Randall Dottin Of New York Film Academy: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker
An Interview With Guernslye Honoré
Trust that you have everything you need right now to make the movie of your dreams.
As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Randall Dottin.
Randall Dottin received his BA from Dartmouth and his MFA from the Columbia University Graduate Film Division. His work focuses on how resistance, history and memory serve as either aids or obstacles in the creation of Black identity. Dottin’s MFA thesis film A-ALIKE was licensed by HBO and won numerous awards including the Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards. His second short LIFTED was sponsored by Fox Searchlight’s program for emerging directors — the Fox Searchlab. In July 2015, Lifted premiered on CBS as part of a collection of short films. Randall recently wrote and directed FEVAH, a short film starring Russell Hornsby (The Hate U Give, Fences) and LaRoyce Hawkins (Chicago PD). His documentary series THE HOUSE I NEVER KNEW is currently in production and explores how six families in Chicago, Houston and Boston fight against becoming casualties of housing segregation. The series recently received a grant from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. Recently, Dottin co-wrote, co-directed and produced MINE, an animated series whose pilot premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival and won Best Web Series at the 2022 American Black Film Festival. Dottin is Chair of the Screenwriting Department at New York Film Academy’s New York City campus where his former students have won screenwriting awards, film festivals and have recently begun careers as staff writers and producers on American, South African and European television shows.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?
My grandmother, Josephine Dottin, raised me and my younger brother in the 1980s. She was my first hero and the first activist I ever met. She was one of the few black librarians at Harvard University, she pushed the Harvard library system to hire more people of color and got me my first job checking IDs at Harvard University’s Widener Library.
Though my grandmother worked at Harvard, we still lived in public housing. One of the earliest lessons she imparted on us was that our current situation didn’t have to be our final destination. That first lesson taught me the power of resilience and to always keep my energy focused what I wanted to achieve.
My grandmother also taught me the importance of getting a great education — I credit my getting into Dartmouth because of the foundation she laid out.
At Dartmouth I had the good fortune of being a freshman when Shonda Rhimes was a senior. She directed me in one of the best plays I’ve ever read — Zooman and the Sign by Pulitzer Prize Winning playwright Charles Fuller. Shonda taught me that a great leader is strong, a great leader operates with a sense of rigor and discipline — but a great leader is also compassionate.
While at Dartmouth I got an internship at Spike Lee’s production company — 40 Acres and A Mule — in the story development department. Before DEI was a thing, Spike Lee was hyper focused on demystifying the filmmaking process and helping people from historically marginalized communities get work in the industry. From observing how he worked, I learned that if you care about diversity, you gotta do it yourself because no ones going to do it for you.
Spike taught me you must be your own hero. And if you want to change the game, you gotta give back any way you can — which I why I teach. The best exercise for the heart is reaching down and lifting somebody else up.
I got my MFA from Columbia and was the first African American to win the Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards for Best Narrative Short. My grandmother was the executive producer.
Throughout my life and career, I’ve benefitted tremendously from family, friends and mentors who taught me crucial lessons about living and the creation of art. In addition to making movies and teaching I hope to continue mentoring as many emerging filmmakers as possible.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I became a filmmaker by looking through windows. I lived on the top floor of a housing project in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1980s. Outside that window I saw pain, suffering and hardship but I also saw joy, resilience and hope. I saw a complexity and humanity out my window that I didn’t see on the stage and screen at that time.
Everything came together in the late ’87 when I received a scholarship to perform in the UK through an Interlochen Program. While in London I read an article on Spike Lee and August Wilson whose work was premiering there.
This article stopped me in my tracks. Both these two artists stated how they were insistent on showing the black people stories with a humanity that they weren’t seeing at the time. And they were intent on using all the tools available to them to do that. I was hooked. That summer I went to the UK with the intention of gaining more experience as an actor — by the time I went back to the States I knew that I wanted to be a writer / director.
Little did I know that 6 years after I read about Spike Lee for the first time that I would be interning at his production company 40 Acres and A Mule in the story development department. It gave me such incredible confidence and motivation to be working with this icon of modern cinema!
