Joslyn Rose Lyons: Behind the Lens

She’s a renaissance woman of film. A writer. A director. A producer. A television host. A talented woman in a male-dominated industry with a vibe and personality that is just as striking as her growing resume. The 2003 release of “Soundz of Spirit” was Joslyn Rose Lyon’s first major project, but that notch is only the beginning of what this young filmmaker has planned to bring to the table. If you’re hungry for real Hip Hop, positive voices, and a serving of food for the soul, prepare your pallet.

Along with running her own production company, Jog9 Productions, Josyln Rose Lyons is also a West Coast affiliate for BET, a producer and director with Simmons Lathan Media Group and Current TV, LLC, along with working on full-length features like the upcoming “FundaMENtal,” and a feature film titled “Destiny.” She’s also served as a director/producer for Alameda County’s Social Services Agency multi-media campaign in ‘06, which commanded attention to the Bay Area’s foster care and adoption crisis.

Being entrenched in notable projects may be a heavy load for some, but staying grounded in prayer keeps Josyln moving with film projects that highlight dope artists, inspire and educate. She’s a women on the rise, with a purpose to make sure her art reflects our evolving world.

Lyons told Scheme Mag, “It’s not an artist’s job to judge society or to necessarily be the person you look up to, but it’s definitely the artist’s job to interpret the state of our world today. That’s a responsibility of an artist that we naturally carry, so if we’re only interpreting society from one angle or not interpreting society at all, but rather what we want because we know that’s what’s going to sell, then that has nothing to do with Hip Hop culture, nothing to do with music, and nothing to do with rap.”

Check out what else she had to say about her history, music, career as a filmmaker, and responsibility as an artist during a refreshing interview with Scheme Mag.

Scheme: When and what inspired you to become a filmmaker?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: Starting at a really young age, I was inspired to make films. I was probably around 12 years old, and I told my mom “When I grow up, I want to be a filmmaker, and I wanna be in movies. I wanna make movies.” I was pretty young just saying that and then when I got into high school and college I really focused in on that same kind of dream, and really made it come into being. Around the age of twenty, I started working on my own first feature-length film.

The inspiration came, and still does come, from a lot of different sources that a very close to my daily life. My mom is an artist. She’s a sculptor and a painter. Being around that creative energy growing up has really been a huge inspiration in my life. Also the spiritual part of life, like nature, prayer, and those magical kinds of coincidences that happen in life. That is a huge part of my inspiration in my work. It’s really what drives me and it could sound cliché but it’s truly what fuels me everyday.

Scheme: What was your first film project and how would you say that you’ve grown since then?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: I worked on a lot of smaller projects and segment producing, coordinating and production assisting for a lot of people before I honed in on what I wanted to start out my own career doing. The first project that I completed that’s out there now is “Soundz of Spirit.” It’s a feature-length documentary film that I started making in college when I was around 19, and I finished it when I was around 24. It took a good three or four years from start to finish, and finish being when I brought it to the film festival circuit. I premiered it at HBO’s Urban World Film Festival in New York and from there it really snowballed and went to more than 50 film festivals around the world.

I got a distribution deal for it in ’05, put it out on DVD, and I produced an original 12-track soundtrack for the film that has artists like Blackalicious and others. That was my first project and it really became the foundation for my filmmaking career in a sense because it was my own project. I gave birth to it. I produced it. I shot it. I edited it. I really did everything that you could imagine. With obviously the help of a lot of great artists, and a lot of great crewmembers, I was able to get it out to the world.

Since that project, I’ve grown exponentially as a filmmaker, as a producer, and as a director, because it taught me that filmmaking—in at least the industry I’m in—is a collaborative industry and you have to work with other people. Finding your strengths and knowing where you need help and being able to pair up with the right editors and right producers was a huge lesson for me with that film because I did everything myself… partly because of the budget constraints and partly because I wanted to do it my way.
I’ve grown a lot since that production and now I work with a lot of different people and I value that collaborative effort. I’ve also changed in terms of my own approach to my work. I still breathe it. I still live it. I don’t separate my art from my life, but back then I was literally sleeping in my edit station and living in the same physical space as everything I was doing and now I’ve been able to separate those things in a more professional way.

