Michèle Stephenson is a filmmaker, artist, and creator who pulls from her Haitian and Panamanian roots to suppose radically about storytelling and disrupt the imaginary in non-fiction areas. She tells emotionally-driven private tales of resistance and id that middle the lived experiences of communities of colour within the Americas and the Black diaspora. Grounded in a Black Atlantic lens, Stephenson tells tales that deliberately reimagine and provoke considered how we have interaction with and dismantle the internalized influence of systemic oppression. Her characteristic documentary “American Promise” was nominated for 3 Emmys and gained the Jury Prize at Sundance. Her work “Stateless” was nominated for a Canadian Academy Award for Greatest Function Documentary. Most lately, Stephenson collaborated as co-director on “The Altering Similar,” a magical realist digital actuality trilogy sequence on racial terror that was nominated for an Emmy within the Excellent Interactive Media Progressive class and premiered at Sundance Movie Pageant. It additionally gained the Grand Jury Prize for Greatest Immersive Narrative on the Tribeca Movie Pageant. Alongside along with her writing companions, Joe Brewster and Hilary Beard, Stephenson gained an NAACP Picture Award for Excellence in a Literary Work for his or her guide “Guarantees Saved.”
“Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Undertaking” is screening on the 2023 Sundance Movie Pageant, which runs from January 19-29.
W&H: Describe the movie for us in your personal phrases.
MS: “The journey to Mars can solely be understood by means of Black People.” Legendary poet Nikki Giovanni’s revelation is a launching pad to an inspiring exploration of her life and legacy. Via a collision of recollections, moments in American historical past, stay readings of her poetry, and impressions of area, Giovanni urges us to think about a future the place Black ladies lead and fairness is a actuality.
The movie takes us on a journey that facilities Black liberation and the novel creativeness.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
MS: My companion and I spent months looking for a persona whose physique of labor we might relish sinking our enamel into. At first we searched within the music world, however then, due to our love for the written phrase, we additionally determined to discover different types of expression. We got here throughout Nikki Giovanni and her work, who was not a significant a part of my Afro-Caribbean orbit — though I had studied and skim her work in school at a important second in my life. She, Angela Davis, and Ntozake Shange helped form my world-view as a 20-year-old.
In my discussions with my companion, who grew up listening to Nikki’s work on Black radio, and as we revisited her work in our early analysis, we collectively felt a tremendous array of feelings the deeper we dove in. We additionally constantly witnessed to the deep love and affection folks from all walks of life and age teams expressed for her each time I discussed Nikki’s identify. Everybody we spoke with had a private Nikki Giovanni story that both spoke on to her poetry or to assembly her in particular person. There was one thing clearly particular and contemporary that had not been captured by the mainstream press — particularly not within the press the place I grew up.
Nikki was uncooked, humorous, spoke fact to energy, and most significantly, Nikki’s Black feminist perspective on life felt transformative for me. With the ability to dive into her work has been a present that has additional reworked how I really feel about myself and the world round me.
W&H: What would you like folks to consider after they watch the movie?
MS: These questions on viewers and reactions of individuals watching the movie are all the time difficult and I prefer to push again on that. I can actually solely converse for myself as an artist and storyteller with a deep ardour to specific what I really feel and the way I see the world within the hopes that sharing the work resonates throughout varied communities.
I’m my first viewers. From that launching level, I could be assured others will join as a result of I’m making an attempt to be true to my lived expertise and wishes – that’s what storytelling is all about. I’ve realized sufficient from my earlier movies to know that our movies work extra like Rorschach checks. Individuals deliver their very own baggage to how they interpret the tales and artwork that’s earlier than them – and that’s an exquisite factor. That’s what artwork is all about.
Myself as an viewers, I really feel deeply empowered by the movie and the way it portrays the power and knowledge of Black ladies. I really feel the facility to go ahead and dream and work in the direction of my very own liberation by means of my work.
W&H: What was the most important problem in making the movie?
MS: There have been many unexpected obstacles within the making of “Going To Mars,” too many to recount. Nevertheless, probably the most urgent and disturbing impediment we encountered was the necessity for extra obtainable and inexpensive editors.
We responded with a really efficient technique that will change our work sooner or later. We collaborated with a number of editors in Canada and the USA who possess particular artistic talent units that labored collectively synergistically. All of them appeared to relish the interactivity and cooperative nature of the edit. In the end, all of us benefited from such a change. It was a transformative collaborative expertise.
