Hard work and sheer determination surely pays off. For Michelle Serieux, seizing every opportunity handed to her has contributed greatly to her success. She was never afraid to try anything, even though it was new to her and sometimes strange. Michelle Bevlyn Lana Serieux is a 31-year-old accomplished filmmaker who hails from our beautiful and scenic island St. Lucia. She was born at Victoria Hospital in Castries and raised in the Upper Goodlands community of Morne Fortune, Castries. During her childhood she spent most of her vacation in Mon Repos. Michelle believes in continually enhancing her knowledge and skills, so she has spent a lot of time in school. She first attended St Michael’s Pre School in Castries, then the Morne Du Don Government Combined School, followed by St Joseph’s Convent. From there she went on to Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, followed by one year of prep school at the University of Cienfuegos in Cuba, and then three years at the University of the West Indies and Edna Manley College in Jamaica where she did a BA in Media and Communications with minors in Cultural Studies and Drama. Subsequently she got an MA in Film and Cinema at Columbia University, New York and after that a Professional Producing Certificate at New York University’s School Of Continuing and Professional Studies.
Dazzle Magazine had the privilege of chatting with Michelle and learning more about her eventful journey.
Dazzle: Was this your original career path, if not what was?
Michelle: My original career path was to be a forestry engineer. Between St. Joseph’s Convent and A-Level I studied a mix of languages and sciences, so upon leaving school I accepted a scholarship to study Natural Sciences in Cuba. Ever the pragmatist, I decided to go to Cuba where I could have “the best of both worlds” and do Sciences while living in a Spanish speaking country.
Dazzle: What was your first job?
Michelle: My first ‘job’ was as a lifeguard at Summer Swim Camp that my oldest sister Elizabeth Serieux and her friend Abigail Williams coordinated every summer to teach St Lucian children how to swim. I did a couple lifeguard courses and so my first little pre-teenage ‘job’ was that. A few summers after, I was a Junior Counsellor at Camp Ciceron. During my time at A-Level I interned at Customs and Excise during the summer period, so that was my entry into the world of big people work, the “9-5.”
Dazzle: What do you love about your job?
Michelle: I love the spontaneity of my work. Every day there is something different and interesting to tackle. The other great thing is that I work for myself, and that’s a source of pride for me because I don’t know many people who would finish grad school and consciously decide to set off on that mission, especially with a student’s loan to pay back.
Dazzle: What’s the name of your company and when/where was it established?
Michelle: My legal company in Jamaica is called SerieuxCinema but it operates under the trademark New Caribbean Cinema which I share with my Jamaican business partner and fellow filmmaker Storm Saulter. The other founding members of New Caribbean Cinema are Joel Burke and Nile Saulter. We all have specialized skills and together we make up a team that has been working pretty well and I am very happy to be a part of that.
Dazzle: What is the nature of your business?
Michelle: We are a video production company; we do commercial work as well as our own creative filmmaking projects. So far as a team, we have had a pretty cool range of clients. Jointly we’ve done work for Red Bull Media House, Sandals/ATL, Martha Stewart Weddings, Red Stripe/Diaegeo, Gatorade and a list of other companies locally and internationally who respect the quality and high standard of our work and our creativity.
Dazzle: What’s your highest achievement thus far?
Michelle: I am really proud of the fact that my niece, Jordan Serieux considers me her role model. She is so smart and funny and full of talent herself. She sings, dances, plays a violin, drums and is teaching herself the guitar at 12 years old. Derek Walcott always used to say to me that ‘writing should be the writer’s 9-5, if you’re a writer, WRITE, make that your job,’ and I want to live that life. I was also a semi-finalist in a Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab.
Dazzle: What kind of films do you like to produce – music videos/movies/documentaries?
Michelle: I am a filmmaker, which means that story-telling is what I love. I love independent cinema, so quirky character-driven narratives are my favorite in terms of movies but the documentary form I find really interesting as well. In the Caribbean we have a perception that documentaries are boring, but I have found that filmmakers who have mastered the art of creative documentary filmmaking have an opportunity to not just tell stories but help bring people’s attention to important issues by virtue of telling the story of that issue in an interesting way. That’s really hard to do but also very exciting. I love documentaries that are able to achieve that balance because if the story is well told, I as the viewer will then log on to the project website and tune in to the larger issues and then, through my participation, contribute to changing the world. I don’t know that the other forms have that power and for me, as someone who is socially conscious, I want to be able to make my own impact in that way as well.
Dazzle: What’s your favourite production thus far?
