Today we’d like to introduce you to Gem Little.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m from Chicago – moved to LA by way of Indianapolis a few years ago. I had recently finished an MA in Urban Planning before moving to LA and started working at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority in their planning division. I’m still really interesting in that work, but choosing to be a filmmaker full-time is something that was long overdue for me. I have a background in performance arts and had been producing films part-time for eight years before I decided to commit completely. That’s how I ended up at the American Film Institute in 2019.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Nothing is ever really straightforward. Before I moved to LA, I was planning to marry someone and we had purchased a home together. Looking at my life now and how happy I am, I could have never gone through with that. But you learn along the way – you learn more about who you are and you start to see the things that make you complete. I honestly just got tired of not going after my dreams – that was probably my greatest challenge. It was hard for me to really see what I deserved and the life I could have for myself. I didn’t have much growing up and as Marian Wright Edelman says – “You can’t become what you can’t see.” At some point, if you have any ounce of self-awareness, not going after what you love is like self-betrayal. I have had great jobs and shitty ones too. I’ve had incredible mentors and bosses, and horrible ones too. There have been moments where my Black, Queer, Femaleness has absolutely presented challenges in those spaces. I’ve been told I’m too young to have amassed the career success I’ve had. I’ve been told that change the way I speak. The way I appear. I’ve also been told that I have a commanding presence that intimidates people. I say I come as I am wherever I go and I try to remember why I’m in the room. Obstacles and challenges are just anxiety-inducing distractions.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a creative entrepreneur – so I dabble in quite a few things. Foundationally I’m a writer and producer. I’m currently finishing up an MFA at the American Film Institute Conservatory and I’ve had the pleasure of recently interning with Charles King’s MACRO and Ava Duvernay’s ARRAY. It’s funny because so many moments lately have been completely full circle for me. MACRO and ARRAY were the two companies at the top of my list of places to work for when I moved to LA – and within a year of being at AFI, I was able to do just that.
I’ve always been a writer and it wasn’t until recently that I allowed myself to even it explore it completely and it’s made me the happiest I’ve ever been. I moved to LA knowing that I would eventually focus on filmmaking full-time. I was here for a month before I had put together a team to make a short film and I haven’t stopped since. It became clear to me that I would need to be savvy if I was going to break into the industry – so I started researching people who I looked up to. There was someone who I admired – and still do – who attended AFI as a Producing Fellow and so I applied to AFI, no other film school, and when I found out I was admitted, I was working on a pilot called Particular Me and the co-star of that pilot happened to be the romantic partner of the producer whose career I had been following – small world. It was such a moment for me because I had been manifesting and working really hard – so it was like the universe was giving me signs and signals that I was in the right place.
Regarding my work, I love to write stories that reimagine our world and the constructs within it. So I’m a huge fan of grounded scifi and stories with world-building involved. I also really enjoy writing romance – I think that love is layered and complex and I’ve had so much of it in my life that I love to examine and explore its nuances. I recently launched a production company with my creative partner and we’re developing a slate of projects that we hope to bring into the world within the next two-three years. We’re also working on ways to reimagine what it looks like to finance and distribute independent films and even web series.
nbdy pictures – Our company is a BIPOC artistic movement using stories to celebrate culture and build community. We center around three major areas of focus: Stories | Culture | Community
We believe that entertainment and storytelling creates community and that you need strong community to be an impactful storyteller. Pretty much, we love community and have been blessed to build alongside some of the most brilliant and emerging voices in the filmmaking space. We want to continue this tradition.
Having had so many different career experiences – at one point I created a program that helped currently and formerly incarcerated individuals start their own small businesses. I pull from that experience constantly when I’m writing or developing work-related and unrelated to the criminal justice system.
This year, I’ll be finishing up AFI with my thesis that I’m co-writing with the director called The Portrait – it’s a modern adaptation of the Picture of Dorian Gray. We’re really excited about exploring such a classic body of work and to bring into present-day with an all Black cast. I was also recently awarded a $25k grant through the Black TV and Film Collective and Wavelength Productions’ Producer Fellowship. I wrote the script that was accepted into the program – it’s called Pens and Pencils and it’s a thriller about the school to prison pipeline. The final film will be co-written and produced by me alongside a director I’ve met during my time at the AFI.
Any big plans?
This is the million-dollar question. With everything that’s been going on in the world, it feels strange to plan for the future. I don’t think I have a specific plan for the future yet as much as I have a vision for the future. I hope to transform the entertainment industry in such a meaningful way that we don’t have to continue to have conversations about representation. I hope that through the work I’m doing with nbdy Pictures (my company) and through my own personal activism, we have also transformed the ways films are financed and distributed. I hope that I’ve made several bodies of work that have started crucial conversations around economic justice in America – something I feel is rarely at the center of the racial justice conversation. As I wrap up at AFI, I am focused on building a tribe of people who are aligned in interests and action so that we get to work.
In January, I shot a proof of concept short for a feature that I’m producing called After Forever. We’re excited to be submitting that to festivals and just sharing it with everyone. The feature is in development and we hope to be in production by fall of 2022. There is definitely plenty to be excited about and I’m just looking forward to continuing this streak of joy I’m feeling and to make every step more intentional.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.nbdypictures.com
- Instagram: @producedbygem
