Even though I have worked in television for most of my adult life, a year ago, I started a journey to direct and produce a project independently. SCARY. I’m not fond of #thestruggle per se. I like nice things y’all…like food and shelter. HA! Seriously tho’. But, I had an idea for a project that I wasn’t convinced I could make any other way.
I was already hurting. At times, I was even feeling like an imposter. A gentle reality had settled in and snuggled up uncomfortably close: I still had so much to learn. To be clear, I usually look across the proverbial room or over the proverbial fence at independent filmmakers as badass people under constant stress but who fight to make their projects from scraps with steely determination…while eating eggs twelve ways b/c money is always tight and protein powerbars are a craft-service luxury that are generally a no-show on an indie budget (unless by “powerbars” you mean “dinner-on-the-run” then yup.) They’re like creative survivalists who start film fires from shoe leather and spit. For real tho! The idea of making my project independently was SOBERING very quickly; and I was “uncertain” (see: scared). But I (crazily) did it anyway. Through mistakes and missteps the very best I can say is that I kept on going. Some days I did it all while feeling afraid. But most days I was on the sleepless adrenaline-high of pure faith in action. Without all the poetry here tho’, simply put, I was all over the place. HA! :) <3
With extremely limited resources, a prayer life that was giving me LIFE and very good friends around the country who helped me find humor (and perspective) along the way, I started a journey to cast and then direct a nonfiction mini-doc' project about a group of politically-diverse millennial women who were about to vote for the first time in the 2016 Presidential election.
Were we really listening to millennials, women and people of color of varying political beliefs (conservatives and liberals) before the election? Would anyone listen to what they had to say (not just campaign to secure their vote)? Were people of different opinions/political parties/parts of the country talking to each other and not just about each other? What would we find if we did start talking? Would we survive the conversation or would talks implode on the first try?
Welp, I wanted to find out. Thus, #PARTYGIRLS.
In my six-part mini-docuseries, a young Republican woman from Georgia, a far-left Democrat from Michigan, an undecided teenager from Minnesota, a preacher’s kid from southern California, an HBCU sophomore from Florida and a Latina born in America but raised in Mexico start the journey as strangers sharing one main thing in common…They would all be voting for the first time in the 2016 election. [More on each of them soon!]
I so wish we had had been able to have this honest conversation across party lines and geographical ones too before the last election. That said, it’s never too late to get a good (even if challenging) conversation started—especially with people you believe are diametrically opposed to your basic right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The conversations we documented in PARTY GIRLS: Exploring Politics Across America weren’t Hollywood-ending happy every single day. They were, however, human, important and honest.
Welcome to the party…
Party Girls: Exploring Politics Across America, a six part mini-docuseries, premiered on Friday January 20, 2017 online at ReelRoost.com.
Photo by: Marc Baptiste Photography, Inc.