in 2013 I took my first-ever
screenwriting class I was 36 years old
the first day of my class I was
terrified I was at least a decade older
than all of my classmates and they all
talked with this film slang that I
didn’t understand the professor from my
class was Tom Musca he did this little
film call Stand and Deliver it was one
of the classic films of my childhood he
was boisterous and charismatic and he
chided students for not paying attention
to their characters and not fully
committing to their stories the first
script that I wrote for that class was
trash because I had no idea what I was
doing but Musca saw something in me and
he encouraged me to keep edit so I did
my life hasn’t really been the same
since that first screenwriting class
I’ve screened my films around the
country and this year for the first time
I was able to participate in the
Sundance Film Festival as a Sundance
night fellow I’m a filmmaker now
filmmaking is at the center of
everything that I do a little bit about
making movies filmmaking is a
collaborative effort when you’re working
on a short film and you’re on set you’re
working for 12 to 14 hour days up to 5
days in a row you’re under immense
pressure and stress no one is eating
sleeping or showering properly you have
to make a film that you’re all proud of
it’s a mammoth task but at the end of
the day when you’re sitting in a theater
in front of an audience it all feels
worthwhile you can’t make a film without
a dedicated crew one of the most
important lessons that I’ve learned is
when you’re making movies sometimes it’s
those unexpected connections and those
odd partnerships that are the best for
the work that you’re doing the TA for
that screenwriting class that I took
with
named Barry he had a southern accent and
he wore red shoes I’d once read
somewhere that red shoes signaled
confidence in a person he loved the main
character of my screenplay and he really
wanted to help me with my film so after
the class was over I asked him if he
would shoot my first film and he obliged
we’ve been working together ever since
when I posted this photo on my Facebook
page my friends and family were
intrigued and perplexed how are we even
friends what is the nature of this
relationship
I could literally sense the mushroom
clouds going off in their heads to be
perfectly honest with you we haven’t
quite figured it out I’m 40 years old I
work full-time I’m a single mother as a
kid I lived in a single-wide trailer and
one of the poorest counties in rural
Alabama up until sixth grade the only
white people that I knew were either my
teachers or people that I saw at the
supermarket Barret grew up in Kentucky
he is 27 years old and he is living his
single life in LA his parents were both
doctors and he spent most of his time
hanging out with his fraternity brothers
before he came to the University of
Miami to do film he was offered a job
working on a Republican campaign and he
almost took it so how are we even
friends I don’t even know to tell you
the truth last year I started production
on my documentary film Alabama land
alabama land is a story about my
grandfather he’s 95 years old and he
owned 688 a KERS of farmland in Alabama
this land was part of the original
plantation that my ancestors worked on
as slaves and picking the crew for this
film I had to not only pick people out
who were really good at what they did
but I also had to think about how they
would fit in my family environment
Barrett was one of my top picks but
there are no white males in my intimate
family spaces so in doing the dock
Documentary I was worried that his
presence would throw off the family
dynamic
on the contrary Barrett proved to be one
of the biggest assets on my film as my
director of photography he was sensitive
in his portrayal of my family members he
would sit on the porch with my grandad
and they would talk about the weather
and the world in the state of farming in
Alabama here was this white southerner
the type of person that black
southerners had learned to be suspicious
of sitting on the porch with my
grandfather giving him his due it was
amazing to see at times my relatives
were as open with him as they were with
me because they saw him as an extension
of myself on set our communication was
seamless sometimes he would say April
come over here look at this shot tell me
if this is what you want that’s how he
talks and I would come over and look at
the shot and I would pause for like a
split second and just in that pause
without me saying anything he knew it
wasn’t what I wanted and he would say
okay hold on hold on I know what you
want I’m gonna fix it I’m gonna make it
right and he would do it on set plenty
of times we could communicate without
speaking I can’t pretend that there
haven’t been bumps in the road I can’t
pretend that we don’t get on each
other’s nerves I can’t pretend that we
haven’t disappointed each other at some
point in some way but that’s the nature
