We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alix Jean-Francois a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alix, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

Most important lesson I have learned is to create for yourself. It doesn’t matter what others think of your work, because you will always feel a particular way about your own work. Some of us can’t look at our own work without being overly critical of it. Look at it objectively, in terms of what was done right and what was done wrong, or could have been improved and move on.

20 years ago as an actor, I auditioned for a part in a film with a local producer introduced to me by my management company. I saw a one man operation and offered him help. He walked me through his budget, his casting process and the particulars of producing. As a progressive artist, I had set my sights on writing an independent feature script.

As I showed this producer my first work, though he wasn’t overly critical, I could not help but notice the passive aggressive remarks and veiled insults. His final insult was to allow me to read the entire script he had written. As he put it, “I’ll let you read a REAL script.” I have enough confidence in myself to let these useless critiques roll off my back as if they were nothing, because I have no use for them. They do not help me learn or improve, and someone with my best interest at heart would not throw veiled insults at me. So, I ignored him and set to my goal of learning.

I was curious as week after week, actors were auditioning and lauding his great masterful blockbuster.
To my disappointment, it was the worst piece of trash I had ever read. As stated week after week, everyone applauded this great, well written screenplay. One day another actor I had worked with came and auditioned. I hadn’t seen him in months, but we acted on an independent film together and I respected his talent. As he was leaving, I walked him out and said, “Eddie, what did you think of this script?” His reply was, “Oh that’s the worst piece of garbage I’ve ever read.” I then asked him, why is everyone telling him it’s so great? His reply was simple. “We’re actors. We want to work.”

Though I appreciate the compliments and the great support of my peers, audiences and film festival awards, I am always careful not to get a swelled head. The only opinion I can be sure of is how I feel about my own work.

Alix, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the last of 8 children. We were always raised to be strong confident and independent. We were taught not to give up, but find solutions or move on if a problem had no reasonable solution.

I started on this path as a medical student. I had married young and the marriage had fallen apart. One day driving in the snow, I gave my neighbor and her daughter a ride to her families house for the holidays. The baby, 2 years old, fell asleep in the back of the car. As I picked her up to carry her, that was it, it was a wrap. I was in love with this baby.

As time went on I eventually went from “Alix” to “Step dad” to “Daddy”. It was during this time of bonding, the child’s mother who was on public assistance, was being evicted for back rent. I took the first job I could find in the Want Ads, “Be an actor in background film.” It was per diem, I would work on and off earning about $100 per day.

I enjoyed earning money, but eventually got tired of walking back and forth in the background, unnoticed, being treated as a second class citizen because I did not have union status. It was on the set of Peacemaker (The George Clooney film, I met John Trapani who invited me to do back box theater. We started with small one act plays, eventually. I started producing one acts then writing and entering theater festivals.

It was during this period I realized it’s hard to keep actors committed at this level as a theater company with no pay. So a friend suggested, put them on film. It’s a quick 3 week to 4 month commitment. So I started buying equipment, renting equipment and writing. Our first Venture, Love’s Sweet Thing won Honorable mention and an Official Selection in the Women of Color Film Festival and African Diaspora Film Festival respectively.

As I had partnered with two other filmmakers who were younger than me by 15 years, it became a full time job reigning in the egos. I would always tell them, “We’re big fish in a small pond, there’s a whole ocean out there.” At that time, we were working long hours on our second project, “Outlawz: The Ronin. Eventually the egos and pride got in the way and one by one they left and Black Phoenix Productions (our film company) was no more and the project suffered poorly.

As a one man operation I did small projects here and there, nothing of notice until 2020, that was the year of COVID. I was bored and remembered someone once saying, the word for crisis in Chinese is the same as opportunity. So I stocked up on film equipment, contacted a new group of actors through Backstage and created a short action film, “Outlawz 2: The Kage Ashi. I cast the most beautiful amazing actress Hiroko Yonekura, as the action lead. She is supportive, intelligent, talented, she carried the film. There were times when I was tired, she’d be there working with me until 3-4AM in the morning with an energy and strength that would allow me to catch my second wind. Once edited and completed we entered “The Kage Ashi” in multiple film festivals and garnered a 12 award winning streak.

Not messing with a winning formula, I continued creating short Action films under the d.b.a. O.M.A.C. Films (One Man Army Corp films) and continued the short action film festival winning streak. What made us different is that we are a film company with a family relationship like a theater company. Aside from just creating, we go out together, invite each other to functions, promote each other, come back for the next project and create some more. Everyone has input into the script, the direction, even the editing. Each cast member owns a piece of the film.

I’m not a proud man, I am happy and content. There comes a point in life you realize, you don’t have to seek anyone’s approval. 200,000 actors in NY and LA, all doing the same thing and no one getting anywhere. So it’s important to think outside the box, do your own thing and have fun while doing it.

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

My mission in my creative journey is to have fun. I get that everyone wants fame and fortune and to be a big star, but all that is possible now with Youtube and Social media, but what good is all of that when you don’t enjoy it?

The mission is to have fun, enjoy what you do, wake up and want to go to work. If your goal is to have fun, you will find ways to contribute and learn and grow in the mission. The beauty of this is, no one can take it away from you.

People will promise you things, you will meet a lot of influential people, but keep in mind if you you’re already having a good time, what can these people do for you? They promise work, they promise connections, but if they haven’t done it already for you without you asking, they either can’t or won’t do anything for you. Become self sufficient, so they will need you just as much as you need them.

If you run into an obstacle, you can’t get in through the front door, be creative, think find that side door or window. To join the Union I was told, either get waivers or under-fives. Yes, it is a long arduous journey to get these things, or you can get together with friends, produce a short film under a union contract, pay the contributions and become self-eligible and join immediately.

Thinking outside the box in a creative field should come naturally.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As performers, we are people pleasers. We crave the approval and adulation of others. We must learn never to make ourselves smaller so that others can feel bigger, or more important.

Find your balance, be confident in your abilities. To paraphrase one of my favorite quotes,
“live by choice, not by chance,
be motivated, not manipulated,
be useful, not used,
excel, not compete.
Choose to do the things that others won’t, so you can continue to do the things they can’t.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://omacfilms.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/khem.benu
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554970856437
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alix-jean-francois-6a546a8/
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@INdie718
• Other: https://nyfilmmakersawards.com

  https://channelstore..roku.com/details/bccb40c4b130019564f238fc995adce1/indie-film-makers

Image Credits

Alix Jean-Francois
Hiroko Yonekura
Mala Calero
Rachel Ma
Dawn Vicknair