Scheme: What did you learn about spirituality and Hip-Hop while you were filming “Soundz of Spirit?”
Joslyn Rose Lyons: I learned that everybody has their own connection to God and everybody has their own connection to the highest power, and that spirituality is just that connection. It’s connection to yourself. It’s connection to your community. It’s your connection to the world. It’s your connection to your art. That connection is different for every artist and it’s different to every person.

One thing that film really taught me was that it’s really important for me to nurture my own connection to my work because I believe that if we’re connected to what we’re doing—whether it’s filmmaking, acting, or whether you’re a scientist or a janitor—you’re going to have a more spiritual experience. As a spiritual being, we create from a divine place when we are connected and that’s a unifying being with the creative process that I’ve found to be pretty amazing.

“The industry can’t exist without the artist, but the artist can exist without the industry.” What that really means is that all this fluff and hype that’s built up around the artist, whether it’s websites, TV shows, commercials, or even the exploitation of us as artists, is the industry.”

Scheme: I don’t know if you saw the banned Boondocks clip that circulated recently, which was a spoof on BET and how it’s “destroying” the black community. Having worked on a lot of BET projects, how do you feel about the direction that BET is going?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: There’s a saying that I really try to believe in through my actions as an artist, and that saying is that “The industry can’t exist without the artist, but the artist can exist without the industry.” What that really means is that all this fluff and hype that’s built up around the artist, whether it’s websites, TV shows, commercials, or even the exploitation of us as artists, is the industry. The artist and the real work can exist without all of that, but that industry actually survives off of us.

My approach is that I try to contribute to whatever content I’m producing—whether it’s my own vision to somebody else’s that I’m helping to build up, or some network that I’m working for where I have to fill some sort of agenda—I still try to keep that connection to what I’m doing. When I’m interviewing someone, filming someone, when I’m writing a script, I try to bring my own connectivity spiritually to whatever it is that I’m doing.
Let’s say that’s true [about BET]. I don’t want to put my personal judgments out there but let’s say there are some exploitive elements to the way that network is programming their content right now. Well, if you have an opportunity to either be an artist and be seen and heard on a music video on that network, or if you have an opportunity as a filmmaker to produce for that network, what I would put out there is that you can’t change them but you can change the way that you operate. If you bring a certain amount of light to the content that you’re putting out there or that you’re a part of, then that light is going to reach some people, and it’s going to shine. It’s a lot better to do that than to not contribute anything because you don’t like what they’re putting out.

Recently I had an opportunity to co-direct a music video that was affiliated with BET, for an artist named prince Ali. This music video features Keith Murray, Planet Asia, and Casual. Malik Buie directed alongside me and we got some airtime. The video has no women in it period. There’s like one curse word and it’s not even a real curse word. The video is called “The Majors” and it’s about the industry and the artists’ perspective on that. To see a video like that, when I saw it being aired, it was fun to be a part of that of that process. Maybe it’s not the epic music video and it’s not necessarily going to change the world but certainly, it’s a start. I would say that it’s a wonderful thing to contribute to a network that has a pattern of exploiting women or minorities. If you can bring a light to those networks and to those projects, maybe not to change them but to change yourselves. That is ultimately going change the world.

“I really believe that if we tap into what we know we can do as women, we wouldn’t stoop down that low to just showing a part of our skin. I believe personally that there’s a lot of beauty in modesty, and if we can embrace that, I think we can do a lot better as a female culture.”

Scheme: As Hip-Hop becomes more mainstream, do you see yourself producing more films that shows the culture encompasses more than just rap music, as you did with “Soundz of Spirit?”
Joslyn Rose Lyons: I’m working on two projects right now that I really feel are in the same vein as “Soundz of Spirit,” in that they both deal with the other elements of Hip-Hop. This is a culture and a movement with a lot to offer and we can really use it as a tool.

