We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joshua Afiriyie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Joshua, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
One of my more meaningful project was a short film I wrote and directed as my senior thesis at Temple University. The film was called “Simmer” and was largely autobiographical, as it drew from my experiences as an adolescent at a predominately white high school.
Making the film was very strenuous on my mental and emotional health, as I was exploring a lot of personal experiences and sharing those experiences with collaborators, classmates, and professors. Along the course of making the film, I realized my own high school experiences are largely influenced by the death of my father at the age of 13. Infusing the film with this particular emotional chord made the film much heavier and in turn much more meaningful.
At the very end of making this film, I came out with only one realization; I still miss my dad. I spent nine years pushing the grief down, but the body remembers. It always does. The only way out of my own disassociation was to feel everything I had locked away for years. It hurt. I cried a lot of tears and shed a lot of skin. I almost quit at every corner. But I didn’t. I made the thing.
It has unlocked so many beautiful things in my life, with all of the darkness too. I met my professor-turned mentor who inspired me to keep pursuing filmmaking. I was able to validate my own abilities and potential, something I’ve always struggled with. I grew closer relationships with my crew and cast while deepening my existing relationships. I learned a great many lessons in trust, communication, and faith.
Most importantly, my relationship with myself deepened. This experience taught me what I always want my art to be; therapy. I want it to a process of self-intimacy, of unravelling and healing. I shed so much skin only to reveal that which is unchanging within me. This, I believe, is invaluable.
Joshua, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My journey as an artist began the day I was born, as did all of us. We’re all artists in our own way! It’s expression took the form of creative writing first, then evolved into filmmaking which is my primary discipline. I chose the degree on a whim upon graduating high school and figured if all else fails I’ll default to screenwriting. My experiences in the concentration program at Temple University led me to believe I have a future in this discipline and that I could carve a path for myself as a writer-director. Since my time at Temple, I have directed over 10 short films, a trailer, the pilot for an episodic series, and two commercial campaigns for local businesses.
In 2021, I formed a film collective with my close friend and collaborator Tira Olkdari. Together under the name Babellion Studios we’ve produced countless podcasts and film-oriented content while organizing other peers & collaborators both short and long-form projects. Our focus is marginalized voices, particularly black and LGBTQ+ identities, with themes that spark conversation and hopefully become foundations for activism, learning, and expanding.
As a filmmaker, I find myself making things that stray far from what is real and known. Abstractions and surreality entice me. Anything that allows me to suggest, hint, elude, imagine. I say this, but at times I prefer making things as natural as it can get! Borderline-documentary with no tripods and long takes. In both extremes, there are a lot of exciting ways to pull on my actors and play with storytelling.
Most of all, my mission is to uncover stories and mythos from the black diaspora. My father is Ghanaian and my mother Jamaican, and while I regard myself as African-American, my multi-ethnic background has left me deeply curious about the roots of all African peoples. What stories have yet to be unearthed? What voices have not been framed yet? What mythos and secrets are tossed to the side in deference to more popular perspectives? Filmmakers are historians too! I feel it’s my duty to document and record experiences that both showcase and reveal new layers of black experience.
If anything sets me apart, it is my faith. I believe it is possible for my life to be an expression of my spirituality. To me, that it is an ever-evolving process of answering these three questions; who am I? why am I here? where am I going? My art can be a means for me to answer these questions. I believe it helps me not to center the wrong things in my work and adheres me to a bigger picture. There is great power in faith and belief. It can spur even the most cowardly into action. At times I am very cowardly, so I need something to move me!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
After graduating college, making films can be very intimidating due to a lack of resources and even collaborators. You’re figuring a lot of stuff out, you’re navigating unemployment/looking for work, and it’s a significant life transition! I made plans with my collective to begin a episodic series that would ideally be low-budget and easy to produce, but it turned out to be a more significant challenge than I had expected.
We shot the pilot in December of 2023 and planned to shoot the rest of the episodes in May/July of 2024. When April came around, my mental health significantly worsened. I was working as a full-time teaching artist and trying to balance that with film endeavors on top of taking care of myself and I fell apart! I couldn’t do it. We ended up having to postpone the series to 2025.
My creative team and I have reconvened since then and agreed to reshoot the entire series with a new lead and a more budget-friendly/wellness-friendly approach. It’s not the pivot I had imagined, but it became necessary and even exciting once we were able to craft a new plan for the series.
I think sustainability as an artist is an important conversation. If you’re doing it intentionally and putting yourself into what you do, there is emotional and mental labor being done. Taking care of yourself is the most important thing, across any discipline, endeavor, or area of life. If your mind and your heart are clear, it becomes so much easier to make creative decisions and continuously think outside the box.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I spoke about this earlier, but without a doubt, my spirituality is one of the major driving factors of my spiritual journey. Again, the questions; who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? I want to make my life a practice of answering these questions.
Art is a means for me to explore my interiority and even my subconscious. Bringing these things to light and giving it form and structure through filmmaking is a very rewarding and introspective process. I’m constantly getting themes and messages reflected back to me through my collaborators and through my actors. Everyone is translating my vision in different ways. It’s very fun!
Which I suppose is really the best thing about the approach I’ve chosen. It makes me happy and it’s tons of fun!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.afiriyiefilm.com
- Instagram: @babellionstudios
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-afiriyie-460a19230/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZev9kMVkABDzjSTM8x_GEw
Image Credits
Kent Ichikawa