We recently connected with Jason Woods and have shared our conversation below.

Jason, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

For someone like me who comes from the indie world, we put on a multitude of hats in order to a project to get made. Whether you are the one who is conceptualizing the script or the shoot, or the one shooting said project, to even editing and distributing — you’re involved with all aspects of it to see it through. It can be hard to understand what I really do, because I do many things. For set life on other projects, I find it hard to just stick with one position because I can do multiple — I am a jack of most trades. Master of none, right now.

Jason, 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?

Hello everyone, my name Is Jason Woods and I am a Louisiana-based creative. My primary focus is filmmaking but I have previously helmed a photography company, which is part of my brand – SisuStudios. My current brand in terms of my work is “Black Queer Realness.” It reflects my desire of normalizing Black queer life, which is a queer as as the water we breathe. I’ve been in filmmaking for roughly 6 years now, and have done photography for about a decade now. I got into this creative industry because I feel like I have so much to say and so much art to create that reflects my life. While I still do photography from time to time, I am mostly a filmmaker now. My focusses as a filmmaker are to direct, write, and produce independent projects. I am still a newbie to the industry even with how long I’ve been doing it, so it is always fun to learn new things. The project I am most proud of is my short film “Broken Boy” which deals with sexual assaults within the Black queer community, especially when it comes to Black men. It took alot of community and leaning on my film family to get that made. That one I am really proud of. I want people who come across my work to feel like they can relate characters that they see across the screen, on a billboard, or fashion magazine despite them not looking like them.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part is definitely being recognized for your work. Not necessarily being praised — while can be nice, can be taken as “I am God’s gift to filmmaking” which is not the point I want to make. We all deserve to be recognized for the work that we put out, for the art we create. We all deserve to feel good about that. For example, there was a film festival that happened recently where “Broken Boy” was shown and there was so much love and support for me and the other filmmakers there — 4 years after I made the short, mind you. That felt really good to have people still resonate with the film after all these years. So, the recognition and the community you can foster through filmmaking.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I’m not sure of the goal, but definitely the mission is to have more Black and queer representation in media, whether we are clean-cut and the dominant culture’s definition of the term “normal” or as messy and unadulterated and flawed characters that many of us as people ACTUALLY are. If my work is someone’s reason to keep going and to pursue filmmaking as well, I could call my career a success.

Image Credits
Nicolas Griffith Media Kristi J Woodard