We recently connected with Wynter Rhys and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Wynter thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Serving the underserved is an aspect of filmmaking and storytelling that I live for, and I surround myself with and work with people who live for it, too. Serving the underserved can look like a lot of different things, and sometimes, being heard and having your story told is one aspect of this that I believe should never go overlooked. Many, many people and communities have stories that are left in the margins.

I was born with Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare and painful disease and disability that causes severe burns and blisters on the bottoms of my feet from nothing other than normal, everyday movement. Because of this, I spend a large portion of my life in crutches or a wheelchair. Many major institutions are looking into gene therapy, stem cell transplantation, skin grafts – but there is currently no cure, and probably won’t be for a long time.

Many people don’t see me on my worst days, because when you’re in that much pain, the last thing you want to do is leave the house – and most of the time, you truly, physically cannot, no matter how badly you want to. It is excruciating, and isolating.

Few things are less isolating than being heard.

I believe your story told is the poison to crippling loneliness. It gives someone the chance to say, this is what it is like being disabled. This is what it’s like being Black. This is what it’s like being Indigenous. This is what it’s like being unhoused. This is what it’s like being incarcerated. The list goes on.

I just recently wrapped a documentary project I co-directed with my long-term collaborator Atuanya Priester. It tells the story of Jaebadiah Gardner and the violent murder of a pioneer in the Black community – his grandmother. It also sheds light on the millions and millions of unhoused and homeless children in America alone. If a film can allow the viewers to step into someone else’s shoes – even for a second – I believe there is immense power in that. It can even breed change outside of using video as a tool to raise money – it can cause people to remember someone’s pain, the gravity of it, long after the credits roll.

And it’s not just about who’s in front of the camera – it’s also about who’s behind it. It’s about hiring talented adults and kids who may not have the opportunity to work on a film set otherwise. I work with shelters and other places to find individuals passionate about storytelling.

I know what it feels like to have a wall between you and your dreams – you can see right over the edge to the other side, but you can’t reach it. I refuse to do that to others. That has been my mission, and will continue to be my mission, as my career continues to grow.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a director, editor, writer, creative consultant and subject matter expert with over a decade of experience in each.

It all began when I was a little girl, and my grandma let me use her camera for a few hours. It was the first time I had ever held one. She said, “the camera sees things the eyes cannot.” This struck me. I fell in love immediately, but was unsatisfied that the pictures didn’t move. From then on, I made it my mission to take the moving pictures in my mind and turn them into reality. Film was also freedom for me – when I’m not able to move, I can still make pictures move. I may not be able to run, but I can run a set. Visual storytelling became the hero that spit in the face of my disability and gave me hope that I could bring something to the world that would benefit others – something much larger than me alone.

The first short film I made ended up screening at the Bill and Melinda Gates talent show when I was fourteen. It was my first time seeing something I made on a large screen – not just inside, but also on a billboard outside of the building. I absolutely froze on stage, though. Promised myself I wouldn’t do that again, and I’ve kept that promise thus far.

What sets me apart is my comfort with discomfort. I’m passionate about tackling really difficult subjects, and that takes equal parts bravery and care. I feel that film is the cousin of journalism, if not the twin, and that I have a responsibility to highlight things that need to be addressed, no matter how painful it can be to address them.

One of the latest projects I worked on was The Clotilda Project with the Smithsonian Museum, Africatown and Visit Alabama. I served as a storytelling lead, historical advocate and lead writer, conducting interviews with the descendants of the survivors from that horrible chapter in Yoruba memory, while honoring those who could not live to tell their truth. It was a project about reconciliation, but it was also a project about abduction, slavery, and the horrific underbelly of Antebellum America and its ongoing terror.

I have been called “an entire writers room inside of one person.” I aim to get inside people’s minds – their world and their characters, if it is fiction; or the ugliest details of the story they want to tell, if it’s documentary. Whatever it is, it becomes real to me, realer than my own life, and stays that way until the project is done. I see myself as a vessel – it’s my job to channel the stories of the communities I serve in a way that gets everyone watching to pay attention. Having hyperphantasia helps – when I create a pitch deck or a storyboard, the final product looks nearly identical to the plan. Of course, film is also about being able to throw parts of the plan out at a moment’s notice – to pivot, to adapt. Thinking on my feet is a huge part of what makes my directing work so strong – balancing a hyper realistic imagination with the ability to create something new or problem solve in real time.

Film is surprisingly social work, from start to finish. Not only do you pitch to clients, but you also need to develop trust with everyone involved, in every phase. Getting people to open up on camera is not easy, but it’s a process that never gets old. It is always an honor to see a human being make the choice to let me in, and one that I never take for granted.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn being timid, and I had to unlearn it in the middle of my career. When I was first starting, I had this very remarkable fearlessness and drive to push for the specific vision, which is exactly the mentality that created memorable work with a distinct visual style – one that persevered across many different teams and projects. I was, for lack of a better term, relentless. Somewhere along the way, I remembered I was a woman, and internalized all of the ways I had been told to act like one. It did not happen overnight. Little by little, I found myself letting things slide. I stopped speaking up. I compromised – not collaborated, the key to any team-based discipline – but compromised on the vision, the goal, and what I knew was going to work. I began to feel this apologetic energy festering in me. What was I sorry for, exactly? Standing my ground? Being assertive? Taking up space? Doing my job? It dawned on me I was allowing society to silence me, and turn me into something I always promised I would never be. Now, I advocate for all people – but especially women – to have an unshakable faith in their talents, to take calculated risks, and to never let anyone walk over your vision, talk over your sentences, or undermine your level of experience and skill.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Not to idealize humanity’s past – as a history nerd and a passionate documentary maker, I am no stranger to the horrors human beings have done and continue to do to each other. However, I feel the modern world has grown distant from the concept of trade work, hyper-specific specialization in a much-needed niche. There is someone who bakes, there is someone who welds, there is someone who writes poems, there is healers, both physical and emotional. I believe this ghost of eons past is the key to managing teams.

The first thing I do is take a look at everyone’s talents and weaknesses, including my own, and proceed accordingly. When everyone on a team can focus on exactly the aspects they excel in, while having their blind spots covered on all sides, that is when the magic truly happens. I do not think those in leadership roles must act as if we are in a classroom, stopping the impulsive child from raising their hand while trying to push the quieter children to the forefront if they preform better doing their work in peace. If someone is an incredibly skilled speaker, we are going to utilize their abilities. If someone is calm, silent, and builds the backbone of a project from the sidelines, we are going to fuel their power. Everyone can propel the other forward, because everything we are incredible at – and terrible at – informs how we come together to build the project from the ground up. Without the roots, the thorns, and the petals, a rose bush is just a bouquet. Nothing grounded, nothing sharp and boundary-pushing, nothing beautiful, nothing balanced.

As far as maintaining high morale, I believe it’s about keeping the real-world impact of what we are doing in mind. Realigning and remembering what – and who – we are doing this for has gotten my teams and I through some very long set days, emotionally grueling interviews, intense editing sessions, and harrowing research. It’s also about taking a moment to be human – knowing when to take a break, and knowing when to be proud of all we were able to achieve.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://TheWynterMethod.com
• Instagram: @DirectedByWynter
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynterrhys/

Image Credits

Sam Lewis, Rolando Robles, Turkan Najar