Michelle: My favourite production at this point is Ring Di Alarm really because of the way in which that project was conceived and executed. It is a feature film composed of seven short stories by six different directors (myself included) but the special thing about it is that it is completely self-funded by NCC and definitely what I would call ‘coup-de-main’ cinema. We did it true indie style, each one help one, and the camaraderie and collaboration that it took is truly inspiring. When we tell people about our process, how it took us close to three years to finish because we would work on a commercial then use that money to fund the film so it was a start-and-stop process, and how the crews worked for free and everyone gave us their sweat, talent and time simply because they believed in what we were doing and because they too needed the opportunity to showcase their own capabilities, audiences everywhere are inspired by that. It is testimony to our philosophy of start where you stand, that by embracing limitations and lack of resources, we are still able to create and press ahead.
Dazzle: Name one famous actor/artiste you have produced for?
Michelle: I have just come off a shoot for Shaggy’s new music video Mi Love Jamaica, which was exec produced by RedBull Media House. I have produced and directed a number of short form documentaries for Red Bull over the past three years and so they came to me to direct and produce a behind the scenes story about the project for their media house, which is based in Europe. I have also had the opportunity to collaborate with the Obie Award-winning actor Roger Guenver Smith who is known for his work in films such as the Huey P Newton Story, American Gangster, and a host of Spike Lee films. He is also in Better Mus’ Come as well as my own short film Missed which is part of Ring Di Alarm.
Dazzle: Which one of your productions was the most difficult to execute and why?
Michelle: I produced a series of adverts for Diageo/Red Stripe beer which involved a seven-foot mascot called RED the bear. The concept was devised by an agency in Jamaica and was a four-part series where the storyline was a very Mission Impossible-style angle. This involved having the seven-foot bear rappelling down from a warehouse to steal cases of Red Stripe beer and also having the said bear abducted by aliens from outer space who needed Red Stripe beer to make their party come alive. It was a very ambitious project and we had a great production crew in Jamaica, as well as a computer graphics/animation team out of Los Angeles to do the alien spaceship abduction sequences. It was a very long pre-production process and required extreme attention to detail and safety, hiring a military consultant to get the spy team sequences looking authentic. We also had to teach the actor in the beer suit how to safely rappel from the ceiling while wearing this heavy gear and also create a crime scene that was realistic and also funny. It was definitely challenging but we did the job successfully and were subsequently re-hired for other work which included the production of Red Stripe’s groundbreaking Jamaican 50th Independence Anniversary campaign which was screened all around the world to celebrate Jamaica’s Independence Jubilee because the final product was so inspiring.
Mission Impawsible: Pt 3: Party from New Caribbean Cinema on Vimeo.
Dazzle: What other opportunities has your career created for you?
Michelle: My career is going pretty well and the opportunities that have come are simply the result of hard work and preparation. I love learning and am always taking courses to increase my knowledge and so the opportunities come if you are prepared to receive them. I really want to be a prolific filmmaker so my long-term goal is to be able to write, direct and produce stories that are meaningful; produce a body of work that can be looked at in years to come as true reflections of Caribbean culture and its diverse complexity. The really great opportunities for me are meeting other like-minded creatives from the Caribbean who are as dedicated to their vocations. It is inspiring to me whenever I meet people whose attitude to life is one of freethinking independence because that takes a lot of balls, especially in the post-colonial conservative Caribbean that we come from.
Dazzle: Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
Michelle: In the next 5 years I will be making films, but will have a wider platform via which to showcase them. It’s all in the works right now, lots to look forward to.
Dazzle: Where do you get your inspiration?
Michelle: I am inspired by people, brave rebellious people, and by the beauty of the Caribbean. I am really inspired by the resourcefulness and resilience of Caribbean people and it helps me keep going. Derek Walcott is also an inspiration because he dared to be the best and succeeded.
Dazzle: How do you overcome writers block?
Michelle: By taking a break, meditating and then getting right back to writing. You cannot force inspiration. It needs the right environment to present itself but once it’s there, attack the page.
Michelle’s achievements speak for themselves. We would like to congratulate her for discovering her passion and not being afraid to follow it. The arts are the least recognised profession in the Caribbean and it takes a bold and strong individual to venture into it and make a career out of it. Michelle is undoubtedly an inspiration to us all and we hope that she continues advancing in her career.
Dazzle would like to urge Saint Lucians to support their own and lend any form of encouragement possible. We look forward to working with Michelle in the near future as we bestow upon her the title “MS UNSTOPPABLE.”.
