaker 3: to do, you find your ways, you continue to do it.
Speaker 2: You don't give up.
Speaker 3: And you know that ad position on television shows and films,
Speaker 3: that person that goes and gets your coffee or brings
Speaker 3: you your breakfast. You're in the space. It's not a
Speaker 3: glamorous job. You're going to be there before everybody is,
Speaker 3: you're going to leave after everybody leaves. But at the
Speaker 3: entire time you have the opportunity to see how things work,
Speaker 3: how you like it, how you don't, what you'll do
Speaker 3: that's similar to what they're doing, and what you will not.
Speaker 3: It's actually really beneficial to get on that lot or
Speaker 3: to stand outside that video and watch how things are done.
Speaker 1: If this is what you want to do, and for
Speaker 1: your directors or writers or actors.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you have to reinvent yourself in the middle too.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you get where you're going and you're you have
Speaker 1: an established career, very much like a lot of these
Speaker 1: writers that are on strike right now, you get to
Speaker 1: a space where you where you want to be and
Speaker 1: you're forced.
Speaker 2: To reinvent yourself. You're forced to.
Speaker 1: Re enter into a space and recreate something new. And
Speaker 1: you can't be afraid then either. Because that was one
Speaker 1: thing that Keikeith Palmer was talking about, was like she
Speaker 1: can keep Palmer ch how she's been working since you
Speaker 1: five years old.
Speaker 2: But she was like, you know, I ain't had nothing
Speaker 2: to do. I ain't had no jobs.
Speaker 1: So I started creating content on my Instagram page and
Speaker 1: these little skits turn into a Facebook watch series, and
Speaker 1: that series turned into a daytime Emmy, and that daytime
Speaker 1: Emmy turned into an opportunity to be on daytime television
Speaker 1: as a host. And these were none of these gigs
Speaker 1: did she have prior to that time that she had
Speaker 1: where she was just sitting there doing skits on her
Speaker 1: Instagram page.
Speaker 2: So I think those things applied.
Speaker 6: That formula changes now though it's a small part of
Speaker 6: that formula that changes. That means that now you consistently
Speaker 6: make that content for yourself. At that part where she
Speaker 6: got on the Today's Show, when she's a part of
Speaker 6: the three, I think that where we're going to that
Speaker 6: part is ending what doctor Jamika said, it's really about
Speaker 6: building on independence, because that's what I'm trying to get
Speaker 6: people to understand. I'm saying, there's a part of this
Speaker 6: Hollywood story that is changing now. Hollywood is no longer
Speaker 6: the place to go work in a big time studio,
Speaker 6: work on big films, and those days are over, Like
Speaker 6: this is a huge change with streaming services HBO not
Speaker 6: doing like Game of Thrones type big projects anymore. So
Speaker 6: I'm with you, doctor Jimmy, because I'm trying to be
Speaker 6: positive about it, and you're right, it's definite opportunity for
Speaker 6: us to create. It's just now these young people have
Speaker 6: to think double time, Like not only do you have
Speaker 6: to think about your creativity and your project that you
Speaker 6: want to create, but how to get that out to
Speaker 6: the people and then how to pay your people? Like
Speaker 6: this is an interesting different business. Well right, all right,
Speaker 6: but the music business was the slums. The music business
Speaker 6: used to be the slums for the entertainment business now
Speaker 6: and the TV's like but what I'm saying is the
Speaker 6: TV and the film business used to be like the
Speaker 6: big man in the sky, like why and that ship
Speaker 6: is changing.
Speaker 5: And that's an interesting part.
Speaker 4: I will say.
Speaker 9: Listening to the women who are in the industry as
Speaker 9: they come to just being in a conversation with them,
Speaker 9: it's tough, like there's nowhere around, like it's not trying
Speaker 9: pretty pretty it up.
Speaker 4: It is what this shit is wrong.
Speaker 9: Okay, it's hard right now, but there is is very
Speaker 9: necessary and that's the thing, and it's not stopping any
Speaker 9: of them from creating. We had a panel of writers
Speaker 9: in there yesterday and they were talking about their schedules, like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 9: we go out there, we march in the morning, and
Speaker 9: then I start writing at at nine, you know, nine
Speaker 9: ten o'clock, because it's I'm not stopping my craft.
Speaker 7: But this is necessary. It's worth the battle. It's worth
Speaker 7: the fight. It's gonna get worse before it gets better.