I knew that I was on the right path where, a year after I worked for Spike, August Wilson received an honorary degree during Mystic graduation from college. It was such an incredible full circle moment for me confirmed that I was on the right path.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
In the summer of 1987, I toured the British Isles with a group of teenagers from around the world, where we were performed a musical adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince. The group was rehearsing for our next performance at an Ireland elementary in Wexford.
Towards the end of our rehearsal, 10 young people from the neighborhood were looking through the window at our rehearsal and they swore to themselves that I was Eddie Murphy and that a castmate of mine was singer Kylie Minogue. They started calling for the both of us to come outside and sign autographs. When we dismissed them, thinking they were just joking, they formed a human chain around our van and demanded we come out and talk to them.
Now the only thing that brings me even close to looking like Eddie Murphy is that I’m Black and when I was 13 years old, I rocked a mustache — that’s it. And I was sure that the only Black people these kids had probably seen was on TV. Since the time is always ripe to make a personal connection, I sat down with these young people, signed my autograph in their notebooks, and we had a great conversation about theater, film and what it takes to perform at high level.
The conversation with those students was one of the best experiences I had the entire trip.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
I worked for Spike Lee when I was in college, I acted in a play directed by Shonda Rhimes when we were both at Dartmouth, I met Issa Rae and I met actor Sean Penn at Skywalker Ranch when I was working on a film there — even met my idol George Lucas. All these people are incredible people to spend time with because of their vision, wit, intelligence, courage, and imagination.
At the same time, the most interesting people I’ve ever interacted with on my journey have been my students at New York Film Academy (NYFA) — where I’ve taught for more than 20 years. Because NYFA is a global institution, I’ve interacted with students across the globe. To say that during that time I’ve been consistently blown away by my students is an understatement.
My students surprise me, they challenge me and are the source of incredible inspiration. When you’re an educator, no two days are the same and you’re always learning something new.
To this day, I’ve had former students who served as showrunners for Amazon Prime, have won SAFTRA Awards through their production companies in South Africa and have deals with Netflix. I also have students who are showrunners of European TV Shows as well as several students who’ve completed their first feature films.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My grandmother, who raised my brother and I since the beginning of elementary school — literally saved our lives. She was the first real life hero that I ever met.
When I was raising money to make my thesis film, my cousin Ron not only wrote the first check but also helped me raise the $25K budget for my MFA thesis film A-Alike. The film went on to win a Gold Medal at the Student Academy Awards for Best Narrative Short. Ron believed in me and the vision I created so deeply that I when I returned to New York from the awards ceremony in LA, I gave him my Oscar. And I remember when I gave him the Oscar, he simply said to me, “The awards don’t matter as much as the feeling of pride I get from seeing your hard work pay off.”
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my favorite poems is “Life is Just a Minute” by Dr. Benjamin Mays. Dr. Mays was the sixth president of Morehouse College and mentored several influential 20th Century activists — including Martin Luther King Jr.
I have only just a minute, Only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, can’t refuse it.
Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it.
But it’s up to me
to use it.
I must suffer if I lose it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Just a tiny little minute,
but eternity is in it.
At the beginning of the New York Film Academy school year, I’ll often recite this poem to incoming students to highlight the importance of the journey they are about to take. In New York Film Academy’s One Year Screenwriting Program, students spend 900 hours or 54,000 minutes in the classroom learning about how to create cinematic stories. If they use that time wisely, they emerge from the program at year’s end forever transformed.
Lately, I’ve started reciting this poem at graduation to congratulate cohorts who’ve taken every advantage during the school year to create a process to produce work, establish lifelong relationships, and plan their future.
I’m drawn to this poem because it points to the fact that time is the most precious thing we have in this world. We never know how much time we have left on this earth, and because of this, it’s important to utilize our time by taking care of ourselves, pursuing our purpose, giving back, and being in the presence of people we love.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m working on a documentary series called The House I Never Knew (THINK). It’s the story of families in Chicago, Boston and Wilmington, North Carolina and their fight against becoming casualties of housing segregation policy. The project won a Sundance Institute documentary fund grant and participated in a work-in-progress initiative sponsored by the production company Working Films.
Which aspect of your work makes you most proud? Can you explain or give a story?
What makes me the most proud of the work is having conversations with members of the audience and listening to them tell me how affected they were by the story emotionally — Or if someone tells me that a character in the film reminded them of a parent, an aunt, an uncle, or a friend.
