Meet André Joseph

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful André Joseph a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

André, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

I credit my parents for my resilience in difficult situations. However, I draw a lot of strength from my late grandmother because her humble Jamaican background kept me grounded in a way I could not comprehend until I was much older. While school tends to be a safe space to grow academically, the life lessons outside the classroom come with peril and deception. She taught me to stand tall in the face of fear.

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?

I grew up on Staten Island, New York, and my earliest days in filmmaking didn’t involve big cameras or budgets — it was me and my friends running around the backyard shooting homemade action movies, comedies, etc. We were using whatever we had… camcorders, toy props, Halloween costumes. But even then, I knew storytelling was the thing that made me feel alive. That passion led me to study film formally. I attended the New York Film Academy’s summer program, which was my first real exposure to professional filmmakers as my mentors teaching me all the tools and on-set discipline. From there, I went on to earn my Bachelor’s Degree in Film from Emerson College in Boston, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Emerson sharpened not just my creative instincts, but my understanding of film as both an art form and a business. And that business side became very real, very fast.

In 2008, I formed AJ Epyx Productions to produce and direct my first feature film, PRICELESS. That project was a major leap of faith. No safety net, limited resources — just belief, hustle, and plenty of culture shock. Since then, I’ve gone on to produce three feature films including THE LAST VENDETTA along with numerous short films, web projects, and music videos. Some of these films can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi. And I’m proud to say that the work has been recognized far beyond where it started — from my hometown of Staten Island to film festivals in Boston, Washington DC, Las Vegas, London, and even Paris.

Recently, I released a new short film called BROOKLYN LIGHTS which is a personal, Christmas-themed romantic tale about loss during the holiday season. Additionally, I an in the process of opening up a physical studio space in New Jersey to expand my efforts not only in film production but also podcasting and teaching aspiring young film students after school.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

As easy as it is to list my accomplishments, I have to tell the full truth behind them because nothing has ever been smooth sailing. There were projects that fell apart because we lacked funds. Festival submissions that came back rejected. Investors who passed. Dissatisfied actors and crew. People who doubted my passion as a silly dream when I should be working a city job. And early on, I had to confront something many creatives face — realizing that talent alone isn’t enough. I had to learn marketing, distribution, budgeting, networking — the business mechanics that determine whether your film gets seen or disappears. Those setbacks didn’t stop me — but they did refine me.

Overcoming the odds doesn’t always look like instant success like you see on TV and in magazines. Sometimes it looks like persistence. Sometimes it looks like failure teaching you how to win in the future. And sometimes it looks like telling the truth — even when that truth is unsettling.

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?

I look to find people with a business mindset who understand what it takes to raise money for films as well as to sell them. Far too often, it is a challenge to articulate a creative vision when investors are only concerned with the financial upside. The ideal collaborators I look for are the ones who know how to speak to those people, understand branding, and the importance of marketing to drive more traffic to our film work.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Images via Mark Doyle Photography, Greg Lassik, and Felipe Coronado.

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