Today we’d like to introduce you to Adelin Gasana.
Adelin, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born an identical triplet in the beautiful country of Rwanda and then moved to the U.S. as a young child. My childhood was split between Chicago and South Florida. I fell in love with the genre of documentary films halfway through high school and began producing and directing documentaries in my freshmen year in college. Subjects I touched on ranged from how history is taught, realities of war, feminism, religion, and a philosophical movement called Existentialism. After graduating I went all in and began my journey from the ground up in the TV/film industry. I moved back to South Florida and began my career in broadcast news while working on my first feature-length documentary entitled, “Cuban America.” This film detailed the Cuban-impact on Miami in the past half-century. It took my two and half years to complete. I went everywhere with it when it was done–film festivals, online, and public screenings at college campuses, libraries and bookstores. It ended up airing on PBS–WLRN, a South Florida TV station.
In my first professional film, I went from an independent filmmaker to a distributed filmmaker. After that film, I began working at Moguldom Films, a black-owned production company, helping to launch a robust documentary film unit. This brought me to Atlanta. We completed over a dozen independent films in a span of three years. Some of the documentaries ended up on Netflix–“A Genius Leaves The Hood” and Amazon Prime–“Gunland.” After Moguldom, I went back to broadcast television and began working for The Weather Channel as an Associate Producer and then later as a Producer for a brand new news app called “Local Now.” There I worked in writing and producing daily local news stories with a fun, entertaining flare. While I worked there, my next side hustle was a great gig as an archival researcher for a big Atlanta documentary on the city’s first black mayor, Maynard Jackson. I was responsible for researching and retrieving every third-party photo and video clip used in the film. I was also tasked in legal clearances on the archival footage in the documentary.
By this time, my portfolio of film works have included completions on nearly 30 film and video projects. I have grown in documentary productions–big and small mostly from concept to completion in the realms of directing, writing, researching, logging, producing, shooting, editing, and even marketing. This year I released my latest documentary film entitled “High On Heels”, a 45-minute short entirely produced in the city of Atlanta. It highlights how high heels are an experience for women. We premiered at Miami Fashion Film Festival and was recently featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I currently work at the relaunched Court TV as an editor.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Like any pursuit in seeking success in a given industry or accomplishing that beloved dream the road is not smooth. It’s filled with curves, roadblocks and obstacles along the way. In fact, for me and the progress I have made thus far the struggle continues. Most of the challenges I endured over the years are really a matter of patience–in waiting my turn. When you don’t frequently get the phone calls for gigs or email replies back it gets discouraging. And facing a lot of rejections on proposals, pitches, and job listings to the point where you are questioning your own sanity the struggle can at times be tremendous.
Early on for me, the struggle specifically was getting people to take me seriously. When I got started, a lot of people I collaborated with saw me as a young, smart and disciplined worker but not the one you can give the keys to and let him lead. I learned along the way that sweat equity has its place. So, as I formed my LLC, reached out via marketing, filled up my social media platforms on who and what I am the focus shifted into the long game–thinking of a career in a decades span rather than just the near future. I learned to be the best salesperson of myself and let my work and work ethic speak for itself. Later on, the challenge began in recruiting people and bringing people on board to collaborate with on my and my client’s projects. Here, I learned to humble myself and connect with people at various levels in order to set team goals and execute efficiently. In other words, I cannot do it all even if I have the confidence and experience to do it.
Another struggle in an industry known for “knowing who you know” was building name recognition. Name recognition can spare a young filmmaker from the constant rejections in getting into film festivals and the lack of viewership of their work on various platforms. But, again it’s about playing the long game. I learned to take the careful opportunity along that unsmooth road to craft my skillset and hone in my talent for the opportunity to show what I am capable of delivering in a small project or big production. The ongoing challenge is also in understanding that documentary filmmaking, a burning passion of mine, is not at all glamorous. While the genre has grown in the mainstream over the years, it’s treated in many ways as niche and somewhat small. Success in producing documentaries is making one’s own living at it rather than banking and reaching celebrity status.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with DocuJourney Productions – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
DocuJourney Productions is a full-service production company. We work from concept to completion in all phases of video and film projects–preproduction, production, and postproduction. DocuJourney Productions specializes in feature-length and short-length documentaries with proven track record on on-time, on-budget delivery. The company also has credits in broadcast news, music videos, reality television, promotional videos, infomercials, concert/performance shows, commercial shoots and professional videography.
What sets us apart is specifically how thorough we taken on a given subject matter and allow our clientele the space to be creative and effective in getting his or her message out. DocuJourney Productions prides itself on reliable, efficient delivery with a creative focus on brand/social awareness, education, and entertainment.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
In the near future, I am aiming to work on more relevant stories here in Atlanta particularly on gentrification, gun culture, and race/class relations. I have been putting some things into writing and look forward soon to collaborating with the right minds and talents–in both the fields of journalism and film. My big picture plans down the road is to make documentaries across the world–specifically in Africa. Expanding my reach in the U.S. I hope to be a bridge for the voiceless and the marginalized in the so-called Third World. In this supreme goal, I plan to work in raising awareness on unique stories for Western audiences, educate viewers on what’s going on throughout the world, and inform people on relevant issues happening now–particularly in the environment and economics.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.adelingasana.com/
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/DocuJourney_Productions
- Facebook: www.Facebook.com/AdelinGasana
- Twitter: www.Twitter.com/Adelin_Gasana
- Other: www.Youtube.com/Adelin_Gasana
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