We recently connected with Devin Jane Febbroriello and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Devin Jane thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I tend to think of everything in life unfolding in a spiral pattern, and my career is no exception. In many ways I think filmmaking might have an especially complex pattern of unexpected twists and turns, so it requires a lot of patience and stamina to enter this field. Within the path the learning never ends, I think it more so changes tone. The spiral symbolically represents the experience of a consistently evolving process of learning and growth in which similar realizations are passed by again, but within a new level of perspective that inspires fresh understanding. So there is a need for never ending curiosity and desire to learn, but also a need for a lot of openness and grace within the unknown. There is a structured machine-like quality to the production process that is extremely important for maintaining the story within the time and elements allotted. But, simultaneously there is an enchanting, ethereal, and numinous quality that sits within the core of it all. Proper respect for both aspects is equally important and learning how to negotiate the push and pull between these opposing forces is a skill that is developed through doing it… over and over, across many projects.

I think the most essential skill is strong listening and communication as well as astute emotional intelligence for understanding what draws out a compelling story/character, as well as the collaborative dynamics between co-workers. Having the ability to recognize the different layers of what is unfolding and needed in both the practical and poetic is connected to one’s ability to pay attention to both overt and delicate nuances of the work. You also need to have the capacity to come up with solutions within high pressure scenarios in a way that is supportive and generative to the common goal of the team. I think some people are naturally gifted with these skills, but I also believe they can be learned through practice. Every single project I have done has taught me valuable lessons that I have brought onto the next project. In this field you are consistently given opportunities to evolve and adjust your approach. I find this to be an absolutely gorgeous and intriguing aspect of the work.

The greatest obstacle to being a filmmaker is economic, and this is deeply connected to systemic inequities. The entire industry is built in a way that requires an incredible amount of time, energy, and funding to accomplish almost anything. Once you evolve into larger scale projects, that equation only goes up along with the pressure and stress. There are many artists working in the world that are independently wealthy. They therefore have access to more time, resources, and energy to do their work and are able to make high quality projects more efficiently and consistently. Although any artist can reach people with their work regardless of the budget (I 100% believe this is true) it can be tough to recognize that you are up against more resourced artists at every step of your career (fellowships, labs, festivals, jobs). One of my first films was made off of my measly tip money as a barista in Boston. But I was proud of the film and tried to submit it to my school’s awards program with the hopes that it might help launch my career. I soon discovered I was up against other student films that had been made on 100k budgets. My project didn’t stand a chance. Not because the other students bought their success, but because at the end of the day side by side those films stood out as significantly more award worthy than mine. This is because funding for a film affords a more professional team, better film equipment, and therefore (usually, but not always) a greater final work of art. However, you can still find your voice regardless of your economic situation. I made a choice early on to never let the uneven playing field stop me from pursuing my passion for filmmaking. I knew it might take me way longer than my peers with resources (spoiler alert, it has.), but I was determined to never give up. I have consistently worked many different production and non-production related jobs in order to afford the chance to keep going as a filmmaker. Admittedly, I have pushed myself in sometimes unhealthy ways to keep forward motion in my career while maintaining a live-able income. It’s not that I think it’s cool or noteworthy to suffer for one’s dreams, but it is the way the cards have been laid out for me on my path, and I have chosen to continue instead of fold. Overall, the industry doesn’t care how someone launches or sustains their career. The industry only sees the work made. The playing field is uneven and the odds might be stacked against you, but if you are a filmmaker in your heart and soul, you will need to work against the odds.

My personal experience facing the barriers of entry and sustainability in the film industry along with my lifelong passion for activism ignited my devotion to media specific activism. From my earliest female led production company to my work now with Desert Island Studios, I have always had a strong devotion to try my best to help shift the paradigm and support others in their path. I genuinely believe in the importance of arts role in society. I think it helps feed the soul of our culture, and I believe the nurturance and connection art provides is a necessity. Therefore, it must be generated through a multitude of identities, perspectives, and lived experiences in order to truly nurture. We cannot expereince the rich, vibrant, multicultural dream of America without all aspects of American culture represented in our art. So just as much as my personal passion as a filmmaker influences my path, I am equally devoted to supporting the emergence of a more diverse industry.

Devin Jane, 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 would like to share the story of how I went from barely graduating high school to getting into a top film school and starting my life’s work. I’ve always felt this particular detail of my life could help a young person struggling with their path feel a renewed sense of hope that it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

