Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Alexander Isaias Umana.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Joseph Alexander. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles (Hollywood/Weho) from two immigrant parents. My father actually kind of still lives in exile,as he is still undocumented immigrant, thirty-five years after coming here. He was a product of central American civil wars and lived in many parts of Central America and Mexico before ending up here. My background is Central American and Native (Indigenous), thought on my mother’s side we know we only two generations away from our Spanish heritage.
My home life was always rather crazy, but the cinema was always a good escape. I would go to the Los Angeles cinematheque and sneak into Bunuel, Fellini, and Tarkovsky movies. I was only kicked out once, I think Salo was about to play. This was the foundation of me needing to be an artist.
I came out of the closet very young I was twelve when I started telling people and thirteen when I was fully out. Because of this, my family cast me out and lived in Foster homes for a few months while my older sister helped me emancipate myself. In that time I would run away from my foster homes and lived in the streets of West Hollywood and Hollywood. I would go to the LGBT centers and walked the boulevards with sex workers. Transwomen really aided in fostering and understanding who I am, they gave me places to sleep and food to eat as a little kid.
Watching the show “Pose” really hits home for me, because I was part of that culture and yes we would do whatever we could to look amazing at Ballrooms and Tea Parties. It was a scene in the early 2000s. I was high school drop out after I emancipated myself and around 2005 everyone I grew up with, were getting college acceptance letters and moving on. I got my shit together thanks to the sister Michelle and finished high-school in an accelerated program and was accepted into college all in a few months.
During my time at CSUN, I was awarded grants Kodak, and Panavision, and was named a Hollywood Foreign Press Fellow. This little brown boy was finally being seen as Producer, Writer, and Director. The short “The Sounds of Silence” won awards and screened at festivals around the world. This was a great time of expression for me. I Intered for different productions and mangers as I finished my studies.
At the end of that year, I applied for top four film school M.F.A. programs in the world. I got into all of them with below-average GPAs and the lowest possible GRE scores (none which met the minimum requirements of theses programs), didn’t let that stop me. A testament to the control of the craft and the confidence of my talent or maybe I knew how to sell shit well. Anywho in a curveball move, I want to law school briefly before dropping out and heading to AFI as directing fellow.
It didn’t last much as it seemed like I would only learn one thing and I am someone who wanted to get a full grasp of this business. So I attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts, the prestige school that pops out commercial talent like a whore house. My time here was challenging it was such a cookie-cutter school who really focused on elevating mediocre white kids and oppressing talented storytellers of color. The staff was always so grounded in what was a cinema and the business and not where it was going. I learned from Academy Award-winning legends, Heads of Studios, Comedic Masters and a few big directors that encourage me and tell me amazing feedback behind closed doors.
All in all a very industry heavy school. I worked at WME and Lionsgate’s while still at school I tried to take this all seriously but I couldn’t, I thought this was a time of experimentation, we should be filming things we move and things that challenge us as filmmakers not redoing pages from Friends again and again. Nevertheless, I finished got my degree and quickly was thrown in the real world. He is where shit got interesting, I always knew the hard chance of making let alone being a feminine Gender Bi-nary person of color but man has it been hard.
I work for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, SAG-AFTRA, and smaller companies Wayfarer and Wondros Entertainment. In many different roles in social and digital. Learning new skill sets and taking jobs to pay for life, you know. Along the way writing screenplays, specs, and treatments.
Last year I advanced in Sundance Writers Lab getting close but not in while working as a Digital Creative at Creative Media while starting my own Ideas tank PipeL/ne.CREATIVE Media is a leading media, entertainment and technology business development, M&A, advisory and creative development and production services firm. We take a 360-degree hands-on approach to your business, your projects, your art.
We bring all our tools to bear. We immerse ourselves in your business and creative projects and offer unique access to an unprecedented network of media, entertainment and tech leaders and influencers. Identify and drive game-changing opportunities. Devise innovative strategies. It lead by a mentor of mine Peter Csathy (a former CEO of many Tech and Music companies, he was a president at New Line and Universal in the past as well). I have been building my skills in Digital and creative while prepping my scripts and stories.
Please tell us more about your work. What should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Who we are: We are a leading media, entertainment & technology business development, m&a, advisory, legal and creative development & production services firm. Recognized industry leaders. Experienced & connected. Offering unique access. Identifying & driving new opportunities. Accelerating growth. Closing pivotal deals. Developing & producing innovative stories & transformational new experiences. Worldwide.
We take a 360-degree hands-on approach to your business, your projects, your art. We bring all our tools to bear. We are passionate about your possibilities.
We are game-changers. For you.
At PipeLine which is still in its infancy, we will use trending words in social and fandoms sites and our AI will combine them to create new story concepts. It will use social noise power ideas. Also, it will be an open platform company, where we welcome all unsolicited work and social users help the development of the material. Every aspect of the development is transparent. This is my dream to make this happen and no one else does this yet, transparent development.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Doing what I always wanted to do with my creative work. Stay true to who I am.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.creatv.media/
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moetpapiiii/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cinedeumanadevida?ref=bookmarks
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/joeyhatesu
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-alexander-i-32247a17/
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