Warning: Modest self-love and excessive appreciation to
@kinetibebstudios underway.
I’m grateful to
@yepnetwork for giving me the platform to explore some hidden dreams that were once aspirations. Ones that haven’t died, but let’s say have been contained.
Long before I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker. In my Google Drive lie many screenplays and scripts that may or may not see the light of day.
I digress.
Since 2017, YEP has given me the chance to shape the documentary style videos we showcase for the gala. When I chose Dear YEP as a series of letters, 15 letters for 15 years, it was because YEP’s impact is personal but vast. Sitting behind the scenes, hearing each letter, I kept rediscovering my “why.”
And Fitsum? I knew from the start he was the only one who could help bring my vision to life.
I want to share stories that I know he’ll never tell. He pulled several all nighters to finish this project. He was often working on this while at his day job. He wasn’t just generous with his talent, but his time. At the end of every person’s shoot, he would spend a lot of time afterwards engaging in conversation because he also felt personally invested in telling the YEP story. Even when he was dealing with family emergencies, he kept reiterating to me that he would not let me down.
As if the thought ever crossed my mind.
We didn’t pay him enough for the fraction of the work he did, let alone producing 16 high quality videos. You wouldn’t know that by the amount of hours he put in.
He was also my biggest cheerleader.
I hope you really hear these words. If there is a creative project you want to bring to life, go to
@kinetibebstudios . Everything his lens, camera and otherwise, touches turns to gold.
And yes, at the end, there’s that cheesy video clip of me finally cracking down five hours into one gala video. Because sometimes, figuring it out on camera is part of the story.
It was, without a doubt, the greatest creative project I have embarked on to-date.
Dear YEP, thank you 🤍
