We recently connected with Lakisha Ginyard Louissaint and have shared our conversation below.

Lakisha, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

As a visual learner, it’s fairly easy for me to observe, learn, & execute the task before me to the best of my ability; however, knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t have been in such a rush. I would have studied a little more. I would have waited until I had the budget needed to avoid the overwhelming stress that I experienced to find budget to film & feed my cast & crew each time we filmed. But the love for becoming a director & producer had a tight grip on me. So, I pushed through it all. I think my love for film & being a visual learner was essential in this pocess because if I had to go to school for it, I would have given up before I started.

I think the thing that was most challenging for me was navigating finding budget & caring for my twenty-two year old son diagnosed with Autism as well as what he was going through all while making sure my cast & my crew were okay. Oh, and even making sure that I was okay in the midst of it all.

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

I’m a forty-five year old mother of two who has always had a love for film & a darn good story line. I started off as an author with a love to share the beautiful stories that danced to their own tunes in my head.

Once my novel flopped, I refused to give up on the story line & decided to make it a movie. I named it No Perfect Love ( Coming in 2023 TBA) The thought of writing, directing, & producing my first film birthed my production company Film By Faith Productions LLC. And there you have it, a forty-five year old woman with a GED, Associates Degree, & Bachelors Degree who was/is determined to never give up or allow setbacks determine my future.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Never allow yourself to make or find excuses to not pursue your God given dreams. There were many obstacles that should have made me give up & believe me, I was almost there on many occasions, but my children, especially my twenty-two year old son diagnosed with Autism needed me. And my oldest son needed to see my resilience even while I was in the midst of trials that truly tested my patience & my faith.

But I was so blessed with such an amazing cast who all played beautiful roles in getting me through this process. They made the film. DeShon Green, Sean Freeman, Naporshia Jackson, Kevin Jamaal Jordan, Tamara Lashay Fleming, Latisha Woods, Darnaya Martin, Darante Martin, Yannis Wheatley, Shamaka Mobley, & Paige Thompson all played major roles in my journey as a director & they did not disappoint me. They actually made my job easy.

So, no matter what you go through, even when it’s hard, be determined to push through!!!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Oh yes. There were so many things that people said required industry standards, but listen, I used what was in front of me & that was Microsoft Word & it got me through writing my script. It’s so important to use what’s in front of you. Doing so takes away the excuses designed to keep you from moving forward.

When it came to budget, I wish I had access to grants because the filming & post production of No Perfect Love put me in a very very bad financial place even with the donations received. But I am so grateful for for the people that not only believed in me, but trusted me to complete the vision that I presented to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.IamLakisha.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/IamLakishaL

Image Credits
Image & Still Shot Credits: Lakisha Ginyard Louissaint