Time really doesn’t wait for anyone. Can’t sit on your laurels. No settling for less. Working for myself is primary. I’ve had to work for somebody part time for 2 years now and I’m eager to move on. I’ve had 4 productions in 2023 that I completed for my clients back in Portland and that’s been great. My patience and effort in getting traction in this city WILL pay off. I’ve met interesting go-getters, business people, entrepreneurs, city government staff and so on. Even got a chance to shake our mayor’s hand and have a brief talk with him. He’s so charismatic. Smooth as aged Scotch Whiskey. I’ve learned the voting district lines regarding the state and it’s soooo racially based. But that’s a different story for different day.
I met another interesting person on the local Nextdoor app. He was posting short clips of his neighborhood of Ensley. It’s regarding the conditions of that neighborhood. He talked about the why and how these conditions set themselves through a variety of reasons…one being the post-steel production era. He talked about what Ensley can do to beautify itself. It’s basically just access and information. I PM’d him and told him how I admired what he’s doing (he seems to be the only person on the app showing how he cares about his surroundings) and how I could spruce up his production quality of his posts. I would do it pro-bono because I care about my surroundings too and want to be part of spreading the word. Something I discovered in Alabama (mainly the cities) is in poorer neighborhoods, the level of discarded trash is unreal. Another story for another day.
He wrote back: You don’t have to do this pro-bono. Come by my office and let’s talk. So I did (expeditiously). He has a beautiful facility smack in the middle of a redeveloping ‘downtown Ensley’. This man has single handedly put together a community uplift org that is doing more in a year than a mayor does in 1 term. This list of self-investment tools he’s giving to the community is vast. He’s starting in that particular neighborhood first and has a future goal to expand to others.I learned his back story and was amazed at how far he has come.
In this West End of Birmingham, you don’t get stories of triumph after reaching the lowest point of your life and growing up in family and physical trauma, to running a blossoming agency with a dedicated staff. Those are few.
After a few weeks of talking he asked me how I felt about making a documentary about him and I was like “I feel real good about that!”
I have my first video production for Alabama.
Six10 Visuals 