REPARATIVE PRODUCTION
An online exhibition + lecture on healing media
The Reparative Production project explores restorative justice in film/TV production using case studies of two experimental Black queer pilots, one Black feminist docu-series, interviews with artists and participant observation on over 5 years of digital platform development.
In 2020 the U.S. film & television industry faced a reckoning with the politics of production, exposing worker exploitation above and the below the line. How can we heal how media is made?
For five years (2015-2020) I started and built a community-based experimental platform, OTV | Open Television working to challenge the hegemonic ways media is produced, distributed and exhibition, guided by intersectionality and local production (Chicago). The experiment continues to provide growing support for artists and media workers, but the team and I are now investigating the harm in our own community and developing strategies to mitigate it.
I want to explore this question of reparative production through the projects I directed for OTV. I directed three projects, each of which attempted to do production differently from Hollywood. I learned a lot from both my successes, which was mostly just finishing them, and my many mistakes, that shows how complex and intersectional harm and repair are.
THE PRODUCTIONS
experimental pilots and series
Directed by Aymar Jèan “AJ” Christian
HAIR STORY (2018)
key credits
Producer: Stephanie Jeter
BSAYF director: aCeb00mbaP (Futurehood)
BSAYF artist: Roy Kinsey
Writers: Ashley Ray, Honey Pot Performance, Elijah McKinnon, Erik Lamar Wallace, Felicia Holman, Jordy Palmer, Niki Madison, Philip Lambert, Roger Fierro, Saya Naomi
Nupita Obama Creates Vogua (2015)
key credits
Producer: Myra Boone
Writer/Performers: Erik Lamar Wallace, Kiam Junio, Saya Naomi
Futurewomen (2015)
key credits
Producers: Aymar Jean Christian, Khadijah Costley White
Writer/Performers: Honey Pot Performance
For all three episodes, click here. For my essay on this series as an experiment in producing “alternate reality series,” purchase the book on Ma(s)king Here, the book on the performance I was documenting, here.
REPARATIVE PRODUCTION
a mini lecture series
exhibited at American University in Paris, in Communicating Multi-Modally: Research & Expressive Culture, 2022 International Communication Association Conference. May 25. Paris, France.
PHOTOS FROM THE PRESENTATION
Communicating Multi-modally. An ICA 2022 Pre-conference. American University - Paris. May 25. Photo credits: Cherian George.
