HSPVA Friends is so excited to honor Justin Simien (Theatre ’01) as Kinder HSPVA’s Distinguished Alumnus at the 15th annual Encore event, Encore at the Drive-In! Our 2021 venue, the MoonStruck Drive-In, will be a perfect showcase for his accomplishments in film and television.
Justin has credited his time at HSPVA as key to his development as a filmmaker:
“PVA was so open,” he says. “Diversity wasn’t a thing you had to put in the brochure. It was a given. You were constantly engaging with people of different backgrounds and celebrating things that were new.”
Even as a child, Simien knew he wanted to work in film, which is why he applied to the performing arts high school even though it didn’t have a film department.
“That was my naivete,” he says, laughing. “I thought theater would be like film. But it was still the best thing that happened to me. It opened me up completely. The fact that I acted for the first time made me a better director.”
(from a 2014 interview with the Houston Chronicle)
Before you hear his keynote presentation on March 30th, check out these links and videos to learn more about his past and current projects.
Don't @ Me
Justin Simien’s podcast Don’t @ Me welcomes a new guest each episode for “unfiltered conversations” with actors, artists, and creators who shape “black, queer and other emerging popular cultures.” Start with the most recent episode featuring fellow HSPVA alum and Emmy-nominated television director Dime Davis (Theatre ’04), where the two reminisce about their time in high school and how an HSPVA education set them up for success in their creative careers.
Dear White People - A film, a book, and a series
Justin’s break-out hit was the 2014 film Dear White People, starring then-newcomer Tessa Thompson. (You can also find a number of HSPVA alumni in both the film and television adaptation!) Justin wrote and directed the film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where he was recognized with a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent. After the theatrical release of the film, he was also awarded Best First Screenplay and nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film also earned him a nomination for the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award at that year’s Gotham Awards, along with a nomination for the Audience Award, and he was included in Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch” roundup for that year.
Justin adapted the film into a critically acclaimed series for Netflix, which premiered in 2017, and is going into its fourth and final season.
He also wrote a book based in part on the film – Dear White People: A Guide to Inter-Racial Harmony in “Post-Racial” America. Written at the crossroads of satire and humor, the book takes another look at the topics explored in the film and series.
You can hear Justin discussing some of his directorial technique in this clip with the American Film Institute’s Movie Club.
Bad Hair
Justin’s most recent film, Bad Hair, took him into new territory: the horror movie! Billed as part horror-comedy and part psychological thriller, the story follows Anna (played by fellow HSPVA alum Elle Lorraine, Theatre ’04) as she tries to decide just how far she’ll go to find success at the music-television network where she works. When she changes her image and gets a weave from the high-end salon recommended by her new boss, Anna discovers she’s gotten much more than a new look.
Set in 1989, the film explores the expectations and compromises forced on Black people, and Black women especially, during a pivotal change in American culture. Though it is a period piece, Justin explains the film is meant to point out how these problems continue to shape Black identity in America.
As horrifying as the weave techniques sounded to me, the real horror I felt was coming through the feeling that Black women constantly have to choose between themselves and their ambitions. Coming as you are is never the first option. Maybe you’re a woman who likes to have her hair straight, or maybe you prefer it kinky and natural, but “as you are” is never the first choice. You have to figure out, “What do they want?” And then, “What parts of myself do I have to cut off to fit in the box of what they want?”
(From an interview with Polygon, in October 2020)
You can watch Bad Hair on Hulu. Check out the official trailer, as well as a music video made for the film by Houston favorite Kelly Rowland as the character “Sandra.” Music and dance play a big role in the film, thanks to yet another great HSPVA alumna – Jamila Glass (Vocal ’01), the film’s choreographer.
