Which makes me think of Courtney Barnett’s first track off Tell Me How You Really Feel.

If you - like me - are feeling the grief of the world, my grief worker (who helped me tremendously through the toughest moments of grief over the death of my dad in 2022) Nancy is hosting a workshop tomorrow (3/25) night. Honestly, Nancy is amazing. I took several of her grief group workshops. Nancy’s capacity to witness and hold grief, combined with the writing and meditative prompts she gave us, were transformative.

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Filmmakers Mixtape Challenge

I think I’m allowed to say this, although no public announcement has been made. I’m a cohort member of the 2026-27 Filmmakers Mixtape Challenge!

What is the Filmmakers Mixtape Challenge, you say? For the next year, I’ll be making and releasing one film each month. That’s right, by this time next year, there will be 12 short films made by me out in the world.

It will be an exhausting year, certainly. And I’m not expecting every film to be good. In my application to the program, I wrote:

The product is valuable, but the process is the objective.

I’m interested in using the 12 months to practice, play, and grow.

I want to be part of the challenge so that I can commit to making more films and developing my skills as a filmmaker.

I’ll be sharing links to my films here, but also on a YouTube channel that is yet to be created. Stay tuned.

Audiophile Conference

The You Didn’t See Nothin team is speaking at a session of the inaugural Audiophile Conference at Northwestern University on April 17th.

It’s gonna be a really holistic conference, with speakers ranging from audio journalists, to playwrights, to experimental audio makers, to chatcasters. Short form. Long form. Everything.

My session with the rest of the YDSN crew is 11am–12pm in Room 1632.

Hope to see you there!

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A New Studio

My creative collaborator (co-writer/co-director of Nya Does Nothing) Jenny Casas and I got a studio space at Mana Contemporary! Already it’s been helpful in fostering both of our creative endeavors. I’ve used the space as a safe haven to tune out work and home tasks and focus on all the other things I want to make.

We (mostly just Jenny, I have been dragging my heals) have begun decorating, but it’s not quite at a place where I want to share pictures of it yet. So here are some “Before” photos!

Stay tuned for the “After” pictures next month.

Before you go…

My bracket is wrecked, but I’m wondering who you think will win The Big Dance.

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Although not definitively the last Nya Does Nothing screening in Chicago, the probably last screening in Chicago (until Jenny and I become super well regarded and they decide to show a retrospective of our early work1 😉) will be February 7 at 6pm at the Gene Siskel Film Center as part of the Black Harvest Encore. You can get tickets here. There will be a 20-min Q&A with filmmakers afterwards. I hope to see you there!

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Also at GSFC…

Also coming back to the theatre as part of the BHFF encore is Khalil Joseph’s BLKNWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS. This film was my favorite of the year. It defies categorization (it is not a documentary, it is not a fiction film, it is not a docu-fiction film) and defies “conventional narrative structure” yet is incredibly propulsive. It’s almost two hours but I was ready to sit and watch for another two when the credits rolled. It’s playing Sundays, February 8 and 15 at 4:30pm and 5:15pm, respectively. You can get tickets here. I will be watching this film again, but not sure which day yet.

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Not part of the BHFF Encore but part of Gene Siskel’s programming is a film and lecture series: African Cinema: From Independence to Now.

Featuring films from Senegal, Mali, Angola, Kenya, Chad, and beyond, these fourteen works reveal how African directors continuously reimagine cinema as a tool for decolonization, self-representation, and artistic innovation, weaving the metaphysical with the political.

Screenings are Wednesdays at 6pm with select Sunday encores (without lecture). You can read more about it, see the films, and buy tickets here. Some films I’ve heard of but not seen and are excited to watch on the big screen (Black Girl; Bamako; On Becoming a Guinea Fowl) while others I’ve seen but look forward to watching again (Faat Kine; Sambizanga, Rafiki).

The Ambie Awards

Celebrate excellence in podcasting and I’m nominated for two along with my co-producers on the Heat List podcast that came out late last year. We’re nominated for Best Scriptwriting - Nonfiction and Best Society and Culture Podcast. The award’s are presented at the end of February, so I’ll keep you posted on if we win any! Either way, just an honor to be recognized, especially for a podcast that didn’t get a lot of attention when it dropped!

Before you go…

Do you have a favorite film of the year? If so, let me know what and why! I’d love to check it out.

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Nya Does Nothing played twice at the Black Harvest Film Festival (including closing day!) and it was great! People laughed! I always love when people laugh at this line: “It’s the end of summer. You never know when it’s going to get cold. This is Chicago. It could be tomorrow!”

This weekend we’re playing in Vancouver (if you happen to be there!). It’s also screening virtually. You can buy an all-access virtual pass to the festival here.

We’ve applied to a few other film festivals in Chicago, so I’ll keep you posted if it’s playing here again.

HELP: Looking for a office/studio space

Jenny and I are looking for a place where we can co-work and keep some of our film, photography, and sound gear. If you know of any artist studios or creative-work office spaces in Chicago, please let us know!

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Dipping my calf into sound for film

Definitely more than a toe. I’ve been working as a location sound mixer on short films by friends and colleagues I’ve met through my audio journalism work. It’s been a great way to use my knowledge to help other Black, queer creatives make their films shine. As we all should know, great films require great sound. But a lot of first time filmmakers don’t know how to make good sound, or they don’t have access to the equipment and technicians who can make it so.

I’m far from expert (I’d say I’m a level up from novice but not quite intermediate.) But, I have gear and I have enough knowledge to get something better than the in-camera sound. And, I’m getting better every shoot!

