We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Fr3deR1cK Taylor a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Fr3deR1cK, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I ever had was a documentary about American history. The Southern Food Alliance was doing a series about food and culture. They wanted to focus on a specific time in history when people of color were not allowed to enter diners to eat.

This cultural black eye went on in the southern states until the mid 1960’s. If you were a person of color your were not allowed to eat at the counters in diners and five and dime stores.

Imagine today being told you can not enjoy your burger, fries and shake in a McDonald’s. Go eat behind the dumpster in the back! Impossible to think of but only a generation and a half ago it was normalized in America’s south.

My job was to tell that story from the perspective of the people and the laws (yes it was a law), it effected. Racial injustice in the south was not only shameful it deliberately embarrassed its victims.

I made a film called, Counter Histories: Rock Hill. It highlighted nine young men who lived in the deep south and their journey to unseat injustice. Their dignity and courage conquered the shame and embarrassment of being treated like second hand citizens.

With fearless commitment and non-violence they stood up to a socially bias system and won the hearts of Americans who supported the Constitution of America.

I made this project in 2016. Ten years have passed and the program has a greater sociological impact today. Its a film that celebrates the administrations of the past that wanted the best for all of the people of America.

In the face of today’s troubling times and inequality, the marginalization of freedom is what we fight for everyday. Our right to live consumes our very being. The film I made with the help of a diverse group of Americans stands as a testament to equity and inclusion. This is what America can really is, a platform for meaningful conversations, projects and lifestyles.

Fr3deR1cK, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My company Tomorrow Pictures is a fill service visual art and content creation organization. We tell story and we are inspired to solve problems in media.

The story is in the telling. As a client you may have or need a story and we can tell it. We can express your idea in multiple platforms, styles, genres, cultures and across genders.

We are a 21st century content company that has never lost its core creative values of the 20th century. We are the best of two centuries worth of creative problem solving and innovation.

Film, TV, commercials, music videos, social media, or micro drama we do it all. Events, art direction, graphic design or animation, we got you.

Non-profits are welcome and much as fortune 500 companies. We have produced for clients from New Delhi to New York and beyond. That beyond has taken us to Sub-Saharan Africa and Sao Paulo Brazil. From the political elite of Washington DC to the mean streets of WATTS California we get the job done, so ride with us.

We take pride in taking care of you the client. Our job is to put you in the best light.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My story of resilience is being written as I write this. The world is changing in ways no one expected.. Politically, economically and culturally. How can any of us keep up and keep our heads above water?

Is isolationism the answer? Is locking down boarders? Wars? Defunding the arts? Defending education? Healthcare? Sexism? Racism? Homophobia? Transphobia? Destroying the middleclass? Hate? Cheating? Lying?

None of these things will chamge the world for better but they are all effecting me as a content creator everyday. My ability to survive is being challenged every moment of everyday.

Should I give up? Quit and sell widgets at a tech company? Shine the shoes of the rich and powerful? Be thankful for whatever they give me?

Or do I fight on! Make the content that makes people think and feel. Tell the stories that move mountains. Share and change the world.

The face that I am writing this gives you an indication of my resilience.

I choose to fight. I’ll get back to you as soon as I win this round. The bell has rung for me and I must meet my journey in the center of the ring.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The lesson that I had to unlearn is that not everyone who says, They want to be a sailor,” can sail a ship, nor do they want to. Not everyone is cutn out to be a cowboy or an astronaut.

Fear in the hearts of some is real. people lie to themselves everyday. I can not afford to lie to myself and I have learned the hard way to evaluate that better in others. If you can’t get out of boot camp you can’t go to war!

I play for keeps and everyone around me must do so as well.

I can not expect everyone to take a punch the way i can. Not all people have grit. This journey is not for everyone. I came into the industry young, excited and innocent. I am now edgy, grizzled and rough.

You don’t get to pick daisies in the content business and I no longer take names.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://tomorrowpictures.com/
• Instagram: @Fr3deR1cK
• Facebook: @Fr3deR1cK
• Linkedin: @Fr3deR1cK
• Twitter: @Fr3deR1cK
• Youtube: @Fr3deR1cK
• Yelp: @Fr3deR1cK
• Soundcloud: @Fr3deR1cK
• Other: https://www.jones-foundation.org/
  http://tomorrowpictures.tv/
  https://www.pinterest.com/fr3der1ck/

Image Credits

Julietta Vergini
Lenny Rodgers
Angy Sheppard
Mona Schwab