Speaker 6: I mean, they just say they should acknowledge that this man,
Speaker 6: this may last for months and this is not gonna
Speaker 6: be as w as it was started.
Speaker 5: Because like, right now, we're writing and creating, and our
Speaker 5: house has been in a month or two.
Speaker 6: We're going to have to figure out how we're eating
Speaker 6: exactly exactly.
Speaker 4: And so they're they're acknowledging it.
Speaker 9: So it's owning it, being real with it, and just saying, Okay,
Speaker 9: let's not kind of you sugarcoat anything.
Speaker 4: But we got to keep pushing for like what you're
Speaker 4: gonna do?
Speaker 3: No, man, there used to be this this I mean
Speaker 3: but it still is. This song that we sang when
Speaker 3: we were kids and it was like, what can you do?
Speaker 2: Punchingella? Punch Andlla? What can you do? Punch and now?
Speaker 2: And shoot, I could do it too, punching.
Speaker 3: So basically somebody would get in the middle and do
Speaker 3: something and the next person will be like, I could
Speaker 3: do it too, Punchanella, punchingell, And then it's it's I
Speaker 3: really feel, and I believe this wholeheartedly that the more
Speaker 3: you can do, the better off you will be to
Speaker 3: have multiple places that you feel that that that suit you.
Speaker 2: You know, so.
Speaker 3: In like theater, apprenticeships and fellowships, you you you iron
Speaker 3: the clothes, the cast closes the costumes.
Speaker 2: You you hang lights, you build sets.
Speaker 3: You they don't pay you a lot, but you know
Speaker 3: you can survive off of it.
Speaker 2: And I really feel like the.
Speaker 3: More you know about the total thing, the better off
Speaker 3: you really are. So maybe right now you know you
Speaker 3: were doing really well as a writer. Now you've got
Speaker 3: to find something else to do or something else to write.
Speaker 3: Maybe you don't eat as much as you would or
Speaker 3: as great as you did before. But budget is exceptionally important,
Speaker 3: and consider getting a job too outside of that.
Speaker 2: And it's it's because it is what it is is.
Speaker 3: You know, some people are like, oh, I have I
Speaker 3: only have an a plan.
Speaker 2: A I'm not one of those people. I have a plan.
Speaker 2: I've gotten up to them at this point.
Speaker 5: If you in the music business, it ain't no choice.
Speaker 3: If you're in the film industry, yeah, you know, if
Speaker 3: you want to go back to the back, back, get back,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I was just looking at a clip of Sammie Davis Junior.
Speaker 1: This this this dude that went played the drums and
Speaker 1: then played the xylophones and then did a dance, dance,
Speaker 1: did a sang three songs, did a.
Speaker 6: Backflip hotel for somebody.
Speaker 4: So seriously, that's what we're like.
Speaker 7: People don't even realize when it comes to Black Girls
Speaker 7: Film Camp, how many had me and Sierra even where
Speaker 7: right now? Like people always ask like who's doing your
Speaker 7: graphics and your me and touch any romo videos? That's
Speaker 7: meant right there.
Speaker 4: Program.
Speaker 1: First of all, let me say something that the graphics
Speaker 1: is popping and I love the colorway, the pink and
Speaker 1: the blue and disgorgeous.
Speaker 2: We love it.
Speaker 4: You love to see it. We're doing it all, thank you.
Speaker 4: See wearing a bunch of hats on the back end.
Speaker 4: She's doing all the numbers, the budgets.
Speaker 6: One hundred thousand dollars a year ain't no short raising
Speaker 6: one hundred thousand dollars a year is not a show.
Speaker 4: That's well, you know what.
Speaker 1: I know that's not a short answer. But Sierra, please
Speaker 1: just give gift. Give the folks listen, just like a couple,
Speaker 1: like just a couple of little gems about that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Because in order you can have all ideas
Speaker 1: in the world, but you got.
Speaker 2: To fund it.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, the numbers. We can get the money in
Speaker 4: here and I manages it. Okay. We got to make
Speaker 4: sure everything is covered. We have to.
Speaker 9: We're last and on the list for everything. We make
Speaker 9: sure these girls are taking care of. We make sure
Speaker 9: that there is a camp. Everything else comes the place
Speaker 9: after that. But that takes a lot.
Speaker 4: Of a lot of time.
Speaker 9: And part of that is like not outsourcing for an
Speaker 9: accountant because you know, Sierra's a religistics and operations and
Speaker 9: finances and.
