We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christian Jacob Ramón. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christian Jacob below.

Alright, Christian Jacob thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I had always known that I wanted to be some type of creative professional in the film industry, but I felt very lost and unsure about how I could get started. When I first moved to Austin, my options felt limited, my network was small, and I was even on the verge of reconsidering my career path entirely.

But then, I was lucky enough to land a semester-long internship at Austin Film Society, where I was exposed to an incredibly robust film industry. It really turned my whole perspective around, and solidified my desire to have a full-time career in this field.

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’m a filmmaker and educator, proudly hailing from the Rio Grande Valley. After receiving my BA in Film Studies and Creative Writing from Columbia University, I moved down from NYC to Austin start my career, where I came across Austin Film Society (AFS), a nonprofit where I’m now lucky enough to be working.
If I were to describe my current work in a nutshell, it would be that I get the privilege of helping emerging creatives find work in the film and creative media industry. I’m the Program Manager of Community Education at AFS, where I’m part of a team that manages a workforce development program called “Creative Careers”. This is program meant for people who are 18+ and want to get their foot in the door in the film and creative media industry, and who are looking to join the professional creative workforce.

It’s a program with three different pathways (two of which are stipend-paid), and offers all types of trainings, practical workshops, professional development sessions, networking opportunities, and resources. I even teach a workshop for our participants called “The Creative Hustle: Navigating a Career in the Film & Creative Media Industry” where we go over the foundations of creative career strategizing, best networking practices, optimizing your job search to align with your strengths, values, and goals, and more. I also lead Career Counseling for our participants, helping them with refining their professional materials (resume, portfolios, etc), building an action plan by mapping out their goals with steps and deadlines, and introducing resources and tools to help them on their professional journey.

It’s incredibly rewarding to be working through this program, because you really see our participants’ eyes light up when they learn a new skill, or are exposed to the career possibilities that are out there. They leave the program knowing that a sustainable and fulfilling creative career is actually very possible for them to have here in Texas without having to move to LA or New York, which is very exciting! We hear back from alumni all the time who have landed their first gig, started their own business, done their first project, or landed their first full-time job in the industry. I’m very proud of the work we do at AFS, where Creative Careers is actually one of many programs that we offer for the film community in Austin and for Texas at large.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

As any filmmaker will tell you, your real education with making films is by making films. The challenge is that access to equipment, space, and resources can be quite expensive and inaccessible, especially if you don’t come from an educational institution with a formal film production program.

When I first moved to Austin, I was amazed to learn about AFS’s “Producer Program”, which is run through our Austin Public facility in East Austin, and is a resource for community members to get access to low-cost training on professional film production resources (including cameras, audio gear, lighting gear, grip gear, studios, edit spaces, etc), and to utilize our public access channels for content distribution. I encourage anybody curious about this resource to check out AFS’s website (austinfilm.org).

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

1, Creating more diverse, more frequent, and more accessible spaces where artists and creatives can meet each other. That’s really where the magic happens. Creative careers are built on relationships, especially in the film & creative media industry. The more opportunities that are out there to meet other creatives—whether through a festival, a mixer, a collaborative program—the better.

2. The creation and funding of workforce development programs (like Creative Careers) across a variety of disciplines, which directly contributes to the local and statewide creative ecosystem by training local talent for career readiness. Not only does this increase incentives to keep creative careers local, but it contributes to a more vibrant and flourishing creative ecosystem.

3. Tracking regional creative workforce data. Having metrics that can directly trace economic impact of the creative workforce can be an indispensable guidepost for society. AFS’s Director of Community Education, Rakeda Ervin, will actually will be participating in a panel at SXSW EDU about this very subject, which I’d encourage anyone attending the conference to check out! https://schedule.sxswedu.com/2024/events/PP139812

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @christianjacobramon
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-jacob-ramón-3b8969201/

Image Credits
Heather Leah Kennedy and Yvonne Uwah.