We were lucky to catch up with Malika Yansaneh recently and have shared our conversation below.
Malika, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I feel as though my resilience is ancestral. My resilience is embedded in my DNA, deriving from an assemblage of my life experiences and my genetic code. You see, I come from a lineage of warriors. I come from a lineage of ancestors that voyaged through the seas, fought back against enslavement, and came to this country for a better life. As a first generation Afro-Caribbean Woman with direct ties to the West Indies & West Africa, the story of my people is one of resilience. I watched my mother work endlessly to keep a roof over our heads throughout my childhood and continue to rise and achieve outside the country of her birth despite all odds, this showed me resilience through sacrifice. I watched my grandmother cry, laugh, dance, love and proudly claim her joy even when it seemed like chaos had arisen; this showed me resilience as a powerful tool of protest. As I journeyed through my own experiences, my resilience was forged through an unequivocal desire to fulfill my dreams and my God given purpose. In highschool, making the conscious decision early on to pursue a career in architecture despite it being a predominately white male dominated field required a radicalization of mindset, this taught me how to use resilience to defy odds. This decision led me to earning my Bachelor of Architecture degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, while simultaneously working and gaining experience in architecture, design, and urban planning; it is here that my resilience was forged by fire. I channeled every judgement, critique, and form of doubt into my work. It was then that I began to develop a personal pedagogy that unlocked a new way of creating work, it is here that I learned that a resilient mind can lead to a resilient creative work. This new mode of creation forged storytelling and design and unlocked a career path in film, this led me to SCI Arc where I completed an MS in Fiction & Entertainment. It was during this time that I established a career model that defied bounds. A model that served as a fusion of Film Direction, Design, and Visual Effects; one that is resilient because it transcends the historical categories of single disciplinary creation. It is there that I understood resilience as a mechanism for transcendence beyond tangible boundaries of creation. The embers of my resilience run deeply through my blood, but they were ignited through my own journey thus far.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
My name is Malika Paige Yansaneh, I am a Director & Designer with a passion for telling stories that are electrifying yet thought provoking. I build worlds both narratively and visually that my child self could only ever imagine existing. You see, my life has been a series of divine alignment and vision. As a child, I would look up and gaze at the stars and see a world full of possibility embedded within the twinkles of the light in the dark sky. The ability to create without bounds is what led me to pursue architecture. The desire to radicalize the way the world was curated and conceptualized beyond the built environment is what evolved my practice from corporate architecture and into the world of film. My journey into film was through the lens of design. I fell in love with filmmaking at the height of the pandemic while in architecture school. When every physical inch of an architectural design morphed into a visualized world within a second on screen; I knew my perspective had shifted. This past year, I conceptualized, developed, and directed a narrative short film, The Garden, operating in both the dual role of Director & VFX Supervisor. Within this framework, there lies a burning desire within me to create and curate visually evocative material rooted in culture, spirituality, futurism, and speculative thought in the worlds of film and fashion.
It is my dream to impact the world by giving a voice to people through telling stories that inspire, reimagine, and redefine how we perceive our world. I envision a future that humanizes the hero and understands the villain as a mechanism for deciphering the fragility of humanity. It is this persistent dream that transcends surroundings, disciplines of practice, and resources that has led me to where I am on my journey thus far. And it is on this journey that I have learned how to use both my technical skill sets in architecture, design and visual effects as well as my narrative adeptness to tell stories and envision the future of our designed world through film.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back. the three qualities that have been most impactful on my journey thus far are passion, discipline, and dedication. As a creative, passion fuels the vision. I create because I genuinely love doing so, it’s natural. It originates from a place of genuine authenticity, I have a deep passion and that’s what makes the journey exciting. Discipline is essential for longevity and completion. A career in film & entertainment is a process, one that I am in the midst of, one that requires long hours and sacrifice. Being disciplined is what keeps me going when I’m frustrated, exhausted, or mentally drained. Discipline and the ability to execute are just as important as raw talent. Last but not least, dedication. Dedication is synonymous with “your why”, it is your reminder to continuously work toward and for your God given purpose. Always remember, the pursuit of your dreams is an unceasing journey, yet it is one worthwhile.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I love literature, there are so many books that come to mind. The Book of Genesis serves as a blueprint for understanding the relationship between Creator and creation on both an existential and an interpersonal scale. One impactful thing I learned from The Book of Genesis is understanding the act of creating as sacred and divine; We are made in God’s image, he is The Creator of this world, and our ability to design, generate ideas and concept is a direct reflection of God’s creation of us and of the earth. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a book I’ve always found deeply inspiring as well. This book beautifully depicts the fragility of humanity, the power that women hold, love, and the questions that many of us have had at some point about our true place in the world. From There Eyes Were Watching God, I came to understand the beauty in understanding who you are; being able to bask in that and articulate that to the world through your presence.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://malikapaige.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malikapaige
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malika-yansaneh
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