Check Out Amadeuz Christ’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amadeuz Christ.

Hi Amadeuz, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am originally from the Bay Area, California. South San Francisco, to be exact, then moved to Oakland around 12 years old. Growing up as a “city kid” and having the city of San Francisco as a playground, I was heavily influenced by the independent Bay Area rap scene. I saw local neighborhood rappers start from selling CDs and cassette tapes from out of the trunks of their cars in the neighborhood to making it on MTV and BET, landing major distribution deals all while staying independent and maintaining ownership of their masters. Watching local rappers like Too $hort, E-40, JT the Bigga Figga, and Master P achieve major success in the music industry by creating their own catalogues of projects taught me the value of ownership. My passion for self-expression and my love for writing poems led me to pursue music as a career path after my interest in drawing comic books had started to dwindle away, taking a backseat to my love for rap.

Growing up in the Bay Area exposes a kid to such an extreme contrast of poverty and affluence. It is a place where millionaire tech guys and venture capitalists live just a few blocks away from people living in conditions that would be considered deplorable in many third-world countries. It is so highly competitive that it forces you to decide early on which side of the poverty line you are going to be on, with 80k -100k annual income being considered “low income.” As much as I would like to say that I learned the principles of sales, buying low/selling high, packaging, and distribution from my experience in the corporate world, I was one of the many who were forced to find alternative means of supplementing their income in order to survive. This in a way, required me to keep one foot in the streets and the other in the corporate world.

In 2008, having learned music production and releasing two rap albums, I decided to go back to school to earn my B.A in Radio, Television & Film after becoming a father. Because I had become so frustrated with music and the music industry, I wanted to pursue something that I had more creative control over. During the years of 2010 – 2012, I began to take a serious interest in film production, particularly music videos and started shooting videos for the local rappers throughout California, from Sacramento to the Bay Area and down to Los Angeles. I was able to land music videos on MTV and RevoltTV but again became frustrated by the industry and limitations of my creative control. I started to focus my attention on documentary films.

Around 2012-2014 I was reintroduced to the works of Dr. John Henrik Clarke and was reminded of the life-changing experience I had after having watched his performance in “A Great and Mighty Walk,” which was actually produced by Wesley Snipes. In addition, I was also introduced to the works of Dr. Claud Anderson, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Dr. Ben Yochanan, Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing, Dr. Amos Wilson, Kaba Kamene, Tony Browder and so many other powerful African-American scholars who were teaching the true history of African people. This inspired me to create my first documentary, “Out of Darkness” which I actually edited after having moved from California to Georgia.

After my son’s mother decided to move to Georgia, I found myself living in Rome, Georgia in 2015 so that I was able to continue to be a father to my son and to be able to maintain a positive influence, providing the proper motivation, safety, security, guidance, stability, order, and a sense of structure for my child. Moving to Georgia turned out to be a breath of fresh air for me, in a very literal sense, and allowed me to focus on film production, getting my company firmly established. After finishing my first film. “Out of Darkness,” I was introduced to the Atlanta community through Mama Nia from Medu Bookstore and by way of Marcus from Nubian Bookstore, who introduced me to Rahiem Shabaaz. It was Rahiem Shabaaz who further got me entrenched within the Atlanta film scene. I also was connected with local film maker Ric Mathis, who produced “the Film Black Friday,” who I have maintained business relationships with since. Rahiem Shabaaz and I premiered my film Out of Darkness at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta in 2016.

Since then I have released my follow-up film “Out of Darkness: Heavy is the Crown Vol. 1” in April of 2022, and both films are streaming on all major platforms from Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu, Peacock, and TubiTV. Maintaining ownership and control of my products and securing worldwide distribution deals has allowed me to be successful while doing what I love, which is telling the story of African people in an artistic and creative way, all while maintaining creative control of my intellectual property. I am in the process of working with young local talent from Atlanta, also working with individuals like Caleb from 3 Milli Productions in downtown Atlanta to help expand this content creation and also to begin to tell the story of Atlanta’s history. With these new technological tools available, I am looking forward to the future of content creation.

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?
I don’t think the road should ever be smooth when you are on the path to something great and extraordinary, especially when you are a pioneer expanding into new territories, and breaking new ground. There will always be pushback, hardships, complications, setbacks, missed deadlines, production mishaps, and the never-ending expenses of production equipment, principal photography and post-production. I think it is managing your emotions throughout the process of working through these difficulties is where the real challenge is met. My initial challenges, like most startup companies that are built from the ground up, are lack of financial resources and the capital seed money needed to bring our creative ideas to fruition, however, that in turn opens the door for us to sharpen our swords by learning ways to work around our limitations, even if it means learning additional skills and talents. During the process of creating Out of Darkness and Out of Darkness: Heavy is the Crown, I developed digital art/animation/3D skills that I would not have had I been in the position to simply outsource those creative roles. The real struggle has been to balance my work with my responsibilities as a father, my obligations to my son, and my role in his positive development as a competitive, productive member of society.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a film director and film editor primarily. In addition, I do sfx/animation (After Effects, 3D, Cinema 4D) and also score films as a music producer and audio engineer. I am the producer, director and editor of Out of Darkness and Out of Darkness: Heavy is the Crown Vol. 1, released through my production company, Building Seven Media Company. The fact that we are an independent company with two highly successful films streaming worldwide on all just about all major platforms and being competitive with films that have, to me, seemingly unlimited budgets is what I am most proud of. Specifically, the fact that we are now, with digital streaming, are able to reach such a large global audience.

What makes Building Seven Media unique is that we are able to take historical information about African history and culture and present it in a highly visually stimulating and entertaining format. In addition to the complex ideas expressed by African people in terms of spiritual science, the formation of civilization, and the organization of a balanced society, we also highlight the history of injustice as a means to improve our understanding of our current culture and our roles within our society. We are able to approach sensitive subjects through a scholarly and journalistic lens and have the skills to synthesize that information in a format that is relevant for the youth of today.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
We also do educational workshops with Phase 4ward, a community-based organization based out of Detroit, MI dedicated to using the power of African history and culture to inspire young children by building positive cultural self-esteem. In creating positive and entertaining educational content and taking that content directly into the schools to do educational workshops, we help to teach the importance of learning African history and culture to our young children who we should be training to be competitive in this technologically evolving society.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.outofdarknessfilm.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amadeuzchrist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/outofdarknessfilm
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/buildingse7en
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7775607/