AMIRA BROWN
New York filmmaker and photographer.
Published October 15 2023 for Issue No.1
Interview by: Chandler Crump
Photography by: Chandler Crump
Stylist: Amira Brown
CHANDLER CRUMP (CC): So, we’ve known each other since 2020, my Junior year, your Sophomore year [of college]. Like Fall 2020, the Writing the Short class online. You were one of the only people that were showing so much dedication in that class and to your storytelling. And I’ve always appreciated your notes and hearing your contribution and thoughts on my script. And I loved giving notes on your script.
AMIRA BROWN (AB): Thank you.
CC: You're from New York right?
AB: Yeah, yeah.
CC: Where did you grow up?
AB: Queens. Jamaica, Queens. I spent my high school [years] in Massachusetts. It was interesting. But I’m back in the city.
CC: So this is a conversation very much centered on your work and who you are as a photographer, a filmmaker, etc. We'll get to define those more specifically but to introduce who you are for those that don't know: what would you say is the logline to your craft?
AB: I like to highlight the beauty from the mundane. Like, overlooked parts of our lives with a focus on community and the many experiences that exist within it. I like exploring untold perspectives in experimental ways.
CC: And is that just through photography? You're getting a degree in Film and Television at NYU right now – what in film are you interested in, or are you veering off towards photography or Creative Direction?
AB: I think that pertains to my style, or the things that I like to create personally in filmmaking and photography. But I think I'm more filmmaking centered. Photography has been a way for me to kind of grow and experiment and get better at creative direction, lighting, and teamwork. Also to get a little change on the side. Being a Black woman in Tisch without a big range of experience and also access to materials, especially during COVID, felt very alienating because I felt like your value became attached to what you could bring or or who you know. And photography was a way for me to work and kind of build myself and have a portfolio of work without real equipment. You can finagle photography in a lot of ways. It's a bit more accessible and also a lot faster than filmmaking. So that's how I really got into it and I love it. I've always had a passion for the camera. But in terms of the stories that I want to tell and the impact that I want to make it's through filmmaking and being able to immerse people in experiences that are entertaining and enlightening. And [films] that are really fun to watch. To be a part of another world for a second.
CC: I definitely relate to the COVID education. I felt so helpless with my iPhone at the end of my Sophomore year when we went into the pandemic. The way these kids in my class literally have these expensive cameras that their parents bought them. I feel like it was always difficult for me early at Tisch to prove myself to myself. And also the technical production value of all the things I had to create, [they] had to be, like, amazing to make everyone take me seriously. So when I had to use my iPhone in the latter half of the class I felt so helpless, like I needed a bunch of fancy equipment to have a vision.
I'm curious what genres of narrative filmmaking do you lean towards?
AB: I love a dramedy. But the stuff that I'm called to make, it's like a psychological thriller type vibe. I think a throughline between [thriller and comedy] is trying to understand a topic or a psychological [state]. My intermediate film “Drummer Boy '' is about an invisible disability in the Black community: A rebellious church drummer starts to lose their hearing, but the church members don't believe her.
CC: I'm excited to see “Drummer Boy” when it comes out.
CC: Can you tell us a bit about where you're from and how it has influenced you as a creative?
AB: Jamaica, Queens gets shitted on because it's not like Brooklyn or the Bronx or whatever. But I feel like certain areas of Queens, like most of it, functions like other hoods in other boroughs. So a lot of my work and my process is inspired by just like day-to-day things that happen and wondering what someone's story is – past what we’re able to see. And having empathy for a wide range of people and a wide range of different situations; how our lives intersect with each other’s.
[For example] I'm curious about the life of the man who runs the deli or the lady with an incense table on the street. I feel like so many of our day-to-day stories of like, regular New Yorkers, are washed over and seen from a place of disgust or inferiority. And we're forgetting the beauty that exists within these neighborhoods and within people. And their joy, and their souls. I'm definitely inspired by that. The first project that I put out with my photography was my Aphrodite project.
CC: Aphrodite?
AB: Yeah, Aphrodite. The Greek goddess. I was reimagining European beauty standards in a museum from different people with different backgrounds and genders.
I'm really enthralled by like,ghetto visuals, like places in the hood, [or] tunnels, alleys, or construction places
CC: How would you describe ghetto? Not like, you know, white people have their own fucking opinion about what ghetto is, but how you define it; how you verbalize [ghetto].
AB: I think of “ghetto” as the symptoms of poverty that's exclusive to a history of people and locations. I think of it as culture and beauty that comes out of that. But I'd say it exists in proximity to certain peoples and certain systems of oppression. Like there's different types of ghettos and different types of hoods. I don't see [the] ghetto as just like a broken down home or a location. You know what I'm saying? It's like a cultural experience that is a result from poverty, which is a result from oppression. So not everyone lives in a ghetto and [not] everyone can experience the ghetto.
CC: Exactly. White poverty or poor white people in the Midwest aren't living in a ghetto because their poverty isn't born from their ancestors being oppressed. There's no culture within that, [but] there's culture within the Black ghettos because there's a culture that has stemmed from the poverty [caused by] oppression.
AB: Like, not to even vilify or to discount their experiences of white, poor, rural communities, but it's just different.
CC: Yeah, being oppressed isn't at the root of [white poverty], which I think is what makes hoods and ghettos and underfunded communities that are born from the oppression, like –
I take a beat to find the right words.
