00:00My name is Jared O'Connor, director, cinematographer, editor, or as I like to call myself, a multi-hyphenate creator of black art.
00:14I went to Howard, and one of the many amazing things about Howard is that it's located in D.C.
00:20And D.C. has some of the greatest art museums in the world.
00:24So I'll go down to the museums from campus and go to the Herschel, the National Gallery of Art, and see some of the greatest works of art ever made.
00:36From Caravaggio to Rembrandt, Matisse, and I loved it.
00:43But as I began to visit museums more frequently, I know this one thing.
00:49The artwork on the wall, held as the most beautiful works of art in the world, didn't reflect me.
00:55There are no black subjects. There are no black artists.
00:58So I started to think, where do I see myself and my people represented the most?
01:04If not here in this gallery of beautiful and meaningful art, then where?
01:08It was then when I understood my purpose.
01:12My purpose is to create positive images of black community and black culture for the world to see.
01:23So it's the beauty of black people and black life.
01:27As an up-and-coming filmmaker, I'm inspired by Jordan Peele, Bradford Young, Ryan Coogler.
01:42But I also see myself as the contemporary of Nina Chanel Abney, Kerry James Marshall, these thought-provoking artists who create snapshots of black life, black community, black beauty.
01:57But instead of using paint, I use a camera.
02:00And my canvas is the screen.
02:03We're not a monolith.
02:05We're a diverse and powerful people.
02:07And we deserve to see powerful images of ourselves.
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