Aisha Raison is a local filmmaker who participated in our Bridging the Distance program, which is a series done in response to current events. We had the pleasure of having a conversation about her film, “Stolen Moments on the Eighth Flo’,” loneliness amidst quarantining, and making the most of this time as a creative.
MW: Tell me a little about your film “Stolen Moments on the 8th Flo.” Where did you draw your inspiration?
Aisha Raison
“My project is called “Stolen Moments on the 8th Floor,” well, Flo. Actually, it was an idea I had since I was about 14 years old. I fell in love with Oliver Nelson’s version of “Stolen Moments” when I was 14 and listening to the radio. The song haunted me for years—and I’m 48—so imagine how long it’s been. So, my goal was to go in and try to use the song or at least the idea. If you watch the video rather carefully, you’ll see that it actually takes place over a three-month span. I actually started the beginning on March 17th. You see a lot of change, from my hair, weight loss, and flowers (my sunflowers just came out!). I wanted to talk about how all of it felt. At the time, I had just started working with this group, and one of the deals I had to follow was that I wouldn’t date until October. But then the pandemic happened, and I was like wow! Okay. That puts me in a real tiff. So, I thought about what it would feel like if you were completely by yourself with no one to reach out to you. Someone could be as close as living across from you, and all you could do was wave from a distance. Fortunately enough, my writing partner and I were doing a lot of writing. We just finished our first series that we’re working on next year. I asked if he would do me this favor and he said okay. Because he is someone I’ve known for a while, he came through in a pinch! He lives in Atlanta, and I’m in Memphis. Whenever he would come up I would tell him what I needed him to do and not to ask questions. Most of it was done in a three-month span, but his part probably took a day.”
What is your artistic practice, and what inspired you to become an artist?
Photograph by Aisha Raison
“I started writing when I was 10 or 11 years old. I’ve been doing photography since age three, when my dad put a camera in my hand as a kid. So I did that really young, but I didn’t take film seriously until she was fired from a job a while ago. In the middle of that, I started learning how to put film together. But I still didn’t really understand. A year later, I started trying to do more things and figure it out. I had just finished my first book, Speaking in Cursive, when someone asked me for the 18th time what inspired me to write it. I got tired of explaining it, so I made a short film out of it. After that, I loved making film, and I wanted to do it again. Spike Lee was always someone I looked up to and snuck into the movies to see. After that, I wanted to be a filmmaker. I wanted to be Spike Lee. I wanted to do these different things and put them together. But I didn’t take it seriously until 2016. Yesterday was actually the anniversary of me making a short called The Rightful Name which went viral—within a couple of hours it had around 5,000 views. It just kept going and going and it’s still going now. So it’s a big deal when people go in and see that. You don’t know what you’re touching, who would see something like that which would make them feel a certain emotion. Films are more than some ego thing where you’re trying to make yourself or someone else look good. It’s really about the human emotions that I love, in this one especially. It’s funny because I’ve had a lot of people, especially women, reach out to me since it’s been done and say that they just cried and watched it over and over again. And I’m sitting here like…crying? There’s no crying. What? I watched it like four or five times myself and started to understand where they were coming from.”
MW: What did the process of creating this piece look like to you—were you quarantining at the time?
Still from “Stolen Moments on the Eight Flo’”
“I was here. My home is my happy abode, outside of going to my mom’s once a week. I cleaned up my house hard! I don’t know about anybody else, but you could eat off the floor here. Fortunately enough, I have a balcony that overlooks the city, so I could overlook all these things unfold and happen. I don’t live too far from LeBonheur, so I could see and hear everything. But when we did the lockdown, it was silent. Absolutely quiet. The one thing that kept me sane was my camera. I was fortunate enough to have that and go in and practice, even with learning how to grow my garden. I’ve been talking to my friends and I’ve become the plant hospital. I’m taking care of everyone’s plants. I took some begonias that were drying on the steps of my friends house that were drying out. I built a bar. I started watching Community. Outside of my landlord, my mom, and zoom, I haven’t got out much. When the protests started, I started getting out there. That was the first time I got out. As a photographer, I hadn’t taken any pictures at a protest since 2017. When all that was going on I had to make up my mind if that is what I wanted to do. I ended up going out and about for a few days. I’ve been trying to stay low key to see my mom and my nephew on the way. Right now, I’m trying to stay focused. I used to be a little bohemian, but now it’s full time. Working, loving, trying to figure out what my space is. This gave me more perspective on my art, and what I want to do and give to people. When you look at it, I don’t just want you to see a picture or a movie, I want you to feel something inside so you can move on and move forward with it.”
MW: What do you hope this project communicates to its viewers?
Photograph by Aisha Raison
“I think that one of the things that came out of quarantine is the fact that we are lonely. We spend a lot of time alone. And when you’re in a space and you’re single, you want to be bold, you want to be brave. But there’s a fear there. How do you go in and be like ‘Hey you’re watching me, I’m watching you?’ That’s a really bold thing. I want people to know that they’re not alone. I kept hearing these messages all the time saying 'we are here for you.’ I would stare at my TV like…Nah. Drop off some packages and show me that you’re here. The one thing I asked for from my writing partner was a picture that was done in April on Palm Sunday. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, but I was just like let’s take this picture and I’ll use it, I just don’t know how yet. Everyone that’s seen it, I think when they see the picture it is emotional for them. It means the world to me because it taught me that I wasn’t alone, I wasn’t in a bad space. I had the picture up every day while I was working. I want people to understand they’re not alone. It was hard for me the past couple of months, but I was calling my friends, my mom, or my son every day. So it was a big deal for me to feel like that was moving forward.”