I make movies because I love the process of making movies, I love engaging audiences and I love the possibility that I might make a film that can inspire someone.
My short film A-Alike was about two brothers on the opposite side of the social spectrum, one brother is a corporate executive, and one is an ex-convict. The corporate executive picks up his brother from prison on the day of his release, but he hasn’t seen his brother since he went into the penitentiary 4 years ago. As a result, the movie becomes all about the journey home and whether the two brothers are going to rectify their estranged relationship.
After one of the festival screenings, one of the members of the audience approached me and let me know she had seen the movie months before and wanted to see it again. She stated that after seeing the film the first time, she wrote a letter to her incarcerated uncle — — someone who she had not contacted in 7 years. She explained that the film had encouraged her to remember that family is one of the most precious things we have and one of the best ways to hold family close is to practice forgiveness and mercy.
After the end of that conversation, I thought to myself, this is why I make movies.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
The film business . . . and any business for that matter is all about relationship building. Be sure that you learn the critical skill of “networking across.” Often when we’re starting out, we think that, besides getting our work and ourselves into the world, we have to meet that super producer, studio boss or big time agent. We think that in addition to the work we’ve done, meeting a big shot will net us the biggest opportunity possible to advance our careers. And hey, if you get a chance to meet and pitch your passion project to a prominent person in the industry you should do it. Networking “up” is great! However, early in your career, it’s just as important to, in the words of Issa Rae, network “across.” Very often your next opportunity comes in the form of the person sitting right next to you.
Right now, I’m making a film with a director I met at the American Black Film Festival two years ago. I never would have had this incredible collaboration if I didn’t “network across.”
Trust that you have everything you need right now to make the movie of your dreams. I love my life as a filmmaker because I learn constantly, I collaborate with the most incredible artists and every time I screen my work, I experience the joy of connecting audiences to subjects I believe are important. When you choose to be a filmmaker, you’re not just choosing a profession — you’re choosing a way of life. I often say, because it’s true, that I don’t choose the stories I write, my stories choose me. The stories first communicate to me in a whisper, a feeling in my gut, or an idea I get from reading something that captivates me. With this insight, I’m off to the races, passing this inspiration through the filter of my reading, my scholarship, and my life to fully realize the story. By the time I’m on set, I’ve become an authority. My DNA is infused into that film — which is why it’s difficult for me to make a choice or listen to ideas that I don’t believe will serve the story. I pride myself on being flexible, and at the same time, I’ve done enough preparation that I’m confident enough to be the only one who thinks a certain idea will work. Hans Zimmer once said, “The job of the artist is not to give the audience what they want. The job of an artist is to give the audience something beyond what they can imagine.” When you trust and believe in yourself, not even the sky is the limit.
When I was at Columbia University film school, one of the most prominent young professors (who’d had films at Sundance, etc.) took a liking to my film and we had a one-on-one session where he told me to cut the last scene. He told me to cut it because he felt that the movie was already over, and the last scene wasn’t going to improve what was already a solid story. I responded that the last scene was important because it resolved the emotional arc of the film’s protagonist. We went back and forth and back and forth — at one point jokingly exclaimed, “Your choice will be the death of cinema!” We both laughed. I kept the scene in the film, the film won a student Oscar and had its broadcast premiere on HBO. Trust your gut.
Notes from others are really important, just learn how to not take them personally. Making a film is like building a cathedral — the finished piece may originate from a singular voice, but it is truly the expression of a whole community. Collaboration is at the heart of all filmmaking and a great note can improve your film in unexpected ways. Notes can be tough to hear. They can demoralize us and make us feel unworthy. Sometimes, they can feel less like an observation of your work but more like a personal attack. As a mature artist, you want to do your best to process and consider how worthy notes can benefit your work and the notes that don’t resonate — cast them aside.
Earlier in my career, I would take notes very personally and it would paralyze me — preventing me from getting back to the drawing board and rewriting. And look, there is still a serious gnashing of teeth that I go through after notes — but I’ve learned to compartmentalize. My new process is much better for my mental health and helps me be a more productive writer.
