Five Minutes with Skinner Myers (Guest article by Abigail Arunga)

Skinner Myers is an award-winning filmmaker who has written and directed 11 films. His feature film debut, The Sleeping Negro (2021), world premiered at Slamdance FF and internationally premiered at the Champs-Elysees FF in Paris, France. It won the FIPRESCI award at IFF Mannheim Heidelberg. Myers has studied at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, the USC School of Cinematic Arts and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Unseen Cinema (Nairobi) and Sudu Connexion are partnering to show his feature film debut, The Sleeping Negro, this February, till February 27. ‘Confronted with a series of racially charged incidents, a young Black man must overcome rage, alienation, and hopelessness in order to find his own humanity.’

You’ve already made 11 other films. What made you go into the world of features?

When I make a picture, I always have a goal. I try and get support from an audience by testing out some of the concepts, for example. It took me a while to kind of find footing in terms of how I use media to express myself. Once I felt like I had the tools, then I felt like it was time to make a feature.

Shorts can be oversaturated sometimes. You can go to a film festival and have 400 shorts – but 20 features. It can get hard to get people to come see your short. With a feature, you get more time for an audience to come and sit with your story. It allows people to better follow your work. Sometimes the work is good, but it leaves a lot to the imagination.

You also star in a lot of your work.

Yes, I was an actor for a long time. I wanted to tell stories I didn’t get to tell as an actor. Going forward I’ll be pulling back on acting, because I’m more curious about exploring directing.

You went to school, and are in school, for everything you’re doing now. Do you think school for film helps you or hurts you?

I think school can hurt you if you allow it, because it forces everyone to have a specific voice. School did help me with giving me time to write, time to watch stuff; I didn’t have a job. I was just at school. But, the lure is now, making ‘Hollywood type’ films, and I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to buy in into making the same type of films.

Is that a ‘I have something against Hollywood’ spiel I hear?

I have a big thing against ‘Hollywood.’ Just because Hollywood colonizes media, in a way. It says, if you want to be in our world, you have to ignore who you are, and represent and make the same films, that are structured, with a certain one way of writing and resolving stories. It doesn’t really focus on the characteristics of different cultures. I have always been curious about othered people, and that comes a lot from my lived reality and experience.

I’m sure this means you have many thoughts on Black Panther.

Well, the people who made that movie were making a westernized POV of African culture. A lot of people who don’t necessarily think too deeply about it felt like it was huge, because they felt represented. But that isn’t what the people who made those decisions were thinking about.

Is it hard for you to come into some of the heavy themes that you write and act about – like being a Black man in America, in the Sleeping Negro, or engaging with themes like immigration?

Because what I make is a lot of my lived reality, I stay prepared. Yes, there is the acting training, but those emotions I am tapping into stay at the surface. In a way, it is easier for me to do because I am playing something that is true to myself.

I am not trying to stretch my chops. I know what I am good at, and what I am not good at. I can almost do it on autopilot. That limits the stories I can tell when I act.

What are your thoughts on awards, and their validity – especially after movements like #OscarsSoWhite?

I don’t make movies for awards. It is nice to be recognized, and certain people appreciate them as well. I will say I do I like awards from other countries other than America –  because it then means that I’m connecting with a body of people, outside of my ‘usual,’ that might have the same frustrations as myself. I am proudest of my international awards. They definitely mean more to me.

What are we getting from you next?

I have a new film coming out. It’s called Before You Fade Away Into Nothing. You can see the trailer here. It’s about two brothers, Tristan and Malik, who are five years apart, and face the cruel reality of their relationship after the unexpected death of their father. The cast includes Lucy Devito, Nican Robinson, Andras Jones, Geoff Marslett, Matthew Gibson, John Myers Jr., Merawi Gerima, and me. It should be coming out in 2025. I’m also finishing my PhD. Those are my main projects!