I grew up wondering why families on
TV and in movies didn’t look like my family. My parents were different colors and
depending on the time of year I either looked yellow like my mom or brown like
my dad. I was too young and didn’t have
a way to describe what I was feeling at the time but I really wanted to see
movies where people looked like me. We weren’t represented in the media. This, along with spending countless hours
watching Japanese and American movies with my maternal grandmother as a child,
is what drove me into film school. I wanted to tell stories about mixed-people.
Let’s flash forward 9 years after film school, it is 2012
and I have yet to make a film about the “mixed experience.” I have a few ideas
floating around in my head, but I lack the motivation to make my own movie.
What I am passionate about, however, is helping other people tell their
stories. This summer I had the privilege to work as an Associate Producer on
the film The Opus 139 Project: To Hear
The Music. I assisted the director, Dennis Lanson, in the beginning stages
of a Kickstarter
Campaign to finance post-production. While this film is not about
multiracial identity, it is in fact about the C.B.
Fisk Company and an organ they
installed at Harvard Memorial Church, the experience showed me how wonderful it
feels to help a filmmaker with their film.
This entire blog is about my desire, and hopefully, my
experiences in helping filmmakers of mixed-race to get their films
produced and distributed. The pressure
is on, especially because I have decided to create a blog on a topic that
doesn’t really exist anywhere else.
Sure, there are blogs on multiracial identity, women in film, and even
film distribution but I have yet to find anything the ties this all together. I will attempt to bring you stories about
multiracial films because I believe that people of mixed race are
underrepresented in the media. Our stories are the stories of America, however
cliché that may sound. We are a country of all races, ethnicities, and cultures
but as a whole we seem to forget that.
I welcome any multiracial filmmaker or fan of a film about
multiracial identity to contact me. I will be happy to showcase your films and
stories on my blog. Perhaps even help you find distribution. Please feel free
to contact me at Sharmane@knitvengeance.com.
Thank you for reading,
Sharmane Franklin Johnson
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