Today we’d like to introduce you to Adelin Gasana.
Hi Adelin, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
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 me two and a 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 a Producer for the news app “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. Currently, I work at Court TV as a producer.
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. In 2020 during the global pandemic, I released my fashion film, “High On Heels”, a 45-minute documentary 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 featured twice in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. My latest film, entitled “Bo Legs”, is a biographical documentary on the life and work of the Honorable Marvin Arrington, Sr., a significant political leader in Atlanta’s rise as an international, cosmopolitan city. The documentary takes viewers on the journey of one man’s love for a city and his visionary work for its eventual transformation. No other person’s biography parallels so harmoniously with the successful growth of the city of Atlanta than Marvin Arrington, Sr. The film appeared in ten film festivals throughout the U.S. Then later, the film would go on to have a 6-month run on Delta Air Line’s In-Flight Entertainment. “Bo Legs” is now available for watching on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Tubi, and YouTube.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
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. Hoping you get picked. 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 right opportunity along that unsmooth road. Also, I understood the importance in being smart and effective in crafting my skillset and honing in on 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. Plus, there’s not exactly a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, per se. So, while the genre has grown in the mainstream over the years, it’s treated in many ways as niche and somewhat small. For me, success in producing documentaries is making one’s own living at it and having the right people reach out to you for your style of work.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am foremost a storyteller in the documentary film format. I am not motivated by sensationalism or glitz and glamour. For over a decade, I work in all aspects of production from concept to completion–directing, writing, researching, archiving, logging, producing, shooting, editing, and marketing. While I wear all the hats being a director and leading creative teams is my strongest asset and skillset. My style of documentary filmmaking is a fly-on-the-wall approach. Nuance is big for me and what I think distinguishes me from others. Most independent filmmakers carry an eagerness to get in front of the camera and present themselves as a character and star in a film story. I am uninterested in this type of storytelling.
My filmmaking prowess includes an artistic vision, tremendous work ethic, creative storytelling, production leadership, and passion for filmmaking and telling relevant stories. It was this talent and leadership that were reflected in a documentary film I wrote and directed, “Bo Legs: Marvin Arrington, Sr., An Atlanta Story”. The documentary was elevated to an award-winning status. The film went on the film festival circuit, screening at ten different festivals and culminated airing on Delta Airlines In-Flight Entertainment for six months. In addition to reaching a global audience, the film received impressive media coverage in local TV news and digital media publications. Bo Legs is currently streaming on major distribution platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Tubi, and YouTube.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
In the near future, I am aiming to work on more relevant stories here in Atlanta, particularly on gentrification, property rights, 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 plan 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. I am also extending my focus in the nonprofit space working with activists and advocates in individual and group settings. Understanding philanthropic efforts and fiscal sponsorships can lend itself to creative, sustainable pathways to completing nonfiction work.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.adelingasana.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/DocuJourney_Productions
- Facebook: Facebook.com/AdelinGasana
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/adelingasana
- Twitter: Twitter.com/Adelin_Gasana
- Youtube: YouTube.com/Adelin_Gasana
- Other: www.imdb.com/name/nm4613843
