Live from the stage/my workspace
Joshua Chapman
The goal of my art is to create complex, layered characters that gets the audience invested. Additionally, I explore the many different aspects of Black life and the stories that entail the daily lives of Black people. The goal is to marry the two ideals in an effort to normalize seeing Black characters on screen as well as to derail the notion that the “Black experience” is one set way.
My short film “MARS” revolves around the theme of jealousy and aspiring to being like someone else. The character, Jamal, is the one being envied after, while Dave, a young white man, is the one who is jealous. This very subtle idea flips the head on the notion that there is something inherently wrong with Blackness and that being white is to be desired. Another short film, “Forever Is A Mighty Long Time” centers around the relationship of a young Black man and a young Black woman and the struggles and strains that comes with being in a relationship. There is nothing inherently pronounced about their relationship: it’s a story that everyone that has ever been in a relationship can relate to, which is the point — the Black actors are just the oil that greases the wheel of the storyline.
My hope is that the audience sees some of themselves in at least one of my films, whether that member of the audience is Black, white or any other ethnicity. The goal is to create characters as close to the actual human experience as possible: flawed, toxic, loving, caring, damaged and strong, all wrapped up in a single being.