In my youth I was absolutely obsessed with the performing arts. All I cared about was singing, dancing, and acting. I grew up in a rural part of Connecticut on a beautiful landscape and had a lot of freedom to explore the wilderness. Much of my childhood was spent daydreaming, dancing, building secret forts in the woods, and crafting treasures out of local flowers and plants. I was fortunate to be raised in a family that could support my interests and I was enrolled in piano, dance, voice, and acting classes. In my late youth and early teens my family went through a series of challenges that sent me into a depression. At that time, I transitioned from being an extroverted child to becoming an introverted teen. I began to read a lot of books by philosophers, artists, rebels, activists… and my outlook on life expanded. I became interested in writing and visual art instead of performing art. Around this same time, the independent film scene was blossoming in a way that significantly influenced my life. In the mid to late 90’s I saw the films of Sophia Coppola, Michel Gondry, Spike Lee, Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, Wes Anderson, The Coen Brothers, Jim Jarmusch, Spike Jonze, Gus Van Sant (as well as their music videos). And I was incredibly moved by their work. These filmmakers had strong voices and a confident style that really intrigued me. It dawned on me that filmmaking was the culmination of every art form I had ever adored connected under one medium. Film quickly became my primary artistic interest, and I had the classic 90’s teen experience of getting my hands on a camcorder and making weird videos with my friends.

At this point, a sort of channel of ideas began to open in my mind’s eye and I found myself enchanted by film images, character details, story moments that flooded my psyche. That particular channel has never stopped since, and I follow it to this day. Many of my ideas for films have come from a “download” of a scene, character, or world that enchants and occupies my mind, and I build out the rest of the concept from that original inspiration (and the continued inspirations that drop in along the way). This aspect of my imagination is what eventually drew me to the David Lynch School of Cinematic Arts MFA program because David Lynch is the only filmmaker I’ve ever heard describe the enchantment of ideas the same way I experience them, and I wanted to be part of a school that embraced and amplified that aspect of consciousness and the creative spirit.

This 1990’s era of films and filmmakers plus the emergence of my mind constantly ideating films was a kick off point on my path. But, I was also terribly depressed with life and disgruntled with many aspects of the way our world systemically operated. So at this same time I was also very engaged in punk rock and political activism. Although I loved films and had ideas about them, I didn’t think I could actually be a filmmaker. I didn’t want to go to college because I believed it would only further my indoctrination into what I felt was a toxic and inequitable system. After I graduated high school, I worked in a lipstick tube factory, and then an inbound phone sales job at a printing press. I previously had jobs at a gas station, restaurants, Walmart, and Dunkin’ Donuts. I didn’t love the factory or restaurant work, and I realized it was contradictory to be employed by corporations I was trying to politically buck against. But, I had zero skills and wasn’t eligible for other opportunities. I knew I wanted to cultivate positive change in the world, but I was confused how to do it effectively. At this time I read the book “Culture Jam” by Kalle Lasn and awakened to a new level of understanding about the power of the media over the psyche. It was around this time that I realized choosing the medium of filmmaking could hold my passion as an artist and as an activist. I also contemplated and concluded that actively participating in society instead of attempting to disengage from society would be more effective in helping cultivate the change I hoped to see in the world. It’s not that I believed (then or now) that films are overly important in comparison to other lines of work, but the power of storytelling was something I was personally very moved by. Suddenly, I wanted to go to college and pursue filmmaking. But unfortunately, I was not eligible for college because my grades from high school were atrocious.

Along my path I have had the blessing of strange allies entering at peculiar times whose role was tiny in scope, but massive in impact. In my attempt to find a way forward, I went to a local branch of the University of Connecticut to talk to the admissions officer. She explained to me that I wouldn’t be accepted to Uconn because of my high school grades, but that I could attend as a non-matriculating student. She went on to explain that if I did very well in that first year, then I could apply for another college from there and that the new college would only look at my university grades. My entire high school record would become irrelevant. This seemed unbelievable. But this is exactly what I did. This one hour discussion with a kind woman who wanted to help me pursue my goals, completely changed my life. I attended one year at this branch of Uconn in Torrington Connecticut where I got a 4.0 average. I then applied for Emerson College and Suny Purchase. I got into both schools, Emerson for film, SUNY for liberal Arts. I honestly could not believe it. It felt like a golden ticket to a whole new life. And it was. I went to Emerson, and pretty much everything in my life changed after that. I was finally walking toward my path.

After graduating I moved to New York City and admittedly had some vague “American Dream” fantasy that I would just get onto sets and then someone would be like “you seem talented kid” and then somehow I would get opportunities that led to me becoming a filmmaker. That is 1000% not what happened. I worked for 7 years in the art department on a variety of films, commercials, and TV shows before realizing I had to completely change course or I would never become a filmmaker myself. I quit the art department completely and suddenly. I started a band with my partner (long live Seequill!), and got a job at my friend’s restaurant in Brooklyn (shout out to Kaz An Nou!). I still had no idea how to become a filmmaker, so I just floated for a while. I had been classically trained on 16 mm film at Emerson which was amazing and something that deeply informs my work to this day. But the cost of buying, shooting, and processing film felt completely out of my 20 something year old reach.