MW: Why do you think it’s important for creatives to create during these uncertain times?
“Right before we shut down, I was supposed to do what is called Art of Science, which of course has been canceled for the year. But I was excited that I could sit down and do some work when it hit. I talked to a lot of my creatives, and we all felt the same way when we started getting called back to work. We weren’t ready to go yet—we were in this space where we were finally able to create. I spent so much time in the last year feeling like I didn’t have time.
“To create in a moment like this is like breaking and eating. It’s the one thing that keeps you sane. It’s the one thing that keeps you inspired.”
I got back from Ghana back in October, and when I got home it was like I hit the ground running and I was working and doing a lot. But I had all these great photos, I was supposed to do a show—it was supposed to be on the 11th, actually, but it will happen next year instead. But I kept moving. The thing about it was, I’ve gotta go create. To create in a moment like this is like breaking and eating. It’s the one thing that keeps you sane. It’s the one thing that keeps you inspired. You sit in and you have all these emotions. You cannot just sit still. You’ve got to put it on paper, on canvas, take a picture, mold something. I can understand being sad, I can understand being lonely, but I do not understand being a creative and having all this in you—you're angry, you’re outraged, you’re hurt, you’re upset—put it out there. Let yourself see it, then display it for other people. I’m not talking about just selling it or whatever. It’s about being able to put those things down. Leave it on the floor, on the canvas, whatever it is you gotta do. The one thing I know for a fact keeps me sane. Well, that and Amazon.”
MW: What themes are the most crucial to your work?
Still from “Stolen Moments on the Eight Flo’”
“Relationships. Not only with people but with yourself. There are a lot of things I can’t exactly expound on out loud. I’m a poet, I started out as a poet in Memphis in the 90s. So, sometimes I would be mad or angry and couldn’t express myself like I wanted to, so I wrote it all on paper. In filming, I want to expound on the same things and try to get people to understand them. The first film that went national was Girls Like Me, which I did in 2017. In Girls Like Me, it took a lot because one, I didn’t know what I was gonna talk about really. I had an idea but I was scared. I had a really good friend, another filmmaker, Mo Nunley. He cussed me out for writing 2, 3 books—you’re telling me you don’t have a script yet? I started pulling a lot of that out.
One of the things I wanted to make sure I was expounding on was the love of black women, especially when we see what society tells us what we are and what we’re not. I want to make sure that that was put out, and they could see themselves and love themselves. I want to make sure they appreciate themselves. This short I did I want to do the same. Yeah, it’s lonely, dating is an out right now. But we’re not alone. We want to feel those emotions. If anything, I hope that it inspires someone in a good way to be a little more open, if even from a distance. The guy who wrote the song in the video, Cautious Clay (he’s amazing). If you listen to the lyrics, they are saying the opposite of what the video is saying—but you have someone who is taking those feeling and says screw it. I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m gonna try it. That’s one of the things I wanted to put out there. No matter how far you want to be out of a relationship, Everyone needs love. Everybody wants to be held and hugged. I want people to see that in all of my work, to see what relationships come out of it. Loneliness is a beast and I want people to know that they’re not alone.”
MW: Who and what inspires your work lately?
Photograph by Aisha Raison
“I can’t just name one person. Spike Lee is one, but he’s not the only one. Boots Riley is another. I got a chance to sit down and dig into a lot of his work. I think I’ve watched Starting to Bother You about five times since I’ve been in. It’s my go-to movie when I’m in that mood. I love Ava DuVernay. I love a lot of her work especially. Gosh, there are so many filmmakers that I straight out love more than anything. Spike Jones is my go-to. I love, love love—If you’ve never seen Her, please do. He does what I love to do, to mess with your emotions and grab at you. I’ve been inspired a lot by that. My fav photographer right now, Mr. withers is one. Gordon Parks is my all-time. He’s always been that. My father moved me into Gordon Parks when I was a kid, and fell in love with his work, which is one of the reasons I wanted to travel and learn so much about photography and what I was doing. There are a lot of different people that inspire and move me. tori hall—nothing like her movie showing right before yours at your first showing! yeah, that’s not intimidating at all.. she’s one of my favorite writers and directors. I adore her because she’s just a woman. I hope to be in the same position as her like her in the future, she’s totally amazing, and I’m proud of her and to say that she’s one of the ones I want to be when I get better.”
MW: What’s next for you as an artist?
“Well next year, fingers crossed, I’ll be doing my first feature. It’s called Four Part Melody, a coming of age 80s movie about a little black girl in a small rural town who could spit like a boy. She could also rhyme, rap. It’s my life story. It’s comedy. The other is Pieces, which my partner and I wrote which is basically about how to get your old thing back. Part of it is our story, and part of it is fictional which changed names to protect the guilty and the innocent about this couple who get together, break up, and then find their way back together. We’ve done season one, but it won’t be able to be filmed until next year. We’ll hopefully do a table read before the year is out and do as much as possible. I’m also working on a short doc, its untitled for the movement. But with the moment, it haunts me a lot. At first I thought they were nightmares, but I think it’s a lot deeper than that. So I want to expound on a little bit of those that escaped from slavery and those in this area that escaped. My great great great and so on grandmother, Matilda, escaped from slavery in 1857. And she escaped and went to Fulton, TN. And she’s been following me in my head over the years of me trying to figure out how to tell her story and I realized it was like her story is in a lot of people who ended up escaping. So I’m working on a small doc to talk about that as well. Hopefully Ill get that done, it’ll probably take me a little while, because I want to get all the information because she’s the reason I’m here in the first place. Oh yeah, and I’m trying to get a degree. So just a little busy!”
Watch Aisha’s Film here!
