Source: Jayden Rivera / other
This August, Amanda Seales released her latest project In Amanda We Trust: An Unapologetically Political Comedy Doc. Now, she’s sharing the thought process, hard work, and soul-searching that went into creating the comedy documentary in the latest episode of the Small Doses with Amanda Seales podcast.
In the film, Seales, fitted in a bright pink power suit, ventures to the nation’s capital to weigh a run for office. There, she chats with the D.C. locals and sits down with the “Squad” Reps. Jamaal Bowman and Ilhan Omar, who tells her, “Your afro is needed here.”
In this episode of Small Doses, Seales reflects on the long journey and the many changes that the comedy documentary went through from start to finish. The actress and comedian reflects on overcoming self-doubt to reach the finished product. “My original intention was, ‘I need to prove myself … that I’m still a comic, that I’m still valuable out here’ … now the intention is, ‘I just need to make something dope,” she says. “Ultimately I listened to my intuition.”
Seales decided to independently produce the comedy documentary under her own Smart Funny & Black Productions, which allowed her total creative freedom. Now, the film is available on Patreon for $15.
“Unfortunately, the way capitalism is set up, people don’t put value to your work if you don’t put value to your work first,” Seales explains. “It meant something to me that we make something that has actual intrinsic value beyond just humor. I wanted something that would show folks more insight into the value of being civically informed, of being civically involved. I also wanted to show Black people who are civically informed and civically involved. With Reps. Bowman and Omar, I wanted to demonstrate, this is what public servants look like versus politicians.”
Now on the other side of this journey, Seales is proud of the work that she and her team produced.
“I hope it feels good to you to know that you supported an independent project that came from the mindset of art, social justice and responsibility and the mindset of wanting to make something in spite of those not wanting to give you a yes. You’ve got to create your own yeses,” she says.
Watch In Amanda We Trust by visiting InAmandaWeTrust.com.
Get the full behind-the-scenes episode here. Or listen on Apple or Spotify.
SEE ALSO:
Small Doses With Amanda Seales: Side Effects Of Therapy (With Dr. Raquel Martin)
‘Small Doses’ With Amanda Seales: Side Effects Of Police Gangs (With Cerise Castle)
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