I’m working on a women’s project, which covers the female voice in Hip-Hop. I’m also working on a feature, which has some pretty inspiring words in it, a lot of Hip-Hop in it, and will actually have a lot of artists tied to it as well. I feel like it’s my job to take what inspires me to become more enlightened as a person and share that with the world through my work. So my films, God willing, will be films that people go to for that same kind of enlightenment.

Scheme: Can you elaborate on the women’s project? Scheme: Can you elaborate on the women’s project?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: The women’s project is called “FundaMENtal.” I’m producing it alongside a Miami-based music producer who’s also female. Her name is Caza Menzies. I’m the head producer of the film and she’s the head producer of the soundtrack. We just paired up on this because we both feel like it’s really important to document the women’s voice in Hip-Hop today, [and] to highlight the women in Hip-Hop who are bringing a new voice or bringing its voice back. Look at Amanda Diva. Look at MC Lyte who’s continued to carry that legend.

There are a lot of Hip Hop artists, like Ladybug Mecca, who has kept so true to what it is she feels she’s vested in doing and that is spreading good vibes and great music, and hopefully inspiring some people along the way. Our whole inspiration behind it was that it’s a women-produced project featuring the women’s voice in Hip-Hop today, and it’s a voice that we don’t see on the more exploitive, mainstream stations.

Scheme: How do you represent women in the entertainment industry?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: I feel that women need to not sell themselves short. We’re all spiritual beings. We’re all living under the same stars on the same Earth. There’s a oneness that we all share and just because society dictates to us “Okay, don’t be modest. Modest isn’t beautiful and actually showing more skin is beautiful,” none of that is real. That’s all designed to control and help capitalism grow. What’s real is what’s real for you. I would hope that more women out there would lead, and lead by example of what they want their daughters, their granddaughters, their sisters, and their mothers to be proud of and inspired by, and something that leaves a lasting imprint on their life. I really believe that if we tap into what we know we can do as women, we wouldn’t stoop down that low to just showing a part of our skin. I believe personally that there’s a lot of beauty in modesty, and if we can embrace that, I think we can do a lot better as a female culture.

Scheme: Since the entertainment industry is male-dominated, what advice would you give to young women who may be intimated but have a desire to do what you’re doing?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: It is an intimidating system in general, and I think even for men. I would say specifically for women out there, your fears are only your greatest gifts in disguise. If you want to pursue your dream but you feel like, “How am I gonna do it the way I really wanna do it, because I’m a woman and look at how this industry operates,” I would say to harness that fear. Try to transform it into a gift. If you face that and you go for it anyway, you’re going to find some amazing strengths. I think we need to be able, as women, to find that strength.

Scheme: You have your hands in a lot of projects. How do you stay focused?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: Prayer keeps me grounded because it helps me tap into the highest source. Prayer keeps me grounded and so do the people in my life. Surrounding myself with other creative, like-minded individuals, helps keep me grounded in what I’m doing.

There’s a lot of glamour and glitz and smoke and mirrors, and a lot of talk that I hear all the time from different people; They’ll call or we’ll meet and there will be all this stuff said or promised, or I’ll be excited by, but it’s really important to not get caught up in that. None of that is the real work. So I stay grounded through the people in my life and more importantly through prayer.

Scheme: As artists, we all feel that we have something meaningful to contribute to society. What do you think your contribution is?
Joslyn Rose Lyons: I used to think that my contribution to society was going to be to change it. Now I realize that I’m just going to continue to work on myself. I think that is honestly the greatest contribution that I could give… is self-exploration, and not selfish, self-focused, or self-driven, but that self-exploration being in that space where I can be connected and hopefully inspire others to find that connection within themselves as well. I would hope that my work would come from that place so that my work can also contribute in a positive way.

Photography by Byron Malik

*The official “Director’s cut” of “Soundz of Spirit” will be released this year by Jog9 Productions and OBAY Creative.