We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jason & Blue Gerber. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jason & Blue below.
Hi Jason & Blue, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
Little did we know 9 years ago that a 5 minute video project would turn into our first feature film, a documentary called Dawn Dusk. A journey which required a lot of resilience!
Picture this: it’s the end of 2016 and we meet Chelli Look, a talented leather bag artist. She had just launched a new bag collection called “Dawn Dusk” and was having an open studio. We walk into her sleek, all-white studio, her bag designs gorgeous, and her presence magnetic. We asked her that night if we could film a little 5 minute video about her.
Fast forward to later that week, over coffee, we ask “how’d you get started doing this?” And… she tells us that her sister was murdered, by her brother-in-law, and that for the past few years she’s been donating part of the proceeds from her bag sales to a domestic violence shelter, as well as volunteering there weekly.
It was… not the answer we were expecting, and not fully the answer to our question either. But as we started filming with her, we realized it really was the reason behind all she was doing.
We soon discovered that there was more to this story of a talented leather bag artist. That the Dawn Dusk bag collection was inspired by more than sunrise and sunset, but was brought about by loss and healing, light and darkness, grief and hope.
So days of filming turned to months, turned into 3 years. We even followed her to Florence, Italy along the way. Post-production took another 4 years with a pandemic in the middle of it all, but we found ourselves cresting the other side of an emotional journey through grief and healing, and our five minute video had turned into a feature film.
What kept us going was seeing and feeling that this was a story that needed to be told. A powerful story that we don’t hear very often. When we think about stories of justice, we usually think of someone facing the consequences for what they’ve done, but what we don’t often think about is what happens to those who were affected. What does justice look like for someone who continues on after the injustice has happened? Chelli’s story is not just about grieving a loss, it’s about finding freedom from injustice.
After post production, we had a small festival run and then signed with a distributor, and now, 9 years after walking into Chelli’s studio, that story, called Dawn Dusk, is finally out in the world on Tubi, Amazon, and more!
You can find out where to watch here: dawnduskfilm.com/where-to-watch
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
We’re directors working in both film and commercials. Dawn Dusk, is our first feature film and we’re very excited to share it!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Making this film, we needed a lot of patience, empathy, and we needed to listen well.
When you are making a documentary, you can’t control the story because you are following real events that are taking place, so you need to listen and observe well in order to catch what deeper story is unfolding through the events.
In the case of Dawn Dusk, suddenly we found ourselves as a witness to someone’s grief who was expressing it as an artist. We realized that we were seeing connections in Chelli’s story that Chelli didn’t see herself at the time. We were seeing her pour out her creativity as an artist from that place of grief but hope was breaking through. Her art was a reflection of a light in the darkness, but we would not have recognized that if we hadn’t been listening empathetically, and allowed Chelli the space to process those emotions on camera.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
We have a lot more stories we want to tell! We both have visions for narrative films next, still human stories that have a touch of magic. We have a collection of scripts we’ve written, and are looking for producers and collaborators to come alongside us in those pursuits.
Contact Info:
- Website: dawnduskfilm.com & jasonandblue.com
- Instagram: @dawnduskfilm & @jasonandblue
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawnduskfilm
- Twitter: https://x.com/dawnduskfilm
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dawnduskfilm
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dawndusk_film
Image Credits
Brad Siefert
Dave Look
Chelli Look
Christopher ThoughtPoet Brown
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
