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

Hi Joey, thanks for joining us today. Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?

While living in Belgrade, Serbia in 2021-2022, I was making my first documentary film. I had only ever made other people’s films and this was the first time I was directing a film that I had developed. The film was about an all-girl Roma rap band. Their music was a mix of Romani and rap and they sang about women’s rights within the Roma community and Roma rights in the broader European community. Romani people have been an historically disenfranchised group across Europe and these girls and young women were activists and role models, not to mention they each had a unique personality and style, and a film about them was a no-brainer.

We had shot initial interviews and put together a short teaser and a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to travel with the band to Zagreb, Croatia where they competed in the equivalent of America’s Got Talent. We went over our goal and were getting a lot of positive buzz about the film. We also won the Al Jazeera award for best pitch at the Beldocs Documentary Film Festival.

But just as all these great things were happening for the film, the pieces began to fall apart. The band’s manager, a French philanthropist who funded them, refused to sign our contract. She demanded final cut approval, which every filmmaker knows is a deal breaker. We could not risk giving her that power. Funding and broadcast rights are often rescinded if the filmmaker does not have creative control. We tried working with her, giving her the rights to review cuts of the film, but without the language “final cut review,” she would not budge. She was also demanding some of our award money and a portion of any funding we received to make the film. Though we had offered to split any profits that came from the film’s release with the band and we had planned to pay the girls a stipend for their time, we could not agree to giving any funding monies to the manager or her organization.

I was heartbroken. Something I had worked so hard for over the course of a year and a half and about which I felt so good, was falling apart before my eyes.

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

I have over 20 years’ experience in documentary film and television, working on projects ranging in subjects from history to science to travel. I started my career as a production coordinator and associate producer for PBS on such esteemed shows as American Experience, NOVA and supervising producer on the series NOVA science Now.

Over the course of my career I have written and produced for the History Channel, National Geographic, CBS and the BBC. I have directed short films for non-profit organizations such as Mobility International and Emerge America and in 2017, I co-produced the Netflix Original documentary Seeing Allred.

In 2021, I began working on my first feature film, We Are Pretty Loud, about an all-girl Roma rap group from Serbia. After this film ran into legal problems and I moved back to Los Angeles in 2022, I began developing a film with my husband about a group of independent journalists. The film explores the fearless and unapologetic work of five prominent, independent journalists who lean left on the political spectrum, but are painted as right-wingers and conspiracy theorists by the establishment and corporate press.

I graduated from Smith College in Massachusetts and received my Master’s degree in Documentary Film Production at Emerson College in Boston. The daughter of a curious, world-traveling pediatrician, I grew up abroad – in the Middle East and England. I have worked, studied and traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia. My cross-cultural background gives me an international perspective, great adaptability and a passion to explore the world.

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

I see myself as a citizen of the world. Having been born to American parents in the UK and then moving around the Middle East during my childhood, I don’t feel a strong affinity with any specific culture or nation. I’m a little bit American and a little bit English, but not fully anything. This has both driven me and hindered me. The question “Where are you from?” is always a complicated one. And this has led me to have an intense curiosity about the world, constantly looking for ways to connect to others, to find commonality.

As such, my creative journey has been shaped by this desire to learn about the world and what better way than documentary filmmaking? I have a folder full of film pitches which gets bigger every time I discover a new country. I want to tell the stories of people who we might not otherwise encounter, because I feel learning about other people helps us understand ourselves and the world better.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I was crushed after coming to the realization that my documentary about the Roma rap band could not move forward. It was like losing a pet I had cared for and loved for 2 years. But I could only mope around and feel sorry for myself for so long with two small children to care for! And somehow I found the strength to get back up, take care of my family and find the next story to tell.

It helped that I found another story to tell. My husband and I had both become so disillusioned by what we were hearing on the mainstream media, especially the coverage of endless wars the US funds. We began reading the work of independent journalists who seemed to be doing a better job in telling a more complete version of events. Then we saw how those journalists were treated by the establishment, being smeared and censored, and we wanted to tell their stories. So, I suppose I have found some resilience and have thrown myself into the next project. It’s always a struggle to find financing and that’s where we are now. So hopefully, I will continue to find the resilience to go on!

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joey-jovanovich-0a85ba52/
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1744419/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1