Speaker 4: I'm the HR department, Like you gotta know, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: plug it out. I'm gona think it out because we
Speaker 4: need that Tenji's over here, you know.
Speaker 7: And so it's just making those calls, making those decisions,
Speaker 7: making sure that everything just makes sense, making sure we're
Speaker 7: spending the money in the right places.
Speaker 4: But again, it's starting with the core.
Speaker 9: What are the absolute needs, make sure the camp is
Speaker 9: taking care of them, make sure we have a camp,
Speaker 9: and then you know, we go from there and we
Speaker 9: can we can you know.
Speaker 4: Push and move and tramm if that means that.
Speaker 9: You know, we have a team of like at least
Speaker 9: five black women that come in and they help us
Speaker 9: on their coordinators and they help us on.
Speaker 4: With some of you know, take some of the load off.
Speaker 9: But you know a lot of times it's like, well
Speaker 9: we can't put that over here this year in the budget.
Speaker 7: So like I'm just gonna I'm gonna just pour it.
Speaker 7: You know, I'm gonna just take that on. I'll just
Speaker 7: add that to me.
Speaker 9: And it's but it's okay because like you know, then
Speaker 9: you know, when you see everything come together and once
Speaker 9: it all in folds, it's just so it's worth it
Speaker 9: for me in the end, you know, I don't need
Speaker 9: that much sleepy y you.
Speaker 5: Know, woman, you sound like a black woman over there,
Speaker 5: but that's me.
Speaker 4: That's me.
Speaker 7: But that's the thing though, when you're operating in your purpose,
Speaker 7: like even with the writer's strikes, one thing that was
Speaker 7: consistent about it is like even if they're not getting paid,
Speaker 7: if the industry isn't hiring them, they're like, I'm gonna
Speaker 7: write anyway like that, that's just that's my purpose.
Speaker 4: That that's what I'm here for.
Speaker 7: I'm gonna sing, I'm gonna write, I'm gonna create.
Speaker 4: Like it's gonna happen whether it's getting funded or not.
Speaker 7: So when the money and the opportunity you do come
Speaker 7: and the position as an alignment I got, I know.
Speaker 2: Here you go.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 7: So it's gonna happen regardless. This is this is what
Speaker 7: you are here to do you designed for a purpose.
Speaker 4: And so we won't be here always.
Speaker 9: I know we're gonna have you know, people knocking our
Speaker 9: door down, you know, and we will have you know,
Speaker 9: some more help and stuff on the back end. But
Speaker 9: right now we're good, like I'm having I'm doing what
Speaker 9: I enjoy, I'm doing what I love. And we had
Speaker 9: a call yesterday, we had to have a lasting to
Speaker 9: call with a production one of the production teams, and
Speaker 9: it was like, okay, hr department. I was like, yes,
Speaker 9: I have and don't let us have to have this
Speaker 9: conversation again.
Speaker 4: Okay to not deal with it. Okay, we don't need.
Speaker 10: More conversation after the break.
Speaker 1: I think having something accessible for our young girls is
Speaker 1: just all the things. You know. My daughter saw information
Speaker 1: about your camp last year and by the time she
Speaker 1: saw it, the deadline had already passed and she was
Speaker 1: really bummed. But she started to follow the information on
Speaker 1: the camp and when the application opened up this year,
Speaker 1: she was like, I'm not going to miss it. And
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know anything
Speaker 1: about it. This is Lana, right, This is Lana. Lana
Speaker 1: has been on the podcast. By the way, yes, listen
Speaker 1: to the podcast, people who listen to podcasts.
Speaker 4: And what was her video?
Speaker 6: Because because y'all said that the video is the pitch,
Speaker 6: so what did Lana do?
Speaker 2: We're not going.
Speaker 3: Can't no, wait wait wait are you saying that that
Speaker 3: a video has to be created in order to become
Speaker 3: a part of the camp and a pitch video video?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 7: When they just talk about their film for one minute,
Speaker 7: it's a woman at pitch Okay.
Speaker 3: I tell you.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you after we talked about the camp. We're
Speaker 1: not talking about I just wanted to tell us one
Speaker 1: little part about it, part of the camp. So I
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about this, mind you. This is all
Speaker 1: something that she followed that she was purposeful about. She
Speaker 1: wanted to do it, and she filled out the application,
Speaker 1: didn't even tell us until after it was done and
Speaker 1: it was submitted, and she said, okay, I did this thing,
Speaker 1: and I want y'all to wish me love because I
Speaker 1: hope that I get to do this because this is amazing.
