Meet Maceo Tendaji

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maceo Tendaji. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maceo below.

Maceo, so great to be with you and I think a lot of folks are going to benefit from hearing your story and lessons and wisdom. Imposter Syndrome is something that we know how words to describe, but it’s something that has held people back forever and so we’re really interested to hear about your story and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
I’ve only had small phases of imposter syndrome throughout my life. I’m usually good at staying true to myself but recently I felt myself falling into a place where I felt like I had to portray a certain image. This year in particular has been filled with extreme highs and drastic lows. At the top of the year, I premiered my short film, “Paralysis,” at a historic movie theater and it was practically sold out. It was an amazing experience and I was on a high for about a month. I quickly tried to replicate the event and recreate that feeling by doing two more screenings. Unfortunately, the two following screenings did not go as planned and they weren’t of the magnitude of the premier. I realized that instead of focusing on the essence of the film and the community it speaks to; I was chasing that high I previously felt and wanted to bask in the glory of my accomplishments. I believe the praise was deserved but it shouldn’t be the only reason why you set out to do something. Following the screenings of my film I had the opportunity to film coverage at the NAACP Image Awards, the BET Her Awards, and the BET Awards. All three events were great and created lifetime memories. However, after posting all of the highlights of these events on my social media pages I realized the type of response I received and once again I fell for the dopamine trap. The photo-ops are cool and you get a lot of credit and respect for working at such a high-profile event but I began to think that I had to sustain this lifestyle. As if every day of my life had to appear to be a red carpet event. After realizing I was putting this pressure on myself I took a step back and did some reflection. I came up with a litmus test for my actions. “If the event or idea is self-serving and not serving others then you are unaligned with your purpose.” I want my career and life to be one of service. I want people to look at my gravesite and say “This man helped and served so many people while he was alive.” It’s much more rewarding to give than receive. It’s the type of fulfillment that you can only gain when helping others. I love that feeling and I want my life to reflect this and inspire others to serve as well. I now can always refer back to this litmus test and ask myself this question to evaluate my actions and decisions. Now that I’m back to being an educator and teaching Film at my alma mater I feel more aligned with my purpose.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m currently running by video production company, Ikonic Visions, and teaching video/film at my alma mater, The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA.) Through my business, I help individuals and organizations bring their visual ideas to life. We work with a wide variety of clients such as recording artists, professors, non-profit organizations, and large corporations. Outside of those endeavors, I’m also writing my first episodic television series entitled, “Passenger.” This is my first time writing for television so the task is quite daunting but I’m up for the challenge. I have so much to learn and I’m looking forward to where this journey takes me.

My latest project, “Paralysis,” is a short film that captures the thoughts of bystanders who witness a Black man fight for his life against law enforcement. The film has been screened at several film festivals across the country, winning 4 awards for “Best Short Film.” The film is also being screened at MICA’s graduate alumni exhibition, entitled, “An Exercise in Perseverance.” The film can be viewed until September 24, 2023.

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?
1) Storytelling – Once you learn the concept of storytelling you will notice how it can apply to many other mediums of art and even other careers. Storytelling has been an essential skill since the beginning of mankind. It’s how we carry on traditions and share knowledge with each generation. It’s how we make sense of our existence and shape our paradigms. Storytelling is used to relate to others and navigate our own human stories as well. This skill has allowed me to enhance my public speaking, organizational, and presentation skills.

2) Perseverance – my ability to persevere through tough times and develop mental toughness is something that I was fortunate enough to be born with. I don’t allow rejections or doors closing to discourage me and my efforts. I’ve been able to channel the word “no” as a tool to propel me forward. “No” doesn’t mean stop to me, it means “next opportunity.” I think it’s important to have this quality and develop it, especially as an artist because you will run into way more “closed doors” than open ones. For “Yes,” it seems like they’re either preceded or followed by 10 “No’s.” So you have to have thick skin and be able to keep pursuing your creative endeavors in spite of the disappointments you encounter. With this ability persevering comes with an outrageous amount of belief. You have to fully believe in yourself 110% and bring your goals to fruition.

3) Lifelong Student – I think it’s important for people to know that you should never stop educating yourself. It may be easy to stop learning if you’re not enrolled in some sort of educational institution but this is a quick way to stagnate your growth as a professional and as a human being. I would encourage people to take advantage of “YouTube University” and now with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, there’s practically no reason why you should be ignorant of a subject matter that you’re interested in. We’re living in an age where information is right at our finger tips. So no matter how accomplished you are or you think you are, there’s always something to learn, something to improve upon, refresh, or polish up. Stay hungry and keep pursuing your greatness.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
Particularly when it comes to film, I believe it’s good to learn a little bit of everything so you can understand the personnel of a film set and how all of the pieces of the puzzle come together. It’s good to understand everyone’s job so you can know how your job helps everyone else’s. Especially, if you want to be a director. You have to know how to speak the language of each department so you can effectively communicate your vision to your crew. However, I do believe once you have a general idea of each facet of production, it will probably serve you best to eventually specialize in a particular area. Film is a team sport and it’s about each individual doing their job exceptionally well. If you become a master at your craft you can ensure that you’ll always have a job. You’ll be referred for gigs and in the film industry word-of-mouth is the best form of advertisement. Being well-rounded isn’t a bad thing but I believe eventually you have to pick one thing to really sink your teeth in and get laser-focused so you can carve out a lane for yourself. You can’t be a one-man team on set so it makes sense to train very hard at one specific skill.

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