CC: –You know those are the communities that are at risk the most and that suffer the most in America,which is why like being African-American, like the acronym BIPOC, that's why it's so important now.
APHRODITE by Amira Brown.
CC: On Instagram, your photographs are always flying off the page with colors, and the subjects are always center stage in such a dynamic way, whether that be from the production design to your lighting choices as well. And so specifically about the photography on your Instagram, I was wondering if you could give us a glimpse into the process from seed to tree?
AB: That was really nice. It's also really nice to hear about my work thought about in that way. Because, you know, when you're the person doing it, it's just like, you know...
We laugh.
AB: I think I'm a person that's inspired by fantasy and by places. So when I'm just going about my day, I'll be taking pictures of just random streets or buildings or random architecture. I feel like I walk through the world with a cinematic lens, which I think most creative people do. And I'm just curious about how to capture [people] in these regular spaces so other people are also seeing what my head is seeing. The shoot with all the white fabrics in the forest, I feel like that was definitely a collaboration between Veronica and I. The inspiration from it came from people doing their laundry, and people hanging up their laundry. I like bringing luxury to those places. I also am really into translating my feelings into images. So I like to write poetry and paint. Just like the Aphrodite [photos].
CC: If you could choose one project you're most proud of, do you have one?
AB: Okay, I definitely think the basketball one.
[For the basketball shoot,] I was just thinking about men and athletes putting so much emotion into their craft and also hiding so much emotion through the craft and just like the amount of pain and hard work that we don't see and that is ignored.
CC: Athletics are so glamorized. It's like, almost, in a toxic way of trying to define masculinity.
AB: Mm-hmm.
CC: Is there any photography work that will be out by now that you're excited about, or anything that you never posted that you'd like people to see?
AB: Yeah, so I have a shoot with Veronica that I'm really excited about. I just think it's really fire. It’s like a rock-alt type vibe. Gorgeous. gorgeous.
CC: And you said Veronica?
AB: Mm-hmm
CC: Is that the model or the brand?
AB: That's the model, Veronica Taylor.
I want to say “Drummer Boy” [too], but I don't think it'll be out by then. And also that has to do festivals, so that's not going to happen.
CC: What's the logline to your thesis film?
AB: The logline is changing, but: When her mom is behind on rent, Ayana makes a dangerous bet to secure the money and her sense of control.
CC: Wait, that sounds exciting!!
*For more information on Brown’s thesis film JUMP, click here.
CC: How would you describe your North Star?
AB: Okay, that's a great question. I think my guiding principles are intentionality, community, lateral elevation. Just to be intentional and kind and just to be a branch for a community and just help build each other up and grow and learn with each other. And a basis of just like love and creativity as the core to collaboration and to art and to wherever the creative path takes me. Obviously I want to direct and write but I also am good at gaffing, I love gaffing, and production design. I think of them as things that help me grow and build my directing because they are [intersectional].
And love, I feel like is the core of the creative and collaborative process. That's when we have the most fun, and that's where the best art and the best connections can be made, because ultimately our job is to connect with an audience and say something.
CC: And you won’t have an audience if you aren't part of the people as well.
AB: Facts, facts, facts.
CC: If you had unlimited funding, how would you use it, or, what project would you use it for?
AB: Okay, so I was working on this project, but it got halted because of financial stuff. But I had a really amazing team, so I would love to pick it backup with them and to pay them an extremely exorbitant amount. It's a vogue project.
CC: A book project?
AB: Vogue.
CC: Vogue. Like voguing, like dancing, voguing?
AB: Yeah. I mean, there are other narrative [projects], but this is just the one that's on the top right now.
CC: That sounds already so amazing.
AB: Thank you!
CC: I wish I could vogue. Jeez, my fucking hips are tight as hell.
AB: Stop.That shit is hard. They are athletes.
CC: Literally, like, Olympic level.
CC: Your clothing for the craft?
AB: I think it depends on my function for the day to be honest. If i’m directing then I want to be cute, but I need to be comfortable. Cute-comfy. Cute-calm fit. If I’m doing PD, probably going to get dirty, so not as cute. Or gaffing, I'm probably gonna get stinky, so not as cute.
I have a pair of beat up set shoes that I wear for dirt and paint and stuff. They're Pumas.
CC: Sacrifice the Pumas?
AB: Yeah. That's crazy. I actually did sacrifice them. Or I wear, what's the name of the one with the Z? The new… new balances.
CC: Des vêtements avec vérité?
AB: Elevated streetwear, with like a hip-hop androgynous feel. Like early 2000s, Y2K, I tend to like. But then I also like to mix in like a little emo, grudge, and angst in it. With like a bit of Hello Kitty, pop girly. Yeah, so all of those things at once. So like, it's androgynous, it could be girly, but it's a little grungy, a little punky, like poppy bright colors or blacks. I don't know, I have a lot of earthy stuff too.
A black leather jacket with a patch that I'm going to put on, but I haven't put on yet. Let's pretend there's a patch on it already. These brown/black, western, tall cowboy boots I really like. They hurt like hell, but I love them.
CC: Are they pointy?
AB: Yeah, they're pointy at the top and they're long.
CC: RIP to your pinky toe, girl.
AB: And my heels. The person at the store [was like] “Oh yeah, it's going to stretch over time”. They fucking lied. And a True Religion denim bag.
Fin