of collaboration that’s the nature of
the creative process
Barrett cut the trailer that you’re
going to see in the next few minutes
whenever people watch this trailer they
always say to me oh my gosh it’s the
music it’s so great it’s so you or they
say oh my gosh these shots are so great
they have your fingerprints all over
them and I directed it so it does have
my fingerprints all over it but at the
same time it has Barrett’s fingerprints
on it too when I tell people
Barrett selected the music that cuts to
the core of how I feel about the place
that I grew up
or when I tell people that he chose
these shots that really align perfectly
with my creative vision people are
floored so I’m going to show you the
trailer now and I just want to say that
this is the type of work that can happen
when you layer diverse voices into your
projects this is the magic that can
occur when you open yourself up a little
bit to new unusual peculiar
collaborations thirty-three thousand
farms in Alabama forty-three thousand
Alabama about 2800 farms are black farms
[Music]
one day I’m sitting on that porch with
my grandma and I said when I get famous
and people ask me where I’m from I’m not
gonna say up from here and she just
looked at me and she said I have no love
for people who deny where they come from
if you deny where you come from you’re
denied all the people who came before
you you’re denying everything that made
you what you are I have no respect the
land came from the slave home that’s
just a part of us that’s a part of the
Jones heritage so we can today
now his vision was to to have it and to
see it and to keep it it’s up to us how
we care for that list there’s a stigma
where you don’t want to really discuss
the passing of a loved one and I think
that is more pervasive in the African
nudity and others there was these guys
and the clueless fans are gonna come get
my dad they went we ready we’re all
experts shots and can you imagine a 10
or 12 13 year-old boy handler think
about okay I’m gonna kill these people
no amount of money in the world that you
can give me to make me part with this
lame I think people need to be
optimistic like they need like they need
to feel like oh yes it’ll go on and
it’ll be a farm and oh keep going but
the reality of it is no one wants to
take on the burden of this life
full-time there’s no place I call my my
way more than two weeks that I just get
it itching my soul to come back to just
just to be able for
[Music]
you
screenwriting class I was 36 years old
the first day of my class I was
terrified I was at least a decade older
than all of my classmates and they all
talked with this film slang that I
didn’t understand the professor from my
class was Tom Musca he did this little
film call Stand and Deliver it was one
of the classic films of my childhood he
was boisterous and charismatic and he
chided students for not paying attention
to their characters and not fully
committing to their stories the first
script that I wrote for that class was
trash because I had no idea what I was
doing but Musca saw something in me and
he encouraged me to keep edit so I did
my life hasn’t really been the same
since that first screenwriting class
I’ve screened my films around the
country and this year for the first time
I was able to participate in the
Sundance Film Festival as a Sundance
night fellow I’m a filmmaker now
filmmaking is at the center of
everything that I do a little bit about
making movies filmmaking is a
collaborative effort when you’re working
on a short film and you’re on set you’re
working for 12 to 14 hour days up to 5
days in a row you’re under immense
pressure and stress no one is eating
sleeping or showering properly you have
to make a film that you’re all proud of
it’s a mammoth task but at the end of
the day when you’re sitting in a theater
in front of an audience it all feels
worthwhile you can’t make a film without
a dedicated crew one of the most
important lessons that I’ve learned is
when you’re making movies sometimes it’s
those unexpected connections and those
odd partnerships that are the best for
the work that you’re doing the TA for
that screenwriting class that I took
with
named Barry he had a southern accent and
he wore red shoes I’d once read
somewhere that red shoes signaled
confidence in a person he loved the main
character of my screenplay and he really
wanted to help me with my film so after
the class was over I asked him if he
would shoot my first film and he obliged
we’ve been working together ever since
when I posted this photo on my Facebook
page my friends and family were
intrigued and perplexed how are we even
friends what is the nature of this
relationship
I could literally sense the mushroom
clouds going off in their heads to be
perfectly honest with you we haven’t
quite figured it out I’m 40 years old I
work full-time I’m a single mother as a
kid I lived in a single-wide trailer and
one of the poorest counties in rural