Speaker 1: And she said, remember I told you about it last
Speaker 1: year and I missed it and she did mention it
Speaker 1: to me, but I didn't know. You know, I can
Speaker 1: mentioned a lot of things mentioned to me, so she says.
Speaker 1: So when I realized what it was.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I really hope she makes this.
Speaker 1: And so when she got accepted, it was like pandemonium
Speaker 1: in my mind interview.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, she's amazing. Like, let's just go and
Speaker 4: put it out there. Lana, is it okay?
Speaker 2: That is?
Speaker 5: I'm gonna need to text Allana.
Speaker 4: I can't.
Speaker 5: I got questions.
Speaker 2: Well, Lana's film in a nutshell.
Speaker 1: In a nutshell, Lana's film is well started out as
Speaker 1: a take on the Breakfast Club, and she wanted to
Speaker 1: do a take on the breakfast club that was all
Speaker 1: black girls. But then it also she wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of she started. I said, you know what, when she
Speaker 1: started talking to me about it, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: it just reminded me of twelve Angry Men. And I
Speaker 1: said it all takes place in that same room thing.
Speaker 2: And I said, oh yeah, and she said, I know,
Speaker 2: I don't call it.
Speaker 4: Call it.
Speaker 1: And so her film is called four Angry Black Girls,
Speaker 1: I mean five.
Speaker 2: Sorry five.
Speaker 4: She said.
Speaker 5: That also sounds like a play.
Speaker 2: It could be.
Speaker 1: But the thing is that I was just again, she
Speaker 1: has been very adamant about doing this herself.
Speaker 2: She's very independent.
Speaker 1: She is extremely grateful for this opportunity.
Speaker 7: Like her level of maturity to go on another level,
Speaker 7: like you know, we hauled.
Speaker 4: The girls accountable and we pulled it, you know. You know,
Speaker 4: so sometimes a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3: We had yeah.
Speaker 7: Lina, just yes, and her response because you know, we
Speaker 7: give them a schedule. These girls, them and their parents,
Speaker 7: they sign agreement because there's so much money being invested
Speaker 7: in them. So they have like a memorandum of understanding
Speaker 7: that they got to sign because they're getting free technology
Speaker 7: beats to a sponsor.
Speaker 4: They are getting like repairs of beat headphones.
Speaker 7: Like they nice flooded with thousands of dollars of supplies resources,
Speaker 7: and they're playing for flights. They're flying to LA We're
Speaker 7: flying them to Charlotte for their premiere. So it's like,
Speaker 7: you know, there's this commitment. Sessions are required, Saturday sessions
Speaker 7: are required.
Speaker 4: You got to be on Zoom for three It's a
Speaker 4: three hour commitment.
Speaker 7: So there they're having to decide now shoot time to
Speaker 7: shoot their films and some of them trying to get
Speaker 7: one of them Saturdays off. You signed your agreement, right,
Speaker 7: Solna was working some things out.
Speaker 4: We knew she was having we knew it, but other
Speaker 4: girls were reaching out to us.
Speaker 7: She's not the same issues, but still and we were like,
Speaker 7: we got to be consistent across the board.
Speaker 4: We're weaklings. We say a weekly.
Speaker 1: See no stop it. I want y'all to stop stop
Speaker 1: stop stop it. No listen, I've and one hundred percent
Speaker 1: that is that is exactly that it has to be
Speaker 1: across the board. Lana had disaster after disaster, which I
Speaker 1: as a mother it hurt me. But as a creative
Speaker 1: I said, My husband and I both said to each other,
Speaker 1: this is going to be so good for her.
Speaker 2: To have gone through all of the challenges. This child
Speaker 2: had been in tears.
Speaker 1: She hadn't been in my lap, she didn't making phone
Speaker 1: calls going through all of these different challenges. And so
Speaker 1: if so, by the time it got to like the
Speaker 1: fourth thing, I said, look y'all, listen this, y'all the
Speaker 1: my child about to break down over here, she'd have
Speaker 1: changed the ship. Like photos. These people don't dropped out
Speaker 1: on the child. Now y'all talk about she got to
Speaker 1: be on camp on Saturday, and that's the only day
Speaker 1: that she can shoot this dad on Phil And now
Speaker 1: I was like, and so we kind of you know,
Speaker 1: we're trying to work it out, and Lana basically said no.
Speaker 2: I said what I was. I committed to this.
