I'm a filmmaker who specializes in experimental shorts that celebrate underrepresented and disenfranchised groups, specifically members of the BIPOC queer community.
In the past year, my films have been honored at the Made In Baltimore Short Film Festival, the Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival, and the LGBTQ Unbordered International Film Festival, among others. I am also a recipient of 足球游戏_中国足彩网￥体育资讯's Leslie King Hammond Fellowship. My latest passion project, entitled Dreams Of My Father, is a suspense-thriller about a black transwoman who is haunted by the apparition of her abusive father.
:: An informal interview with James
What are your preferred pronouns?
He/They
Where do you call home?
Baltimore, MD
What is your program and year of graduation?
Filmmaking MFA '21
What inspired you to take the leap of going to graduate school?
Being in the film industry has been a lifelong dream. For ten years, I had been distracted from my path and was just working in corporate America, paying bills, and feeling unfulfilled. One of my close friends from high school, a local drag queen, died in his sleep at age 31. At his funeral, a big guy came up to me in tears on told me to use my "gift" because tomorrow isn't guaranteed.
How has this scholarship impacted your thinking and process during your time in graduate school?
I'm already very involved with politics and trying to promote change, and this fellowship has been a reminder to keep fighting to make the world a more inclusive place. It has made me feel more validated in sharing my queer and black identities authentically and unapologetically with the world, despite being the only gay/non-binary person in my cisgender male-dominated filmmaking cohort.
What have you been working on? Share the driving questions and inspiration that informs your work as an artist, designer, educator and/or activist.
I'm currently doing post-production on my thesis film, "Dreams of my Father." It's the first fictional film I've ever directed, because I've always been fascinated by how genre films (horror, action, comedy) can educate and resonate with wider audiences under the guise of flashy entertainment. Loosely based on my own experience, the story is about a transwoman who is stalked by the apparition of her abusive father. In the film, I employ horror movie tropes to trouble the notion of binary oppositions and to blur the boundaries between love and hate, masculinity and femininity, and reality and dreams.
Do you have a website or art instagram you'd like to share? Please do so here!
Instagram: @StuntmanJim.Dir