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

Ira, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

In 2018 I wrote a spec script for a movie title The Hebrew Queen centered around the biblical character Queen Esther. The inspiration to tell this story has its origins in my Jewish Practice. Each year, during the holiday of Purim, Jews all over the globe celebrate the story of Esther as an heroic ancient Jewish monarch. 2018 was the same year my daughter was born and knowing she would be raised Jewish and celebrate Purim yearly, I desired to create a version of the story she could connect to and of which she could be proud. In 2020, I revised the script and changed the title to Hadassah: Queen Esther. I hired an all-female crew and began filming the following year. Hadassah: Queen Esther, an artful, experimental take on the Queen Esther story, instantly became a hit at the Black Independent Web Series Awards in Memphis, TN where it won an award. Later, Hadassah aired on television, in the Indiana market, and then screened at the Gary International Film Festival. Finally, it made its West Coast premiere Oct 2022 at the Silicon Valley African Film Festival. The project is now archived at the Indiana University Black Cinema Archives. This film is so tied to my inner being for its relation to my Jewish Practice and is dear to me for its connection to my daughter. Casting Erreol D. Morgan as Hadassah Queen Esther stamped this story in the history of visual storytelling for being one of most powerful executions of the story to be lead by a Black actress.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began my production company in 2010 focused the dual goal of growing my commercial client content and producing films. BJYL Productions, produces promotional videos, commercials, organization narratives, short story docs. Our cinema division, IRA FILMS, produces short and feature length narrative films, short and feature length documentaries. We will soon expand to animated films and series content, which we previewed last year with the release of “Sandra’s Poem”. On the commercial end, I am very proud of the work we’ve done with organizations like the CAFE (Community Alliance for the Far Eastside), Crossroads AME Church of Indianapolis in 2023. In terms of the film division, three very important works come to mind, “Fortnightly”(2023), a documentary film we produced in partnership with Butler University supported by the Indiana Historical Society which spotlights Indiana’s oldest documented Black woman led bookclub; “Hadassah: Queen Esther” a short biblical experimental film centered around the biblical character Queen Esther, which will be featured at Butler University Feb 26, 2024; and finally “Promised Land as Proving Ground” (2024) a film produced with Conner Prairie which chronicles the creation of their new Black American exhibit by the same name.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to tell stories that challenge society and imagine the world as it could be. I also have deep passion for developing the next generation of young Black visual storytellers. For me that looks like meaningfully supporting young filmmakers projects, connecting them to resources and opportunities to expand and hone their craft. It also means supporting those artists in ways that keep them whole. The goal is creating outlets for them to feel uplifted and supported.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

With Hadassah: Queen Esther I hired an all female staff, including the marketing team. From the beginning, we were very intentional in marketing to young women, women of faith, women with interest in history and making inroads into the international market. We very successful in marketing in places like Nigeria, Ghana, Latin America, Uganda and Ethiopia. The film received positive responses in all of those markets and even resulted in a request to reproduce the story as a stage play on the island of Jamaica. Just one of the short clips we marketed online in those markets has to date nearly 150K views. I has so excited to receive message after message, email after email, to read comment after comment from those throughout the African diaspora raving about the Hadassah project.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.iramallory.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/irafilmmaker
• Facebook: Facebook.com/iramallory
• Twitter: twitter.com/irafilmmaker

Image Credits
Hadassah: Queen Esther movie poster image captured by Jay Goldz; Hadassah: Queen Esther movie stills credit IRA FILMS Sandra’s Poem stills credit IRA FILMS