Two podcasts out now!

Hidden Mirrors

I story edited (meaning I helped craft the structure) this new documentary podcast from Alan Huffman.

Alan hosts a book club at the Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in southwestern Mississippi. There, he and the guys don’t just discuss their reactions to the books but also give reflections of their own lives, and share stories of transformation, connection, and hope.

I got to listen to a bunch of raw tape of these book club conversations and they are so powerful! It was an honor to be brought onto the project and help bring it to the world. Give it a listen. Alan is also the author of several books, of which I’d suggest Mississippi in Africa.

Heat List

I was senior producer on this new, serialized podcast from Wondery (R.I.P.). Here’s the synopsis:

Hoping to counter an alarmingly high number of murders and gun violence — the Chicago Police Department tries something that seems straight out of science fiction: they build an algorithm to predict who is most likely to be involved in a shooting, dubbed the “Heat List.” The cops say it’s meant to curb violence and save lives. But when two brothers, Ryan and Shaquon Thomas, find themselves on this list, it begs the question: can the “Heat List” help the Thomas brothers before it’s too late…or will it bring even more heat?

I’m pretty proud of it. We try to avoid falling into the grosser aspects of the true crime genre. Host/reporter James Edwards and reporter Matt Stroud are two expert journalists. It was a great learning experience working with them to figure out how to tell the fullness and nuance of this story in a way that the Thomas family could be proud of. The podcast is behind the Wondery+ paywall for now, but if you’re really eager to listen to it, just let me know. 😉

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Before you head out…

In October, paid subscribers got a little taste of the weird things I think are interesting or important enough to commit to the written word.

If you’re dying to read the full story, but don’t have the cash, just let me know and I’ll forward it to you. Also, thanks to subscriber (and sister) Elora, I’ve now learned that there is one instance of graphic t-shirts in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

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Last weekend was the Renaissance Black Film Festival in Albany, New York. I couldn’t make it unfortunately — I was on vacation with my family — but the short film I co-directed with Jenny Casas not only screened, it won an award! Nya Does Nothing won Programmer’s Choice, meaning it was a favorite film of the curators. We are receiving a physical award! I will share a photo of it in an update following it’s arrival.

Nya Goes to the Black Harvest Film Festival

Nya Does Nothing is part of the 31st edition of the Black Harvest Film Festival. When Jenny and I started submitting to film festivals, Black Harvest was the one festival we really hoped we would get into. And we did!

Nya is part of the From the Block screening of short films, playing twice:

• Mon. Nov. 10, 5:30 p.m.

• Sun. Nov. 16, 2:30 p.m.

I’ve seen three other films in this block — Everything is Everything (directed by Kin Marie), Take 290 (directed by Sandrel Nicole Young) and We Call Each Other (directed by Sarah Oberholtzer) — and they are all great! If you’re in Chicago, you do not want to miss this block. Get your tickets here!

I want to highlight a few other awesome screenings happening at Black Harvest.

• Rawhead an’ Bloodybone (directed Learenna A. Reynolds) is playing in the Hauntologies short films block. I would be heading to this block anyway because Jenny and I are working on a horror film for our next short, but knowing I’ll get a chance to see this hauntingly poet meditation just sweetens the pot.

• Missing Rhythms (directed by Regina Hoyles) is part of the Sister to Sister block. I saw this film at the Detroit Black Film Festival and it was definitely my favorite film shown there. I’m looking forward to seeing it again, and perhaps getting to meet Hoyles and learn how she came up with such an original twist on the ongoing epidemic of missing Black women and girls.

• Will (directed by Jessie Maple) is the first (known) feature directed by a Black woman. I watched it a few years ago as part of the Sojourner Truth Festival of the Arts fall screenings. Jessie Maple’s work is so previous to me. I was able to screen her film Twice as Nice (which starred actual USC Trojan basketball champions and twins Paula and Pam McGee and their teammate and future WNBA star Cynthia Cooper) in the series I co-programmed with J. Michael Eugenio in 2022. In the process, I learned that, like me, Jessie Maple started out as a scientist (bacteriologist) before becoming a camera woman and a director. You can read more about her story here.

  

  In Will, a former basketball star and recovering heroin addict becomes a surrogate father to a young boy he hopes to steer clear of drug addition. It’s funny and heartbreaking and slice-of-life. Get your tickets here!

• Lastly, this documentary — about five incarceration-impacted Chicagoans’ journey to Benin to reclaim history and reimagine repair and liberation at the source — looks dope. I have not seen it, but I plan to! Hope to see you there!

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One more thing about Black Harvest…

When I first started working at South Side Weekly Radio in 2017, I hosted a show on WHPK right after Sergio Mims’ classical radio show. Sergio was warm, funny, and so so knowledgeable, about music, about film, about culture. He was a co-founder of the Black Harvest Film Festival and it was through him I learned about the fest. Sergio passed away in 2022. I’m grateful that despite the turmoil and loss of federal funding to the arts — Black Harvest lost its $20,000 NEA funding — the festival Sergio co-founded is still going. And I consider it a great privilege that I get to be part of it as a spectator and filmmaker.

A question before you go

“Who’s on your Mt. Rushmore of film directors?”

That was a question posed to the directors of Meta Take One at the Detroit Black Film Festival. It got me thinking who would be on my Mt. Rushmore? I have favorite movies for different moods: Desert Hearts is my comfort-food film; Portrait of a Lady on Fire is my favorite slowburn movie.

I don’t have an answer right now, but I’m curious if you do!

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