“I was kind of a troubled teenager, you could say,” Chassidy Jade says with a bit of a chuckle, but she adds, she found a mentor in fellow church-attendee Ron Crawford, who worked for Fox 13 News and encouraged her to try filmmaking. “He gave me a camera and was like, ‘You just need something to do.’ I was always a creative person, and I just didn’t know where to put that energy. I had no idea about filmmaking or how it worked.” Now, Jade works remotely in Memphis as an editor for Parallax Post, a production studio in L.A., in addition to pursuing her own creative projects and developing her production studio Crown Me Royal Labs. Yet, even in the whirlwind of her burgeoning career, she still seeks to follow her mentor’s example and expose the Memphis community, “especially Black and Brown girls,” to opportunities in the film and media industry.
One such step in her ambitions is this weekend’s Crown Me Royal Film Festival, which will have panels, workshops, and more for those curious about the film industry. “A lot of our panelists and people on the lineup for workshops are people who work behind the scenes, not in front of the camera,” Jade says. “So we have voice actors, we have editors, cinematographers, we have Carmeon Hamilton who has her own show on HGTV. … People will be able to meet the people who work on these big projects for Netflix, HBO, BET, [and more].” Of course, no film festival would be complete without a few movies, and Crown Me Royal won’t disappoint with screenings of The Last Dragon, short films by youth filmmakers, and short films centered around Black male voices, some even local.
“[The festival’s] also a place for people to network, have fun, and experience some local vendors and installations,” Jade says. “We have a lot of free activities [like pottery and shea butter making].” To close the festival, Jade will host her fourth annual “Visuals & Vibes,” an exhibition of film and other forms of art by female artists. “It’s not just paintings,” Jade says. “You’ll see a henna artist and a pole dancer and a body painter [and more].”
“It’s really a festival that’s for everyone,” she adds. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit crownmeroyallabs.com/filmfest.
Crown Me Royal Film Fest, various locations, Friday-Sunday, July 29-31, $25-$100.