Alabama up until sixth grade the only
white people that I knew were either my
teachers or people that I saw at the
supermarket Barret grew up in Kentucky
he is 27 years old and he is living his
single life in LA his parents were both
doctors and he spent most of his time
hanging out with his fraternity brothers
before he came to the University of
Miami to do film he was offered a job
working on a Republican campaign and he
almost took it so how are we even
friends I don’t even know to tell you
the truth last year I started production
on my documentary film Alabama land
alabama land is a story about my
grandfather he’s 95 years old and he
owned 688 a KERS of farmland in Alabama
this land was part of the original
plantation that my ancestors worked on
as slaves and picking the crew for this
film I had to not only pick people out
who were really good at what they did
but I also had to think about how they
would fit in my family environment
Barrett was one of my top picks but
there are no white males in my intimate
family spaces so in doing the dock
Documentary I was worried that his
presence would throw off the family
dynamic
on the contrary Barrett proved to be one
of the biggest assets on my film as my
director of photography he was sensitive
in his portrayal of my family members he
would sit on the porch with my grandad
and they would talk about the weather
and the world in the state of farming in
Alabama here was this white southerner
the type of person that black
southerners had learned to be suspicious
of sitting on the porch with my
grandfather giving him his due it was
amazing to see at times my relatives
were as open with him as they were with
me because they saw him as an extension
of myself on set our communication was
seamless sometimes he would say April
come over here look at this shot tell me
if this is what you want that’s how he
talks and I would come over and look at
the shot and I would pause for like a
split second and just in that pause
without me saying anything he knew it
wasn’t what I wanted and he would say
okay hold on hold on I know what you
want I’m gonna fix it I’m gonna make it
right and he would do it on set plenty
of times we could communicate without
speaking I can’t pretend that there
haven’t been bumps in the road I can’t
pretend that we don’t get on each
other’s nerves I can’t pretend that we
haven’t disappointed each other at some
point in some way but that’s the nature
of collaboration that’s the nature of
the creative process
Barrett cut the trailer that you’re
going to see in the next few minutes
whenever people watch this trailer they
always say to me oh my gosh it’s the
music it’s so great it’s so you or they
say oh my gosh these shots are so great
they have your fingerprints all over
them and I directed it so it does have
my fingerprints all over it but at the
same time it has Barrett’s fingerprints
on it too when I tell people
Barrett selected the music that cuts to
the core of how I feel about the place
that I grew up
or when I tell people that he chose
these shots that really align perfectly
with my creative vision people are
floored so I’m going to show you the
trailer now and I just want to say that
this is the type of work that can happen
when you layer diverse voices into your
projects this is the magic that can
occur when you open yourself up a little
bit to new unusual peculiar
collaborations thirty-three thousand
farms in Alabama forty-three thousand
Alabama about 2800 farms are black farms
[Music]
one day I’m sitting on that porch with
my grandma and I said when I get famous
and people ask me where I’m from I’m not
gonna say up from here and she just
looked at me and she said I have no love
for people who deny where they come from
if you deny where you come from you’re
denied all the people who came before
you you’re denying everything that made
you what you are I have no respect the
land came from the slave home that’s
just a part of us that’s a part of the
Jones heritage so we can today
now his vision was to to have it and to
see it and to keep it it’s up to us how
we care for that list there’s a stigma
where you don’t want to really discuss
the passing of a loved one and I think
that is more pervasive in the African
nudity and others there was these guys
and the clueless fans are gonna come get
my dad they went we ready we’re all
experts shots and can you imagine a 10
or 12 13 year-old boy handler think
about okay I’m gonna kill these people
no amount of money in the world that you
can give me to make me part with this
lame I think people need to be
optimistic like they need like they need
to feel like oh yes it’ll go on and
it’ll be a farm and oh keep going but
the reality of it is no one wants to
take on the burden of this life
full-time there’s no place I call my my
way more than two weeks that I just get
it itching my soul to come back to just
just to be able for
[Music]
you
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