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

Jana, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

It’s hard to pick the most meaningful one when talking about creative projects. I strongly believe that everything related to arts, culture, and storytelling is meaningful, inspiring, and significant by default. Especially theatre and filmmaking that have this unique, extraordinary power to make people feel and experience a wide range of emotions, provoke them to think and consider. So, I’d say that every single project I’ve been a part of is special to me. But to name an example, one of my first parts as an actress was a short documentary Touch at a Distance where I played a real person – a truly remarkable young woman and violinist who suffered a hearing loss but kept pursuing her career in music despite all the tremendous challenges. I can’t imagine anything more meaningful than telling stories like this one to the world. It shows that almost everything is possible if you are committed, and that even such a painful experience as deafness cannot stop you from becoming everything you want to, even a brilliant musician. Maybe, one day, it will inspire someone else going through similar struggles to not give up and follow every dream. As for my directing projects, I am currently working on a short film Once Upon a Time in Paris that follows a story of unexpectedly developing friendship between a young political refugee that has just been fired from her waitress job and an old homeless man who once used to be an icon in academic society but lost his position at the university, reputation, and will to live after a car accident. Both try to deal with all the horrors of the past and find the strength to get their lives back. With this story, I hope to inspire people who got to the point of giving up to give their aspirations, dreams, and chances for a happy life another shot.

Jana, 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 grew up acting in school theater, and when I went to university in the United Kingdom, I immediately found myself spending most of my free time on auditions, fringe theater stage, and short films set. There, I was lucky to become a part of a few illustriously inspiring projects aimed at raising awareness of disabilities, motivating people with tough conditions to fight for the life they want to have, and telling the stories aimed at educating and inspiring rather that merely entertaining the audience. A few years later, when being stuck in four walls during the COVID-19 pandemic, I started developing an interest in screenwriting, as well as learning the basics of directing through online courses, and at the same time enrolled to a master’s program in communication. In 2021, I directed my first short film. And that’s where the real fun started. There is a common expression: “every film production has problems”. So, I’d claim with 99,9% certainly that we’ve had literally all kinds of problems with ours that exist. Every mistake that aspiring filmmakers make in the beginning – I’ve made it, on every stage of production from planning to video editing. And I’d say it was a real gift. By fixing all of my mistakes I’ve learned more in a year than I would learn in a decade of easy projects. I’ve learned how to avoid the common pitfalls, how to deal with them if they are not quite avoidable, and how to find creative solutions to problems and challenges that at first seem daunting. The final turning point for me became my post-master’s internship at UNESCO where I’ve had a chance to take part in communication campaigns directed at preserving cultural heritage and biodiversity, fighting for equal rights for education, raising awareness of global issues. Somehow, all the experiences that I’ve had in my life came together, and I realized that I want to dedicate my career to making films capable of inspiring people to take action to address problems, whether their own or global ones.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

First of all, providing more financing opportunities for the creative sector. There are way too many projects that could have had significant value but never came to life due to budget shortages, and way too many creative professionals who spent the first decade of their careers working for an idea. Creative job is still a full-time job requiring hard work, outstanding professionalism, commitment and dedication, and as such, it must be decently paid for. It would also help to have more types of professional unions for every specific creative sector. For instance, as great as SAG is for senior actors and directors, many young filmmakers interested in taking part in both studios-initiated and independent projects find it too limiting, as in order to become a part of this union you have to give up some part of your creative freedom – you are not allowed to take part in a non-SAG project even if it happened to be a chance to play your dream role, or the only well-paid employment opportunity in a couple of months. You basically have to choose between having certain level of protection from the union and being free to choose which projects you want to take part in. I believe having more union options would be a solution.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The power of networking. Filmmaking is a team work, and yet so many aspiring actors, directors, and screenwriters spend years struggling on their own before finding communities of peers they enjoy working with. When you build a network, you have a chance to make your own projects with people you trust and know you are a good team with, as well as a chance to be invited to someone else’s project, ask for help or advice whenever you need it, and just enjoy belonging to a group of people sharing your passions, aspirations, and dreams.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jana_tombu/
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/p9VerN8i1W8?si=hutrpkp4x-DgZj5I