W&H: How did you get your movie funded? Share some insights into how you bought the movie made.
MS: This impartial documentary undertaking was solely supported by grants and basis help till six months in the past. Over time we tried studios and public tv however have been repeatedly rejected or supplied funding that was subpar. We developed a tremendous array of belongings — prospectus, trailer, and a scene reel — which was fairly efficient for our fundraising with foundations, who’ve been unconditional supporters of our imaginative and prescient. We’re grateful to them past examine.
After two years of pitching, we raised the preliminary cash from Ford Basis, Cinereach, Catapult, NYSCA, the Denver Movie Society, and Fork Movies. After seven years of elevating funds, cobbling collectively near 80 p.c of our price range and pitching to personal and public entities whereas taking pictures and enhancing, we met our companion investor in June 2022, Tommy Oliver of Confluential Movies. He is a big fan of Nikki Giovanni, and was so impressed by what he noticed in our tough minimize that he supplied to shut our funding hole. We met him at a Sundance Catalyst occasion in New York Metropolis. We had been a part of the Catalyst household since 2017. That help in the end bore wonderful fruit for 5 years later. Tommy is a visionary and a elegant companion. We couldn’t ask for a greater collaborator. It was well worth the seven yr wait.
W&H: What impressed you to change into a filmmaker?
MS: I began making movie with my companion and father of my two kids, after various years of working within the social justice area as a lawyer and activist. I usually converse to the political aspect of filmmaking; the flexibility to unearth fact and expose the private influence of oppression and the way that course of could be transformative. However these days, I’ve come to appreciate my inspiration primarily stems from the love of the craft in addition to my love of the group of filmmakers I’ve developed through the years.
I like storytelling and fixing the issues of establishing narrative in movie and now understand that this skillset is a necessary facet of the event of a wholesome group. Storytelling can heal us.
W&H: What recommendation do you’ve got for different ladies or nonbinary administrators?
MS: Construct group. The overwhelming majority of younger ladies and nonbinary filmmakers beginning right now will not be within the subject in one other 5 – ten years. It’s a marathon, not a dash when it comes to constructing a physique of labor, and even your first impartial movie.
“Going To Mars” got here to fruition after seven years of manufacturing alongside elevating funds. Those that stay within the fields can have discovered lifelong pals and lovers, group and mentors and experiences that can maintain and nurture them.
My recommendation can be to decide to studying the craft and growing the help techniques which might be wanted for the lengthy haul.
W&H: Identify your favourite woman-directed movie and why.
MS: Truly, I draw my inspiration from so many sources outdoors of movie. I hate to pinpoint one single factor. It’s too limiting. All types of creative expression feed my artistic, mental, and political thirst that every one intersect to encourage my filmmaking. Speculative fiction author Octavia Butler and her work with “Parable of the Sower,” to call simply one in all her books which have modified me. Again in 2015 I went again to her work, and it served as a North Star that allowed me to really feel fearless about endeavor our afrofuturist lens on Nikki Giovanni’s work for our movie, “Going To Mars.”
Edwidge Danticat and “The Farming of Bones,” that guide was a guidepost for my final characteristic, “Stateless,” as I struggled with growing a magical realist voice and engaged with my very own Haitian roots and the legacy of violence on our island.
I’m additionally in full awe on the layered work of visible artist Julie Mehretu and the way she engages with time and area – a real supply of inspiration for collapsing time in our work on”Going To Mars.”
Mayra Santos Febres and Saidiya Hartman feed my soul because the fierceness of their writings push me to problem how I have interaction with the legacy of the previous in my work — each private and political.
That is all to say that I can’t actually pinpoint a favourite something with regards to creative inspiration to create work. It comes from in all places and anyplace, and naturally Black and Brown ladies artists are on the middle of that supply of inspiration.
W&H: What, if any, tasks do you suppose storytellers need to confront the tumult on this planet, from the pandemic to the lack of abortion rights and systemic violence?
MS: I can solely converse for myself. I can solely hope that different storytellers dedicate their energies to the problems which might be necessary to them personally, whether or not or not it’s saving the universe or cooking. We are going to all profit from their tales.
W&H: The movie business has an extended historical past of underrepresenting folks of colour onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — damaging stereotypes. What actions do you suppose have to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world extra inclusive?
MS: For my non-BIPOC group members I might counsel that you just broaden your group and problem your assumptions and actions every day. For the remainder of us, we are going to proceed to do the identical: inform tales in regards to the folks and locations we love.
Supply: Women And Hollywood
