We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amina Bahy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amina, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

From then on, I decided to take on Production Design crew positions and have successfully completed those projects with the knowledge I gained from Dowon. If I never took that project, and opened myself up to that experience, I don’t think I would’ve pursued Production Design in my later projects.

That set experience made me realize what creating a ‘family’ on set means. I understood how close you can get with your creative coworkers, even if it was only for a few weeks. I’ll forever cherish that experience.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

 I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. This is where I first began filmmaking. When I was a child, I would recreate movies with my Barbie and Bratz dolls using my dad’s old flip camera and his old MacBook Pro. I would recreate movies like “The Wizard of Oz”, “Death Becomes Her”, and even episodes of “Hannah Montana”. For the Wizard of Oz ‘masterpiece’ I created, I used almost a hundred sheets of white paper and colored yellow bricks on them. I plastered these papers all over my house which led from room to room. I handled my dad’s giant laptop, acting as a steadicam, moving through my amateur set design. I never learned how to make ‘cuts’ so my nine year old self would use my hand to cover the camera, reset the next scene, take my hand off the camera and continue filming. I remember thinking I finally understood how to make movies. Eventually, I discovered what an editing software was, but that took a couple years. From the ages fourteen to seventeen, I attended an acting camp every summer where we’d make a film and receive IMDB credit for our work. My acting coach at the time, Sara Woods, led this program and introduced me to the art of acting. From that first summer, I fell in love with acting.

During my high school years, I joined my school’s film program that consisted of classes that covered different parts of the industry such as broadcast journalism and theatrical filmmaking.

When I got to college, I made friends, who are my close friends to this day, at my school and we continued to create projects throughout the years. In the midst of all of this, I was granted multiple opportunities, thanks to my uncle (Tom Donatelli) who is a director of photography in the business. He opened me up to many different jobs which led to some great contacts that helped nurture my on-set experience. From then on, I continued networking and am, now, a part of a production company called “FreeRealm Productions” and we’ve produced a plethora of commercials, music videos, short narratives etc.

My DJ career came about recently. My love for electronic music grew from the music festivals I attended during my late teens to my early 20’s. I decided to fulfill that passion and purchased an industry-standard DJ controller and a music production software. So far, I’ve been DJing parties, but I’m currently working towards bigger gigs with the connections I’ve met through those previous opportunities. This new love of mine crept up on me slowly. I remember playing around with friends’ controllers & their software, in the past, but I never dedicated time and money to it. By doing so, and solidifying my skills, I’ve realized this is the most exciting and therapeutic hobby. I’ve played the piano my entire life and have always surrounded myself with music, and have used music as a branch of therapy. But, dipping into the production of music and mixing it is just way more fun than I ever could’ve thought. I’m so happy I’ve found this new side of myself and I can’t wait to share, soon, what I’ve been working on!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is always being a student. I believe there’s never a definitive destination when it comes to honing your craft. The lessons an artist learns doesn’t need to stay confined in the realms of a chosen art, but must expand to all areas of knowledge. When I take a foreign literature class, visit a new city, or even immerse myself in different cultural events, I feel my artistic range stretching wider.

I think the greatest artists are scholastically brilliant. My goal in art is to avoid small, comfortable spaces. When I’m working on my craft or simply living my day-to-day life, my goal is to remain as hermeneutic as I can. If there’s a job I don’t think I can do, or a skill I don’t think I can master, I want to continue to have the courage to conquer the unknown. That is the greatest part of being a creative.

There is always more to learn. There is always more growth to be done. You can always be greater.

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

One lesson I had to unlearn is my fear of being perceived. My biggest mental block was a fear of judgment from anyone who would watch my work. For example, I would stress strangers liking me, hating me, thinking I’m talented/untalented etc. This used to stop me from taking jobs and even trying my best while on a job. What I later realized is…

The feeling that other people could have control over what I know makes me happy, is a worse feeling than refraining from my true artistic expression. Every time I’ve succumbed to that part of myself, I wasn’t able to sense the presence of my life’s purpose in me. I’d feel uncomfortable, angry and sad that I didn’t have agency over my own life. Once I applied shamelessness in my artistic expression, I realized that pursuing a career in the arts takes courage and that I’m not a person who can’t not pursue what I truly love. Everytime I think of a life without art, I fall into a dark hole of hopelessness. I’ve learned that a hypothesized, external perception of yourself is never an accurate representation of what’s ‘really happening’. You will never uncover what is ‘really happening’ because you will always receive information through the complicated filters of your mind (an unfathomable part of humans). If that’s true, the only part of that equation you have control over is your conscious self. Therefore, I will choose to make my conscious self happy by ignoring what’s out of my control and living my life moment by moment.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @aminabahy

Image Credits
@marioriverax @quragalley @vanni_2020 @kreedii02