Today we’d like to introduce you to Kia Dennis.
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 always had a big imagination growing up as a kid. At the dinner table, I would pretend I was a judge on a cooking show. I would play school with all of my dolls and teddy bears and have tea parties alone. I guess I’ve always had a gift for storytelling. I’ve always spent a lot of time thinking, most times overthinking. The school was my liberation. It kind of helped me get it all out. I wrote stories and poems at a very young age. By the time I was in middle school, I was fascinated with theater and in love with music. I would sing in the chorus and I tried out for drama club but didn’t get in. I was completely crushed but if you fall nine times you get up ten. I have always been passionate about creating. Just like my father, I was a very sensitive child, and the arts gave me an escape and an outlet. I was able to express myself.
I remember being the star of my school plays in middle school, and I ended up going to Douglas Anderson School of the Arts for high school where I got discouraged because there weren’t a lot of opportunities for black actors but I learned a lot. By the tenth grade, I realized I wanted to get into film and television. Over ten years later and I still love theater, but I love how creative and intimate you can get in a scene with a camera. So when I decided to pick a college, I chose Clark Atlanta University. I felt like Atlanta would be the perfect place for a black female filmmaker. I mean, it’s like Black Hollywood. I’ve been creating stories, short films, and feature films. I’ve turned a novel into a film. I’m currently releasing season two of my new web series Crew Love. I’ve had the opportunity to work on independent projects with my Morehouse brothers. I’ve interned and worked at some of the top radio stations and production studios in Atlanta, Georgia. From Eue Screen Gems to Nike to Streetz 94.5 Radio to Tyler Perry Studios to Warner Bros, to name a few. I’ve directed children’s plays for Atlanta Public Schools. To be honest, I’m only just getting started.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Two main challenges I face as an independent filmmaker are finding funding and having limited resources. I don’t have my production studio yet but it’s coming soon. I shoot on location therefore, my cast and crew must travel. Also, distribution, if you don’t have a distribution deal or a big audience on social media and you’re pushing your production, it’s an uphill battle.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a filmmaker. I started off as an actress, but I’ve always been a storyteller since I was a little girl. I fell in love with writing at a young age. I love the power of the pen! In college, my professor McMurray, who worked on Fruitvale Station with Ryan Coogler, encouraged me to write a feature film. I created a treatment for my senior project, and after reading it, he said, “Yo, this is dope. You should actually write this.” At the time, he was in pre-production for his new film Burning Sands. He was getting the funding and meeting with producers in LA. I was only 21 at the time, and I’m thinking… that’s a lot of writing but I wrote it and titled it Pyramids. I fell in love with the strenuous process of putting a film together, and that is how I got into producing. I’ve touched on a lot of areas in filmmaking. Being an independent filmmaker, you wear many different hats especially when the budgets are low. I have experience in casting. I have cast for other projects. I have been the assistant director. I have been a production assistant, grabbing coffee and donuts. I have been learning and growing, enjoying my journey. I am known for my new web series Crew Love Season One, which did really well. We made it to the Queen City film festival.
Season Two dropped last month, and I am certain we will make it into another film festival. The cast of my web series is truly amazing. I am extremely blessed to work with so many talented, black, and brown people. I try to create stories for us. That’s my main goal: to tell our stories, our authentic stories. I have so much heat I’ve written just sitting and waiting for the film funds. My team is completely awesome. I work with the same videographers and photographers I started with. I have artists who allow me to use their music. We all work together. The guy who does the color correction for the series allows me to do voiceovers for his animation show. I worked with an artist all the way in Nigeria on the intro for the web series. Creating gives me joy, it has saved me, and sometimes I am all over the place but I never want to be trapped especially inside a box. I have a children’s book I wrote years ago that I am finally in the process of publishing. I have so many stories in my head that I need to tell. I hope that my stories, all my life experiences, and the experiences of my friends can bring comfort to other people, make them laugh, and help them heal. I hope my stories one day will move people in their seats and change the world.
I am most proud of my personal accomplishments. I have come from very humble beginnings, living off of Moncrief road with my mother and big sister. Washington Heights Apartments is one of the worst neighborhoods in Duval. Most people don’t make it out of where I came from. Jacksonville remains the murder capital of Florida. I have so many friends who have been murdered back home. I’m just thankful that God has shown me favor and has directed my footsteps. My faith has protected me. God has allowed me to have the opportunity to actually do what I love. So many people don’t get to do that, or they don’t have the confidence. I’m so thankful for my mother who had to raise me alone. My father died when I was young. I wouldn’t be the woman I am today if it wasn’t for my mother’s guidance.
What sets me apart from many other independent filmmakers is my determination, grit, and courage. So many people shoot projects that never see the light of day. I always see it through. I find a way or make one. That’s a motto that I live by. I am not just a pretty girl creating content for social media, I am telling real stories. I love black history and I learned so much at CAU. I will always tell our stories. Black people will be empowered when I have a larger platform and resources to tell the stories they try to hide.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
When I first moved to Atlanta, Georgia, I was 18 years old and fresh out of high school. I was so blown away by how many black people I saw driving nice cars with nice homes. CAU was flooded with black excellence, I was surrounded by so many different black scholars from all over the country. Most of my classmates were privileged, their parents were married and had vacation homes in the city where they could stay for free. I was struggling to pay rent but there is beauty in the struggle. I did work-study where I was introduced to black professionals who later became my mentors. They were black men with black wives and families. They were college educated and successful. I learned so much the first year I moved to Atlanta. I never wanted to move back home to Jacksonville. I mean what’s not to love? Atlanta is Black Hollywood. I remember interning at the studio where Black Panther was filmed being broke, working for free, and driving a raggedy car but I was so proud. My hometown has always felt like a crab pot but in Atlanta the energy is uplifting.
The lifelong friends I have made at CAU, the connections and relationships I’ve built, and even my team at Tyler Perry Studios have become my family here. My professors from college are top-tier. I still communicate with most of them, and I graduated in 2015. Aside from the lack of beaches and traffic, well, actually the cost of living has skyrocketed in the last few years, and gentrification is getting out of hand overall, I love the culture here. I just hope we can protect it. Sometimes I feel like Atlanta has become too crowded, and many women here are a bit too shallow. Social media plays a huge role in influencing the many BBLs but they’re taking over Atlanta. You rarely see a real natural woman. Most black women here have gotten plastic surgery and are still insecure, and don’t get me wrong I encourage all people to do whatever makes them feel like their best selves but it’s getting out of control and it’s dangerous. Atlanta has become a little too superficial for me. We need to get back to loving ourselves and embracing our true beauty.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.keepwatchingkitie.com
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