Happy New Year! Happy 2024!
2023 was great but 2024 is going to be better.
Happy New Year! Happy 2024! Last year, now barely in the rearview mirror, was incredible. There were so many highlights that made 2023 an astonishing year. Number one on the list was my younger sister’s wedding. Her big day also serves as a reunion for our family as relatives came from all over the world to London, in August, to celebrate her union. A couple of days later, I attended my very first Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland.
The following month, I attended the DC Shorts Intentional Film Festival. Then on Saturday, October 7th, I sat in a packed auditorium at Webster Hall in New York City, to watch and listen to the conversation between David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker and Spike Lee as part of the New Yorker Festival. The following week, I was in London for the BFI London Film Festival. And finally, in November, I attended the inaugural HBCU First Look Film Festival at Howard University. There I had a chance to interact with young and seasoned filmmakers. It was an inspiring experience for me as a fledgling filmmaker to be able to experience those festivals for the very first time. I was in awe of the actors, screenwriters, directors, and other creatives, in the industry, I met at the festivals. I watched some incredible films, and I listened to directors explain and deconstruct their creative process.
I needed to be in those spaces, and I needed to see and hear those filmmakers. Their presence and words offered me hope of what is possible. I’m so pumped and excited about the possibilities 2024 holds. My number one goal for the new year is to finish the script I am working on and direct my first short film. It is very scary to think about this process, but I think I have more than enough tools in my toolbox to make this happen.
I am so thankful to see 2024, and I am ready to hit the ground running. But for now, I give thanks to my creator for this gift of life, great health, family, and friends. My very existence is made richer and better because they are in it. Finally, I plan to be more relaxed and not to be easily overwhelmed in the process of working towards and accomplishing each goal I set for myself in 2024 and beyond.
AJ Collins