Sundance 2018 Exclusive: Director Mel Jones Talks Leimert Park Digital SeriesPosted by Wilson Morales
January 27, 2018
Having its world premiere recently at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the Indie Episodic section was “Leimert Park,” which comes MACRO, the people who brought you “Fences,”“Mudbound” and the digital series, “Gente-fied” and from Homegrown Pictures which brought you “Dear White People,” and the classic “Hustle and Flow”
Making her directorial debut is Mel Jones, creator of LEIMERT PARK with Kady Kamakatè and Davita Scarlett. The series is Executive Produced by Stephanie Allain, Charles King and Aaliyah Williams.
Set in the vibrant but rapidly gentrifying South LA neighborhood Leimert Park, three best friends and roommates navigate life, love, their careers and sex lives.
Things get complicated when three best friends share a house in South LA’s Leimert Park. Despite being married, beats-maker Mickey hasn’t had an orgasm with her hubby in three months, Bridget mistakes sex for love while assisting a handsome visiting artist in residence, and Kendra secretly shoots videos of numerous sizzling sexual encounters, hoping this will finally break her into the art world.
LEIMERT PARK stars Ashley Blaine Featherson, Ashli Haynes, Asia’h Epperson, Wade Allain-Marcus, Frantz Latten, Ikenna Okoye and Brit Manor.
Jones is a multitalented producer who spent five years as producer of LA Film Festival’s Diversity Speaks, one of the festival’s signature programs and whose producing credits include Dear White People, French Dirty, Burning Sands, and the upcoming Netflix Original Juanita.
In speaking exclusively with Blackfilm.com, Jones talks about getting this project off the ground and starting this new venture as a director.
How did this project come about for you?
Mel Jones: First, I’m a mom and when you’re pregnant, all your energy is focused on making sure this life is made. I didn’t have any creative thought whatsoever; and as soon as she came out, everything flooded back to me and I was like, “Whoa, Oh my God! I have all these ideas and things I want to do.” When I was able to get to some sleep after she was about nine months, I gathered two of my good friends and said “Hey guys, I have this idea. It’s called Leimert Park. It’s about me living in Leimert. While I was living there, I had 12 roommates in the course of seven years. I told them that I think there was something there and I wanted to do it with them and asked them what they thought of the idea. They said it was awesome. I told them I was saving some money and that we could do it in my house and it would great and something for us to do. We then started talking about developing it. I took them to Leimert and showed them around key areas and things I thought would be great to put in the series. Davita Scarlet, who is a TV writer, was going to write it and I would develop it.
Afte I gave her the whole tour of Leimert and told her the interesting stories that happened in the house in the seven years with my 12 roommates, we started to put together a pitch. I ran into Aaliyah Williams at Macro. She wasn’t there yet but she was coming to Sundance and I was coming there too because I worked at the time for the LA Film Festival under Stephanie Allain. We were there for work. I told her about the idea, and she was like, “Look, I’m a Black woman and this sounds amazing.” This was before Insecure aired on HBO or before anything was out. She said we have to do this and I told her I wanted to do it digitally because I want the freedom to doing what we want and I don’t want the constraints of a bunch of people telling us what to do because they spent lots of money on this. She said that was great and that she was consulting on some digital stuff and continue talking. As time went by and we kept communicating, she became the Head of Digital Content and Production at Macro. We had some scripts together. I sent them over and she brought us in.
After that, I was only going to produce it, not direct. The director that we wanted was Stella Meghie. I know Stella. She’s a good friend of mine and she said she would love to do but then she blew up and deal after deal until she was too big to do a digital series. We started to look at a list of women directors that were out there. WE realized that a lot of them didn’t do a lighter comedic project, like millennial black women. Aaliyah then told me that this was my story and that I should direct it. “I think you might be right” is what I then said. I thought that was it and I was going to direct it but Macro like, “You still have to pitch us and why should you direct this?” So, I went in and pitch it and they loved it and the rest is history.
Can you talk about the cast?
Mel Jones: Well, I knew Ashley Blaine Featherson. She went to Howard University, like I did. I really didn’t know her there but we knew of each other through mutual friends and acquaintances. I think I had a party at my house in Leimert one time and she was there for something. My house always had different things going on, like other people’s birthday party. So anyways, we talked then and I just remember liking her. With Dear White People, we had a connection and so I called her in. Kim Coleman was our casting director and she came in and read. I told her that there no notes. I knew I wanted to hire her. We had to work around Dear White People’s schedule because we were shooting in December and they had just finished filming. That’s how it all worked out and the rest of the cast. Kim brought in a bunch of talent actresses and actors and we through the whole of finding the rest, but I knew I wanted Ashley.
Between Dear White People, Insecure, and She’s Gotta Have It among others, there’s a vast amount of millennial projects about women and their everyday occurrences. Will Leimert Park be any different?
Mel Jones: I think there is a space for us to see what we want to do. Our show is about women and what their desires are, and figuring out what they want and looking to find their authentic voice as opposed to trying to fit in. A lot of millennials haven’t. The sexual angle in the series is not about sex for the sake of it. Sex is going to be in everything because it’s a part of our lives but Leimert Park is looking at it in a different way. As black women, we’re over sexualized and because of that, we pull back on that in our lives and in our representation, because of what the white gaze has done. It’s unfair because we don’t get a chance to explore and play and enjoy ourselves and seek pleasure. This is the direction we’re seeking, at the black women experience, and the exploration of parts that haven’t been seen on screen.
Because of the title of the series, will areas surrounding Leimert Part be shown?
Mel Jones: Yes. Leimert is the place for Black creatives in Los Angeles. The Pan African Film Festival is there and has been there for a long time. Ava DuVernay used to rap with a group there and there’s a stage in Leimert Park where that happens. We have an episode on that same stage. There’s going to be so much or Leimert because it’s what inspired this whole thing.
There’s a night that happens there called Bananas. It happens every 3rd Tuesday of the month. There’s so much great music played there. Billy Higgins, the Jazz drummer, comes to Leimert. There’s a place called the world stage where they do live jazz.
How many episodes will there be?
Mel Jones: There’s six episodes between 7 to 10 minutes each. There was 54 minutes that we screened at Sundance. We were the first series to screen in the first episodic program.
What’s next for the series?