Speaker 1: I said I was going to be there on Saturday
Speaker 1: and being on there on Saturday, and we're gonna fix it.
Speaker 2: We're gonna work it out.
Speaker 1: And in that moment, I was so proud of my
Speaker 1: child because she has been clear from the moment this started.
Speaker 1: I am going to do one hundred percent my best
Speaker 1: based on what is in front of me.
Speaker 2: I'm going to show up. I'm going to do all
Speaker 2: that is required.
Speaker 1: So I was so again, thank you guys for giving
Speaker 1: her this opportunity.
Speaker 2: But the bigger thank you is just thank you.
Speaker 1: For being in these girls' lives period, for creating this thing,
Speaker 1: for giving life to this because as like from as
Speaker 1: a parent, as a creative, it has opened me up,
Speaker 1: like how can I be there for young girls when
Speaker 1: they're trying to be vocalists or performance like it has
Speaker 1: opened up a.
Speaker 2: Thing in my mind. So, yeah, I tell you this.
Speaker 7: Some of these girls, I'm not even gonna hold some
Speaker 7: of these girls are more professional than some of the adult women.
Speaker 4: And let's just be where we had not one problem
Speaker 4: with any team director we went to l A. Okay,
Speaker 4: we took these girls now on problem but as we
Speaker 4: have many adults, we had to tap on the show.
Speaker 4: How many does you said? Let me just make this
Speaker 4: real quick. I mean, not one problem with these girls.
Speaker 4: When I tell you, they show up and give them
Speaker 4: the best selves.
Speaker 7: Oh my gosh, Like we have been so so floored,
Speaker 7: so impressed, Like for real, I'm about to look.
Speaker 6: You got a new organization. You need to be a
Speaker 6: part of Jesus. And that's right, okay.
Speaker 3: In l Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and throw Stacey
Speaker 3: Muhammad in the mix too.
Speaker 7: Speak listens already started building up for next year, like
Speaker 7: a lot of black women in the industry have already
Speaker 7: reached out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and from Black Star First Film Festival.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, we are family.
Speaker 3: There is a dream, or even the idea of a dream.
Speaker 3: If there is a hope, if there is intention and
Speaker 3: and dedication to something that you want to do, the
Speaker 3: opportunities really are there. Maybe not a lot, maybe not
Speaker 3: a lot at this moment, but there are some, and
Speaker 3: you have to really believe in yourself and go out
Speaker 3: and look for these things.
Speaker 2: You may have to take a job that.
Speaker 3: You feel is beneath you. You may have to do that.
Speaker 3: Most people that really advance grow from the mud. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much for listening to J dot l thepodcast.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, ladies. We're so proud of you.
Speaker 3: Is a wonderful thing that you're doing for the spirit
Speaker 3: of these young girls and exciting them and letting them
Speaker 3: know that these things.
Speaker 2: Are absolutely possible. Bless y'all. Bless you, bless y'all, Thank you,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 5: How do you eat an elephant?
Speaker 8: One by time?
Speaker 11: Hey, listeners, is Amber the producer here. If there are
Speaker 11: any aspiring black girl filmmakers in your community.
Speaker 10: Keep listening.
Speaker 11: To learn more about the camp and how to apply,
Speaker 11: visit www dot Blackgirlsfilm caamp dot com. Applications for the
Speaker 11: next year's cohort open in the fall. You can also
Speaker 11: watch all of the past cohorts films on the website
Speaker 11: as well. And a little update since the award ceremony
Speaker 11: has happened, Lana's film won Best Costume and the Red
Speaker 11: Carpet Award.
Speaker 4: We are forever proud.
Speaker 11: Of her and we'll forever stand Lana on this show.
Speaker 11: We're also never surprised by her accomplishments. For more of
Speaker 11: Lana the Great. Check out our episode from earlier this season,
Speaker 11: Young John, and I'll drop all the links for Black
Speaker 11: Girl Film Camp in the show notes.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8: Hi.
Speaker 3: If you have comments on something he said in this
Speaker 3: episode called eight six six, Hey Jill, if you want
Speaker 3: to add to this conversation, that's eight six six four.
Speaker 5: Three nine five four five five.
Speaker 3: Don't forget to tell us your name and the episode
Speaker 3: you're referring to. You might just hear your message on
Speaker 3: a future episode.
Speaker 11: Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents Jay dot ilthpodcast.
Speaker 3: Jay dot il is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
Speaker 3: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 3: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.