FITCHBURG — Jaden Blake is looking forward to sharing his film “The Black Gig” at a screening on Wednesday evening, a passion project of his that comes from a very personal place.
The 21-year-old Fitchburg State University (FSU) junior’s film was accepted into Visions, an annual juried showcase of the year’s best original work from the Communications & Media Tech department. The program will take place on campus on Wednesday, April 22, with a full lineup of events beginning at 4:30 p.m. and the film screenings kicking off at 8 p.m. in Weston Auditorium.
Blake grew up in Mattapan, a neighborhood in Boston he still calls home. He attended Wakefield Public Schools from first through 12th grade through The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), a program founded during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement that has enrolled tens of thousands of Boston students of color in predominantly white school districts with the mission to allow students to experience the advantages of learning and working in a racially and ethnically diverse setting.
It was his time as a Black student at Wakefield Memorial High School that inspired “The Black Gig,” which leans into his experience there.
“I was always aware of how my blackness was a factor in how people would interact and perceive me,” Blake said. “Usually, it would come in the form of stereotypes, trying to gauge how ‘Black’ I truly was. If I fit into one, I was blacker, and if I didn’t, I was whitewashed. Because of this, I would sometimes feel the need to play into and perform those stereotypes, not because I believed them, but because it felt like that was what people wanted from me. They wanted someone whom they could tell their racist jokes to and confirm their prejudices. This relationship, in a way, felt like a job, or in other words, a gig.”
“The Black Gig” tells the story of three Black students navigating a predominantly white school. According to information on IMDb about the 19-minute short film, one looks for identity, another seeks acceptance, and the third one chooses to conform, with each of them trying find their place in an environment where they aren’t favored.
“The message of ‘The Black Gig’ is that when marginalized people must navigate in the dominant group’s space, they become susceptible to stereotype threat which is when they feel they must perform their stereotypes to claim their identity,” Blake said. “However, the identity they’re after is one manufactured by the dominant group to confirm their biases.
“I included the METCO program in the film, not because I blame METCO for my experience but because I believe the program unintentionally causes this phenomenon among its students,” he continued. “African American students are bused to a white neighborhood for better access to educational resources. Now they must exist in a space where they are constantly ‘othered,’ whether that’s purposeful or unintentional, by the residents in the neighborhood. A personal experience I brought into the film was the story told by the character of Makai. That experience has stuck with me throughout my life because, unlike the others, it wasn’t framed as a joke; it was a complete rejection of my humanity.”
Blake is a communications major with a concentration in film and video, a path he chose after discovering his fervor for “visual storytelling” in his high school film classes. He decided to attend FSU in part because his high school film teacher when there and recommended it and after touring the college with his family, he said he “found it very easy to choose FSU.”
His goal is to become a film director and while he doesn’t yet have “a full defined career path,” Blake knows he wants to “create stories that entertain audiences and spark meaningful conversations.”
“I want to craft my art with creative freedom and not having to conform to external expectations, especially those around my blackness,” he disclosed. “If there’s anything I want my art to represent, it’s that blackness doesn’t have to exist in contrast to whiteness — it can exist on its own terms.”
He came up with the idea for “The Black Gig” while preparing for a directing class with one of his FSU professors, Rachelle Dermer.
“Once we started working on our final projects, I had to gather my crew and cast which mainly meant finding people I knew and asking for their help,” Blake said of the process. “I’d say the biggest challenge for me was finding the confidence to reach out to others. At that time, I was much more introverted, so spontaneously asking for people’s help was uncomfortable, but a great way to break out of my shell.”
He cast Christian Dedier as Jackson, Jiovanni Walker as Harlo, Darren Simmons as Makai, and Mateo Larralde as John. And then once Blake got together with his cinematographer Phineas Potter, the two of them immediately began working on creating a shot list, mapping out locations, and setting filming dates.
“After that filming was pretty easy,” said Blake, adding that they filmed it over five days, four hours each day.
Blake took on many roles for his film including writer, director, producer, and editor.
“I enjoy many aspects of film production, so I didn’t mind stretching myself across jobs,” he said of multitasking.
“The Black Gig” screened at the Africa USA International Film Festival in Cannes, France last summer, an incredible accomplishment for the budding filmmaker. Being his first film festival experience, he “felt nervous going in, especially as one of the youngest attendees at age 20.”
“I think the greatest benefit of being part of the festival was meeting artists outside the U.S., which was an eye-opener to the creativity happening everywhere,” Blake imparted. “Some of the foreign artists could also relate to the themes and experiences in my film, showing me how universal they are.”
His short won Best Experimental Film “for its unorthodox portrayal of the Black experience in a white space” and Blake said he “very grateful to have had this as my first film festival experience.”
When asked what he hopes people take away from “The Black Gig,” he said one of the messages he worked to convey through it “is that your identity isn’t something you should have to bargain for.”
“You shouldn’t have to check off a list of qualifications, you shouldn’t have to confirm negative biases, and you shouldn’t have to put down others who share that identity to feel better in comparison,” Blake said. “Your identity isn’t a card that you only have access to when others permit you; it’s a part of who you are. Don’t let others corrupt that part to satisfy their boredom.”
He recently received some good news — “The Black Gig” was accepted into the 28th annual Roxbury International Film Festival, which takes place both in person and online this summer. And Blake appreciates FSU screening the film this week, giving a lot of credit to his teachers and fellow students when it comes to his meaningful project coming to fruition.
“I wouldn’t have made it without the supportive environment I found here. Creating this film with the help of my professors and peers was a process of personal and creative growth I’ll never forget,” Blake said. “Accessing pain for the sake of creating art was something this film’s production taught me and my directing class with Rachelle Dermer, through the presentation of Tonia Magras’s ‘Stranger Fruit,’ helped me discover it. I think what I’m most looking forward to about the screening is being able to share this film and its message with others and, hopefully, start a conversation.”
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