Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Kiley Kraskouskas, Leola Calzolai-Stewart and Rachell Shapiro of FLOWSTATE Films Are Helping To Change Our World
…Themes in our movies include economic justice, Veterans issues, racial equity and women’s rights but our work isn’t about impacting any one person. We make our films hoping to impact, inspire and move wide audiences — in the U.S. and around the world.
As a part of our series about “Filmmakers Making A Social Impact” I had the pleasure of interviewing Kiley Kraskouskas, Leola Calzolai-Stewart and Rachell Shapiro.
Leola, Kiley and Rachell are the three co-founders of FLOWSTATE Films, a women-owned film company based in the Washington, D.C. area. These filmmakers bring the art of mindful storytelling to independent films and branded videos. Together they create and share work that leverages the power of visual storytelling to examine complex social, social justice and global issues.
Thank you so much for doing this interview with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to get to know you a bit. Can you share your “backstory” that brought you to this career?
Each of us has a very different spark that drew us to filmmaking, though we have a shared passion for the power of film to tell emotionally moving stories. Our story begins over fifteen years ago. We met while working at a production company and immediately hit it off as friends and colleagues. In those early years, we spoke about our shared career goals to make independent, mission-driven films and form our own company. We spent several years discovering and growing our individual strengths in producing, directing, editing and business development.
When the opportunity to join forces presented itself, we seized upon it and in 2015 we created FLOWSTATE Films; a women-owned, full-service production company based in the Washington, D.C. area. We worked for almost a year planning and building the business model for FLOWSTATE Films. We knew we had created value for our past employers and we wanted to take the next step and own that value. We observed and learned along the way working on and leading various projects as employees, but we wanted to operate our company on our own terms. The joy comes not only from getting to tell the stories that are meaningful and important to us and others — but doing it with our friends who share our purpose and passion.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
Probably the most interesting and exciting story has been our journey to develop our feature documentary The American Diplomat.
The film idea began with Leola’s longstanding interest in diversity and inclusion in the field of international relations. She is a diplomatic spouse and also studied international relations in college then graduate school before pivoting to documentary filmmaking. Her family’s experience serving overseas led to many conversations about what it means to represent America as a person of color and how to inspire more young people from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in foreign service. These are exciting careers that involve international travel, peacebuilding and cultural understanding.
So, in 2015 when we started FLOWSTATE, we agreed we would pursue client projects as well as develop one flagship independent project at a time. The American Diplomat was the first project we decided to invest in and develop. We started to interview scholars, read books, and honed in on the story of three African-American diplomats who served in the 1950s and 1960s — at the height of the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement.
We were able to secure early support for production and scripting from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH) in 2019. We continued to pitch to broadcasters and other funders to close our budget gap. In November of 2020, while the pandemic was still keeping us quarantined and working at home with our kids(!), we had a chance to Zoom pitch PBS’ longest-running history series, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. After the first meeting, they told us they were interested in the film. This was our dream broadcaster. Just two months after that pitch meeting, we were moving into production and had just under one year to complete the film, working in collaboration with the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE editorial team headed by Executive Producer Cameo George. We are thrilled that the film will air on PBS on February 15, 2022. It’s been a professional dream realized.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Part of the joy of filmmaking is the range of people you encounter in telling different stories. We try to be intentional with the subjects we explore in the films we work on — whether it’s for a client or our own documentary film work. We look for topics, people, or events that interest us, inspire us or cause us to dig deeper and understand complex problems. During our careers, we have interacted with labor organizers, global musicians, Veterans, community members in George Floyd Square, high-level researchers and thinkers at universities as well as non-profit leaders and entrepreneurs.
As mentioned above, we have been immersed in the story of three inspiring African American diplomats who served during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War. Edward R. Dudley, Terence Todman and Carl Rowan — are the characters in our documentary film — The American Diplomat. What makes them so interesting is the tightrope they walked between representing American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home. Colloquially referred to as “pale, male, and Yale,” the State Department fiercely maintained and cultivated the Foreign Service’s elite character and was one of the last Federal agencies to truly desegregate. And yet, these three African American diplomats pushed past these historical and institutional racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments in the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.
Their work created a lasting impact on the content and character of the U.S. Foreign Service and literally changed the face of American diplomacy forever. But few people have heard their names or their stories outside the State Department. We find them endlessly interesting and inspiring, and we can’t wait to share their stories with the world.
Which people in history inspire you the most? Why?
The three of us are most inspired by people who are change-makers. We pride ourselves on doing an incredible amount of research to find these types of people to feature in our films and we’ve been lucky to meet many who have become characters in our movies — from a Walmart associate taking on management to a diplomat changing institutional culture, to a Vietnam Veteran working to erase the stigma of PTSD and community members in George Floyd Square building barricades to protect the memorial site.
