artemus jenkins

“American Symphony: A Musical Conversation with Michelle Obama & Jon Batiste”

Social Promo, 2023

That phrase people say, “what’s for you, is for you”

This project is my greatest personal example of that for sure.

it was a few days after thanksgiving.

We done wit leftovers, me and my lady

Eating avocado toast at noon

And reflecting on being the least pressed to be working in December I had ever been

I just signed paperwork to confirm partnership on a docuseries pilot I’ve been developing for 5 years telling the story of Atlanta’s artist led spaces and the dreamers who came to or were born in this city to help others amplify their creative voices

Luckily I hadn’t quite announced to my social media following that I was about to UNPLUG or whatever

I happened to check the requests section of my DMs and noticed a producer from Netflix had been trying to contact me.

At some point I forgot to make sure my contact info was easy to get to on my portfolio site, but he had been referred to me by a friend and art collector

A DM reply from me, turned to a couple texts from him, which became a 15 minute conference call between us, all while being about three bites into this avocado toast.

Before the toast could get cold, I found out I was going to be telling the former First Lady of this country and a renaissance man for the ages what to do as a director of a social promo piece.

5 days later, I’m at the tech scout, eating up all the touristy NOLA staples and just taking the moment in.

This was the first time I had ever done a shoot like this, but it really wasn’t. Michelle Obama is EASILY the most recognizable celebrity I’ve ever worked with in any capacity, but what I’ve learned about connecting with people while behind a camera allows me to find that universal space we all coexist on.

This week, the story space just happened to be about following your dreams, your voice, your faith, your community and healing as an artist; a journey I certainly have a testimony for.  As I thought about how quickly I had gone from being on the couch in some slides, to first class flights and secret service meetings, I wondered what exactly was it that I could uniquely bring to this shoot.

There were so many talented people there, so many meetings and phone calls and revisions and things to not forget to do, so what am I doing here that no one else could?  I asked myself this about 20 minutes before everyone was gonna be looking dead at me to make all the decisions work. Although I didn’t edit or make a got damn decision about anything after we wrapped, the fact that this piece feels as good as it does and filled with lots of genuine heart felt ass moments, shows me that I was right about the thing I uniquely bring to a room full of the best talent in the country; the best of us know that art is really about creating a pathway for the right energy to flow and when it comes your way, make sure the camera is on, in focus and point in the right direction : )

directed by Artemus Jenkins

Cinematography by Ayinde Anderson

On November 6th, 2020 Peters Street Station hosted a live streamed movie night event called “The Black Joy Manifesto”. This evening featured 9 curated works presented by Atlanta filmmakers sharing stories that express their personal feelings about what Black Joy is and providing others with inspiration to achieve it for themselves.

Peters Street Station is a community center located in the historic Castleberry Hill neighborhood, home to the highest concentration of black land and business owners.This establishment prior to CO-ViD 19 regularly hosted live events and exhibitions for black creativity and celebration.

This event was imagined to provide filmmakers an opportunity to create art that would inspire during the trying times of this pandemic. Peters Street Station’s founding principles are rooted in promoting the skill of artists and illustrating to the Atlanta creative community that we have the ability to empower ourselves.

Directed and Produced by Artemus Jenkins

Co- Curated with Corey Davis

produced by Chispa House

documentary short. 2011

this was my first kinda sorta lengthy documentary project. I learned a lot about editing and collaboration on this project working with 2Chainz. In 2011 there was still a heavy contingency of DVD watchers. Barbershops, dorm rooms and trap houses around the world love watching a nice come-up story.

It was pretty much a two man team and we used a combination of archival footage, stuff I was shooting and flip camera footage shot by 2Chainz himself. I was self producing a film of my own at the time, so this definitely helped set the stage for me to make my next big jump as an emerging filmmaker.

we did a screening at the movie theaters off Camp Creek and then the documentary had "the internet going nuts" successfully introducing everyone to the man who went from Tity Boi to 2Chainz.

directed, shot and edited by Artemus Jenkins

produced by 2Chainz

feature length doc, 2012

this was my first longform project. I think my primary concern was not boring anyone to death! this is the first and only film about the lives and stories of the world's top black tattoo artists. within the film we dispel some myths centered around the artform such as "you can't tattoo color on dark skin" or that all black tattoo artists are lesser than their counterparts.

many of the artists from this film have continued to grow and extend their brands internationally. Ryan Henry was 2 years into tattooing and building his private studio in a local Chicago neighborhood. Now the show he headlines, “Black Ink Crew: Chicago” is going into it’s 6th season. By providing education about the artform of tattoo culture it has grown beyond the simple stereotypes and into a something many young artists are using to empower themselves and others.

Miya Bailey and I are currently in production for a new film on the impact of creative culture and economics. have you heard of Peters Street Station?

co-produced, directed, shot and edited by Artemus Jenkins

produced by Miya Bailey

story and concept by Miya Bailey

story consultation by KarynRose Bruyning

score by GO DREAMER and Jaye Price

docu-series, 2012

in 2010 the idea to do a more intimate story about strip club culture then I had ever seen, seemed like a good one. Growing up, the only pieces that came to mind, that were mainstream and about the taboo conversation of women in the sex industry were all about prostitution. More specifically the pieces that featured black women, were one sided in their perspective really only giving the men a voice.

Because Atlanta as a culture provides a bevy of choices when it comes to how you spend an evening, I had personally been to most of the clubs here from my time working as a music promoter. My interactions with the women had shown me that there was more depth to the women than shown on TV, so the decision was to do a project that actually allowed us to hear from the women, inside the clubs, telling their own stories.

When we released Power of Pussy (P.O.P) online it went viral in ways I didn't expect or really consider at all. We got hella coverage all over the web on sites like Vice, Bossip and Maurice Garland. People were ripping the video and putting it on their own youtube channels, getting views and what not (we seen’t ya!). I got asked to lecture at a white feminist group in the Midwest this one time. I went, they were friendly. At the time there weren't masses of people self producing docu-series and putting them on YouTube, especially not about this topic. Shortly after the series wrapped, a number of documentaries providing "new insight" and access to the strip clubs that run hip hop/ the stories of women who influence hip hop started popping up almost annually.

My friends would always come tell me that "someone is copying your idea" and personally I was never bothered by it, but I can't ignore the fact that people really did start making ALOT of content about strip club culture after we did it. I do appreciate how much the conversation has opened up though….

produced, directed shot and edited by Artemus Jenkins

story consultation by KarynRose Bruyning

score by GO DREAMER

doc short, 2014

my mentor Khary Bruyning inspired the title of this film. back when I was getting flewed out for work on the regular I would always notice that people who I couldn't understand were always talking to me like I should. he told me it was the world's way of calling out to me.

The City of Ink Collective decided to take the culture being incubated within the City of Atlanta on the road to the biggest art fair in the world. Show the world what the south had to offer across the board as visual artists was the goal. I had never been to Basel and it was winter so money was getting tight, but with my mentor's advice in my mind, I just had to take the trip. I drove my own car as a matter of fact and was made better for it. I personally just wanted to understand more about a world of art that was opening up to me as I myself, developed into an artist. there wasn't a ton of planning on my part for this one, I just had to answer the call the world was making to me. this film also represented another major step in a developing project on the impact of arts and culture on all of our lives.

produced, directed, shot and edited by Artemus Jenkins

story consultation by KarynRose Bruyning