Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to KT FYR. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, KT thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

The For Your Reference podcast is a lot of fun and I enjoy having a creative outlet to discuss TV and film. We were encouraged by a fellow film podcaster to reach out to be added on publicity lists.

I reached out, and as anticipated, did not receive a response. We are an indie, two person operation so was not expecting to be accepted but was glad we put ourselves out there. Decided to try again a year and a half later and was accepted. It’s hard to know whether this was a matter of the point of contact or a timing thing but it all started to build for us from there.

A couple of months ago we landed our very first interview with Writer/Director Jordan Peele for the promotion of his blockbuster, NOPE. We were able to connect with Jordan and able to dig deep on themes such as Black Joy in a 5 minute interview, a true highlight for us.

After three and a half years of the podcast, we are on publicity lists for major film studios, media accreditation for events and giveaways. With each milestone, I started to feel more confident and assured in us taking up space in an industry that relies on safe, reliable voices.

KT, 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?

The For Your Reference podcast currently has 110+ Movie and 70+ TV reviews across all popular genres. Reviews cover releases from 15 different countries and spanning from 1930s – 2020s. In 2022, we also incorporated media accreditation, giveaway and interviews.

Being an Australian born Tongan and Kenyan couple, we offer a distinct voice in film criticism in the way we address real world issues explored through cinema. Despite being independent creators, we are proud of the achievements we have worked on so far. Especially as we do not shy away from difficult topics through global screens, including intersectionality in Black, Brown, Indigenous and Queer people. We understand that there is humanity behind characters, even through fantasy.

Interviews so far include: Writer/Director Jordan Peele for the promotion of NOPE, Author Boyah J. Farah on his memoir America Made me a Black Man, Comic Book Creator Scott Wilson on the launch of Indigiverse comics including first issue of Dark Heart, Broadway/Screen Actress Krystal Joy Brown and Writer/Director Tearepa Kahi & Artist/Leader Tame Iti for the promotion of MURU film.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

There is a conflict I feel in answering this and I love that.

Similar to reviewing film, there are components of is this good and/or is this important? The tricky thing about this is that it is all subjective. While we all might collectively agree that a film may be important, not all will enjoy and, further, support it. I feel the same about our podcast. There may be those that argue film is just art and has no place for politics – which I never understood especially when a film is covering real topics.

So refining it to those that love something, my advice is to support it. In this easily consumable, access at our fingertips, content generated age, it is easy to expect and perhaps demand endless content from content creators. However, all content creators put in a lot of work and effort (and in most cases are doing this on top of other responsibilities) whether it gets viral attention or not. If you love something, like and comment, If you learned something, follow and share. We exist in a shared digital space and going that extra step to show up and support really helps content creators. Also, if you have found information useful, make sure you source these creators too.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Our core audience is from the United States which is cool and could easily be explained that US is the biggest market for podcasts and also on the breadth of what we cover being from the US.

It is easy to be influenced by statistics and wanting to play it safe in covering what we know will be popular, but it is important to me that we explore humanity through film. Through the years we have covered films that reflect the experiences of Black, Brown, Indigenous and Queer people and still regularly chart in countries around the world on Apple Podcasts weekly.

All countries have their own specific issues and being born in Australia, my goal is to get to a point where we can have hard to talk about conversations on a mainstream platform.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://fyrpodcast.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foryourrefpod
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ForYourRefPod
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyL7Dty_Fik&list=PLoQHz6Rsp4dwtJT2vleh9dwDP0zs1-Xts