Your job is to share your gift. If you’ve been given a gift, you have the responsibility to work that gift to the end of your ability. Whether you’re a filmmaker, an accountant, an educator, or an athlete, you’ve been given a gift to grow and share with the world. As storytellers, we entertain, challenge, and provoke our audiences. If you’re a storyteller, someone else in this world is waiting for you to tell your story. Your film is going to change their lives; it’s going to inspire them — at the very least, what you create is going to make someone in this world feel less alone. To give members of your audience that level of comfort will take everything you have, but know that it will be worth it. I wouldn’t be the storyteller I am if Spike Lee never directed Do the Right Thing, if George Lucas never made Star Wars, and if Julie Dash never made Daughters of the Dust. So, work your gift as hard and diligently as you can, because if you don’t work your gift, someone else in this world will be lost.
Don’t get it perfect, get it done. Finish what you started. When I teach screenwriting, one of the most important pieces of advice I give to students is they need to give themselves permission to write bad pages. Very little of what you write is going to be good the first time, second time, or third time out the gate — or the fifth or tenth time for that matter. What’s important is that you keep going — because if you’re diligent and rigorous enough, you might not achieve perfection, but you’ll most certainly be excellent. Being obsessed with perfection can paralyze you and prevent you from doing production work. Give yourself the grace to be patient.
One of the things I do to just get it done is that I give myself permission to write bad pages. It’s crucial that I get ideas out of my head and onto the page. You can have the greatest film in the world in your head but if you don’t get it out on paper, you can’t make your movie. So, get those pages out and write subsequent drafts of those pages to make them better. If you keep writing, you’ll get to where you want to be.
When you create a film, which stakeholders have the greatest impact on the artistic and cinematic choices you make? Is it the viewers, the critics, the financiers, or your own personal artistic vision? Can you share a story with us or give an example about what you mean?
I always do several test screenings of my film before I lock the picture. To see the film through other people’s eyes helps me remember what I set out to do in the first place, but also reminds me to be flexible and make the movie with the materials I have in front of me.
When I was working on my thesis film A-Alike, which went on to win the Student Academy Award for Best Narrative film, we were very conscious of the need to cut the movie’s run time down so that the film could be as lean as possible. There was a scene where one of the leads is leaving prison and he meets them on the prison rooftop where he says, “goodbye” to all the people in his crew who affectionately calls him “A-Alikes” which is another term for a friend so close and similar to you that they might as well be your carbon copy.
In the test screening we had, there were lots of calls for us to cut this scene. But producer Melanie Oram suggested we keep the scene, arguing that because the film was called, “A-Alike” and that is not a term that people normally use, it would be good to familiarize the audience with the term so that can better understand and appreciate the story. As a result, the scene stayed where it was.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Soon after I graduated from college, I began teaching at the same prep school that I attended in my high school years. I met Maurice Coleman, a Wall Street executive turned educator who would become one of my best friends.
Maurice ran an Upward Bound program outside of Boston. Upward Bound is a Great Society program (started by President Lyndon B Johnson) whose goal is to place either low-income or first-generation college-bound students into a four-year college. I helped Maurice run this program and, over the span of 5 years, we sent about 100 college-aged students to colleges around the country.
Motivated by my experiences with Upward Bound, I would create a nationwide leadership training initiative tailored for high school students across America’s major urban centers. This program will specifically target first-generation college attendees and economically disadvantaged young people. Our curriculum will encompass rigorous academic pursuits as well as modules on contemporary leadership skills crucial for success in the 21st century. Additionally, our organization will integrate an outdoor dimension, fostering a connection with nature through recreational and hands-on agricultural activities.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)
It would be great to have lunch with Ryan Coogler. It takes a special kind of filmmaker and a special kind of person to accomplish what he’s done in his career. Most emerging Black filmmakers are told that they can’t secure bigger budgets for their work because of the notion that Black films don’t sell overseas. With both the Creed and Black Panther movies, he’s shattered that false narrative and paved the way for greater inclusivity and diversity in the film industry.
Coogler’s great at crafting films that seamlessly blend grand scale spectacle with deeply personal character arcs. What sets him apart is his masterful integration of cultural elements into the fabric of his storytelling. From the Philadelphia street bike scene in Creed to the Mesoamerican influences in Wakanda Forever, the specific and rigorous way he employs culture creates an incredible sense of authenticity.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Readers can follow me on Facebook and Instagram — look for Randall Dottin. My X / Twitter handle is @idottin
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.
