We recently connected with Dina Faye Gilmore and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Dina Faye, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
I have a company standard where the production team will not work over eight hours a day for filming rather in studio or on-location versus the industry standard overworking 12 to 16 hours every day. I believe I am at my best if each member of the crew are at their best by being well-rested, at home in time for dinner, more time spent with family, and encouraged to return home to recharge. This practice instills teamwork that fosters individual and collective physical and mental well-being. The entertainment industry is extremely demanding on most people in general. Women, minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community have significantly less opportunities with minimal representation. I love creating a team environment where equality, equity, female empowerment, and fun are foundational must-haves. The world has enough tearing people down, negativity, and hate or discrimination. I hope to leave a lasting impact in the entertainment industry that is part of the shift women deserve to experience and fully participate. I would love to collaborate with as many women as possible while we individually unleash our creative magic in partnership that cultivates a brighter world for ALL women.
Dina Faye, 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?
In my formative years, I learned exactly who I didn’t want to be. I grew up with an abusive biker gang father that left our mother to become a single mother with no financial assistance. I suppressed early childhood dreams due to lack of support, limitations, and negative programming. I overcame childhood abuse that taught me the power of healing from trauma, the true strength of seeking professional therapy and transformative courses for my own well-being. Trauma from my past became a journey for me into the healing industry in 1999. Growing up gay in the South was devastating and beyond challenging, so I moved to Colorado in 2012 to dismantle programming and thrive in a more accepting environment. I returned to college in 2018 to complete my only regret of not finishing my college degree. While attending my last couple of semesters in college, I uncovered and re-discovered my life-long storytelling translated perfectly into directing film projects. I love showcasing hard stories that need to be shared to elicit expanded thinking, challenge the viewer to awaken, and finding gold in a willingness to become better versions of ourselves. Late December 2019 of my last semester of college, I formed my own production company and retired from 20 years of massage therapy because it was time to invest in myself and take the leap of faith. In anything in life, I hope I am an example that you do not have to let circumstances define who you are and that you can reclaim your power. Bad things do happen to good people and you can learn to leave survival mode behind to grow and thrive in life. I am most proud of perseverance, persistence, becoming the director of my own life, and diving into my sea of dreams. My life goal is to leave a lasting impression of empowerment and the reason behind my company name, Empowerment Productions 33. Believing in myself and merging my healing with creative gifts are how I became an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, and photographer. All the things an eight-year-old girl dreamed, but never knew she could become–until now.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
I feel like I have always had a natural ability to lead teams because almost every job I have ever had has promoted me to a lead, trainer, or manager due to my directing style. I started working at a very young age and always gravitated toward being of service to people. I have found most people want to feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Human beings want to be seen, heard, know their voice matters, and what they are doing makes a difference. I bring a motherly-type presence that creates safe space for others to naturally be themselves, I encourage open communication, uniqueness of each person standing in their power, and build a project without bullying, egos, or hierarchy. Yes, we have titles for the project, but you don’t have a project without your people. If your surroundings feel safe and people feel heard, they thrive and come alive. We are creating art and that should be allowed to flow from the heart, not stifled by being worried or stressed because you didn’t get something right and have to answer to the big boss. Mistakes will happen, it is inevitable, so I prefer to learn and teach in the moment where we can all grow from the experience together. Keeping morale high is a gift of mine where I show gratitude, appreciation, and acknowledgement. I encourage each person to shine doing what they love, collaborating together, and feeling like a chosen family. A leader is only as good as their team, you can’t have one without the other, so creating a foundation of empowerment, inclusion, and appreciation sets the energetic tone for the ideal teamwork dynamic.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My goal is to live out my childhood dreams that I had suppressed due to programming, do what I love in the world of storytelling with filmmaking and screenwriting, being part of the underrepresentation for women, the LGBTQ+ community as an out lesbian…merging my creative and spiritual gifts to empower and inspire others. In taking my old ways, I rush in a new way of being as I continue to be of service, stay true to myself, and honor my original dreams. Part of my goal is being vulnerable, transparent, sharing my art and doing interviews because I want people that have ever heard “you’ll never make, you’re not good enough, or they can’t,” to understand those are not true statements. Those are lies we tell one another. Anything is possible, especially when you set your mind to it, take action toward your desired goals or dreams, and live life for you—that brings ultimate joy. I guess you could say a mission for me would be that everyone can see you don’t have to let your past become your future and to be encouraged to unravel their own truth. Living the life of the future you want for yourself begins by unpacking your past, dismantling outdated beliefs, and to believe in yourself. You can choose to return everything to love and love of self is the most essential part of being a human designed for growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.empowermentproductions33.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dfgilmore
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dina.gilmore/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dina-f-gilmore/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsZaKOO1gb9LcvVnf1tXT9A
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dfgilmore
Image Credits
Mystic Taxi images by Alexandra Gladsjo.