Blavity’s creative society sat down with actress Terri J. Vaughn, who made her directorial debut in the new comedy, #DigitalLivesMatter. The film, starring DC Young Fly, is about his journey as an Instagram famous comedian trying to use his internet stardom as his claim to fame. He’s on top of the world with more than 3 million followers until he wakes up to find all his followers gone.

“What’s most important is having agency for people of color,” said Vaughn. The production company of #DigitalLivesMatter, Nina Holiday Entertainment, decided to eliminate all middle men in the filmmaking process to ensure their story was told on their terms.

“We wanted to develop and create something from scratch that was our own.”

The innovation of this film doesn’t stop at the team’s autonomy. In addition to their creative control, the production team will also use a web-based streaming service to distribute the film, an inventive tactic that not only provides an enhanced experience for the viewers, but eliminates the need to ask the permission of film distributors to get content to their fans. “We didn’t want to put ourselves in a position where we are reliant on other people,” Vaughn said.

When asked about the need for black storytelling and independent filmmaking, Vaughn emphasized “what’s most important is having people of color being able to make the decisions … we have a plethora of stories … we have stories that are universal but when it’s a black person thats creating and directing films, we see barriers to getting projects green lit … we want to tell truthful stories in our own voice.”

Watch the sizzle to the film below and read more about it here.

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agency and filmmaking

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