Director Joslyn Rose Lyons invited by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
“I am grateful to be a panelist at this year’s class of #GoldRising’s project showcase. The pitches were fantastic. Amazing work coming out of #AcademyGold. Thank you Gold Rising and The Academy of Motion PIcture Arts and Sciences for inviting me to be part of this inspiring showcase” – Joslyn Rose Lyons
Joslyn Rose wrote and directed the Award winning short film ‘Looking Glass’ starring Jallal Mali, which features an ensemble cast of actors, artists and musicians from the Bay Area including, DJ Umami, Ryan Nicole-Peters, and DJ Ammbush, and embraces the struggle to overcome complacency while visually embodying the spirit of Oakland’s creative community.
Looking Glass was positively received, premiering at Sundance London, winning The American Film Award and TopShorts Best Female Director, and was selected as Pan African Film Festival 2021, Joslyn Rose Lyons was awarded Best Female Director by TopShorts and the film has been awarded by festivals including Florence Film Awards, The American Film Award, Prince of Prestige Academy Awards, Cinema of the World International Film Festival, The IndieFEST, Festigious Los Angeles, Global Independent Film Awards, Gold Movie Awards, Focus International Film Festival, 2021 ARFF Amsterdam // International Awards, Indie Open Screen, Los Angeles Film Awards, Venice Shorts, The Pan African Film Festival, Berlin Flash Film Festival, World London Film Festival Hollywood Verge Film Awards, Malibu Film Festival.
Joslyn Rose Lyons on the inspiration behind her TopShorts Best Female Director award and her inspiration behind making the mini-short:
“It’s an honor that TopShors recognized the film in this way, and Sundance London, PAFF, and so many other festivals this year. At the time of conceptualizing the mini short, I had just finished reading a book called The Big Leap which explores the concept of taking that courageous leap from your ‘excellence zone’ to your ‘genius zone’ so this was a concept also present when I wrote the short.
I have always been fascinated by the idea of time. Looking Glass was in some ways my love letter to time. I shared the short with Sundance Co//ab and I was honored when I got a call to say that their artist-in-residence, Trey Ellis (HBO’s The Tuskegee Airmen, True Justice) had seen Looking Glass, and Sundance wanted to invite me to screen the film as part of their Sundance London” – Joslyn Rose Lyons
Jallal Malik on Women in Film:
“women are the backbone of society at large. Without them we are truly nothing. We as men can’t just opt them out. It doesn’t work like that. In the world of entertainment, not many women get appreciated for the hard work they do on screen and behind.
That needs to be normalized and not overshadowed. It’s unfair. Looking glass was not an attempt to show a random emotion. It was a careful integration of a manifesto that has everything to deal with the essence of time. Time isn’t to be taken lightly. It us something to really hone in on. That’s what Joslyn did in the short.. she honed in. I honed in. We spent our time creating a piece on why time is so important. To me that supersedes anything else I ever done.“- Jallal Malik
Joslyn has directed music videos, short films and behind the scenes specials for the likes of Academy Award Winning and Grammy Award winning Actor/Artist Common, Academy Award Winning Actor/Artist Mahershala Ali, Vince Staples, Chad Hugo (Neptunes/ N.E.R.D.), Mali Music, Erykah Badu, Cee-Lo Green, Saul Williams, Too $hort, E-40, among others.
Among her music videos, Joslyn Rose made her music video directorial debut with ‘The Majors’, for Prince ALI (Academy Award Winning Actor Mahershala Ali), the video premiered on BET.
A collaboration with MYXTV then followed, where Joslyn directed ‘The Path/Honor Code’ for prince ALI (Academy Award Winning Actor Mahershala Ali), featuring Dilated Peoples, and Souls of Mischief.
In her black and white visuals for E-40’s ‘Fast Lane’, she brought a “1930’s slow motion, Harlem Nights feel” to the visuals for ‘N The Traffic’, as noted by Mass Appeal.
In Joslyn’s eclectic directorial approach for ‘Frozen Hearts’ a Chad Hugo (N.E.R.D./The Neptunes) produced single for ‘The Quarry’ in which Hugo samples Angelina Jolie’s Governors Awards Speech, she creates a cinematic series of intimate narrative vignettes featuring actors such as Rafael Casal (‘BlindSpotting’) “where things aren’t quite as they seem” as noted by The Fader Magazine.
Joslyn Rose is a featured director in the TV Tribe for the Lifestyle Brand Strivers Row, she produced a behind the scenes documentary for Imagine Justice founded by Grammy Award Winning and Academy Award Winning actor/artist Common, an organization dedicated to empowering communities and fighting injustice.
Joslyn Rose created and co-executive produced and directed the hit series SAME ENERGY for UNINTERRUPTED with her Media34 creative partner Matt Barnes, (Showtime Sports Host of “All the Smoke”). The series featured Marshawn Lynch and 2 Chainz.
Joslyn Rose Lyons partners with STARZ on their new #STARZTaketheLead initiative, working with the feature documentary “Speaking Truth to Power”, which features powerful interviews from Rep. Barbara Lee, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Alice Walker, Cory Booker, Danny Glover and will be released on Lionsgate/STARZ later this year.
Joslyn Rose Lyons is a member of the Alliance of Women Directors, AWD is an inclusive collective of professional women-identifying and gender nonbinary directors working together to affect positive, lasting change in the entertainment industry.