Ironically, around this same time the Canon 5D DSLR camera came onto the scene. Suddenly low income artists like myself had a tool that was accessible and a new possibility opened up. At the time, my band had become my main priority, and my band needed music videos. So I started to conceptualize and shoot music videos with my friends. I quickly learned I had no idea how to edit them. So, I learned how to edit. I had a hard time getting my friends to keep filming for lo/no budget, so I then learned how to film. In this same time period I made a very scrappy short film and got my first commercial client. Suddenly this thing that had seemed impossible had become possible, but on a very micro budget in which I was the writer/director/producer/camera/editor. I knew this was not very professional or sustainable, but it felt like the best shot I had to try to be the person I wanted to be in this world. So I started my own small production company called Serpent Power Productions which was named for overcoming fear and facing change and challenges (serpents represent transformation symbolically, and IRL I am pretty afraid of snakes!). This tenacity for facing my fears and diving straight into what makes me uncomfortable has been a driving force my entire career. I learned pretty early on that if I want to do something but I feel terrified… then that is all the more reason to do it.

In many ways I continue to learn that no one is going to invite me to my own life. I have to be the one to continue to invite myself.

This era was the true beginning of it all for me. The impossible was now possible and from that time onward I have been primarily a writer, director, and producer. But I still didn’t direct my first music video or commercial project until I was 27 years old. And I wouldn’t direct my first well paid professional commercial or music video until I was 29. Although I have made numerous ultra low budget short narrative and documentary films, I didn’t direct my first well budgeted professional short film until I was 38 (this is partially due to how the pandemic changed everything). And at this moment, I have no idea if I will direct the feature films I so deeply hope to make.

But, what I do know is… I am going to keep trying.

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

Throughout my career I have deeply desired a mentor. I always had this image in my mind of an older established filmmaker guiding me along the way. Someone I could call on when the going gets tough to offer sage advice. With this in mind, I have sought out as many opportunities as I could to gain a mentor, from cold emailing people, applying for shadow and mentor programs, to asking friends to introduce me to potential mentors etc. And after many years I realized that this was a fantasy concept and it was never going to happen. And furthermore, I recognized that it was causing a lack of pride in my own strength and resilience as the “lone wolf” I had been.

After some reflection I decided I needed to understand what was driving this desire for a mentor and then ultimately unlearn and rewrite my relationship to it. I began to consider how far I had come on my own and contemplated how the risks and challenges I’ve encountered along the way have actually been of great benefit to me. Instead of being “lost” perhaps I was exactly where I needed to be all along, learning the skills I could only learn because of the circumstance I found myself in. At this phase in my life I would describe my skill set as relatively advanced, and I imagine that as long as I am healthy and able to continue, opportunities are only going to expand from here. I would not have these hard earned skills without having gone on the exact path I went one. So instead of seeing my lack of mentorship as a deficit in my development as a filmmaker, I began to see it as a benefit. It is also one of the things that drew me to mentor others whenever I can. Not having the support I would have liked, has shown me how to effectively help up and coming filmmakers. I spend a lot of my free time doing that, and it brings me a lot of joy to help people excel more effortlessly on their path.

Lastly, letting go of my mentor fantasy opened me up to see just how many unexpected forces do provide mentorship. The artists I love and look up to, the museums or books that change my perspective, the wonderful conversations with friends, family, and my partner, the ways in which my collaborators and colleagues teach me so much about myself and my work. Even the land I live on, the plants in my garden, the birds that perch on the fence in my yard. There are mentors all around us all the time enriching our experiences and shining light on where to go and what to do next. We just have to be paying attention and remember that every moment of our life is an opportunity to expand our understanding of our lives, work, and relationships.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I am not sure if there truly is such a thing as a creative or a non creative. I think human beings are inherently creative creatures. We are co-creating basically everything around us all of the time. The creation and management of everything from a medical center, to the air travel system, and the real estate marketplace takes an insane amount of creative thinking to establish and maintain from my perspective. The concept of their being a cultural division between creative or not creative, is something that I think ultimately diminishes the value of all of our work. I think if we saw it more like different types of creations across all genres of humanity’s collective output that each inherently hold value, it would create a more integrated understanding of how our differing contributions positively impact society. There are positive and negative biases that get wrapped up in our idea about what is or isn’t creative. I think there can be this idea that artists are playing at a fun easy hobby while other people are working non-creative drudgery jobs. This sets up an unhealthy and untrue double standard. Making art at a professional level in any medium is not exactly fun. It is very hard work and requires an immense amount of focus, skill, and effort. On the flip side, I think diminishing other lines of work into something that does not require passion, creativity, and imagination is unfair and short sighted.

In this way, I encourage anyone who thinks they are a special “creative” to consider how their perspective potentially diminishes the power of their peers working in other professions and to also encourage anyone who lacks passion in their work to consider just how much of their inner vision and creativity is actually engaged in everything they do. I think if we can understand the immense creative potential of all people and celebrate that thoroughly within the wide variety of what we each bring to our collective experience, we would have a much greater chance at building a culture that better reflects the compassionate and care centered values that I believe we all share deep down.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.devinjane.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/devin_._jane_._/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devin-jane-febbroriello-63503aa7/
• Other: https://www.desertislandstudiospdx.com

Image Credits

Andi Hummel (the close up portrait of me with the rainbow on my face)