We are also inspired by entrepreneurs — and therefore each other. All three of us have embraced and tackled challenges and collectively taken the leap to start our own company. We are motivated, moved and proud when we watch each other embrace entrepreneurship and succeed.
Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview, how are you using your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share with us the meaningful or exciting social impact causes you are working on right now?
Last year, when we were approached by Arizona State University’s Center for Work and Democracy to collaborate on ‘The Free State of George Floyd,’ we put a lot of thought into the best approach for that film because it was not our story to tell. We spent time talking internally and with the community in the Square about the process for creating a film.
As with all projects, we knew we had to start by listening and building trust. So Kiley traveled to George Floyd Square where the neighbors were meeting, protesting and protecting the impromptu memorial that began at the murder site. The neighbors meet twice a day to democratically discuss their ongoing protest that includes a 24-point justice demand. FLOWSTATE participated in meetings and eventually proposed a film idea that would incorporate footage captured from the community members’ cell phones and cameras and a script that would be approved by the community. Rough cuts were shared and feedback from the community was incorporated into the film to ensure it is told through the eyes and perspective of people in that neighborhood who are working to preserve a sacred and important space. The film reached thousands of viewers online and most importantly is a proud piece of the community’s history.
Inequality in the film industry is an issue we also care deeply about. The Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film finds that women make up just 30% of creators, 31% of directors and 24% of editors on streaming programs and those numbers are even lower — 22% of creators, 19% of directors and 15% of editors — on broadcast network programs. So we are very open about how hard we have worked and how dedicated we have been to craft and design a business model for our company that involves running nearly a million dollars worth of client work and having a growth period that coincided with the pandemic. We were faced with navigating and embracing the growth as we all had to juggle kids at home and remote learning. We recognize how lucky we were during that time period to have had relatively stable childcare and supportive spouses who are our biggest fans.
We are not strangers to the hard work, travel, and personal sacrifice that comes with production. There can be real abuse in this industry as we have seen with IATSE union negotiations in the Fall of 2021. We prioritize treating ourselves and our collaborators fairly. Likewise, we never want participants in our films to feel anything less than fully consenting collaborators. This requires time to build rapport and trust and we believe deeply in that investment.
Many of us have ideas, dreams, and passions, but never manifest it. But you did. Was there an “Aha Moment” that made you decide that you were actually going to step up and take action for this cause? What was that final trigger?
There were many years that the three of us imagined building a company together. But in 2015, it seemed the stars finally aligned. Kiley and Leola had wrapped production on the film ‘The Last Song Before the War’ and Rachell had completed her film “From Hell to Here” and was ready to leave her staff production job and take a leap into working for herself. It finally seemed like the time was right for all of us. The three of us felt we were ready to take on building a new company from scratch.
But making the leap was about more than just a feeling. After 10 years of working for other people, we also felt we had the knowledge and skills to do it on our own, do it well and do it right. We aren’t “fake it till you make it’ people. We had produced, directed and edited dozens of projects, written and won business proposals and managed large and small budgets and sets. We saw an opportunity to create a business that not only leveraged our skills to benefit our clients but leveraged our desire and passion for entrepreneurship to create a company that represented our values and was a reflection of what we stand for.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
Themes in our movies include economic justice, Veterans issues, racial equity and women’s rights but our work isn’t about impacting any one person. We make our films hoping to impact, inspire and move wide audiences — in the U.S. and around the world.
Are there three things that individuals, society or the government can do to support you in this effort?
There’s a real reckoning in the film industry right now and a growing awareness that we need more diverse voices involved in filmmaking to tell a wider array of stories. Three things that will help that effort:
1) Develop and support new voices to promote more diversity in the film industry. That requires more women and filmmakers of color in decision-making seats to greenlight films with more diverse voices. We need more women and diverse voices hired to produce, direct and edit films, and we need more women and diverse voices funded to make the movies they’ve long been dreaming about.
It’s been particularly empowering working as an all-female directing, producing and editing team on our historical documentary. We have finished this project with a group of creative, smart, funny and hard-working women.
2) Establish more funding sources to support diverse filmmakers and do not limit the types of stories filmmakers of color want to tell.
3) Create more programs to support and elevate diverse talent. One of the things that set us on the path to connect with executive producer Cameo George and her team at American Experience was an incredible experience Leola had with the Firelight Media Documentary Lab. She was accepted into this prestigious 18-month fellowship and lab experience in 2019.
Firelight Media is run by award-winning filmmakers Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith, and it exists to amplify and support emerging filmmakers of color. The support, mentorship, guidance and networking opportunities Leola gained during the experience helped guide and advance The American Diplomat. It’s been an invaluable resource to our film company and can serve as a wonderful model to help other aspiring filmmakers out there still trying to get that first big opportunity.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1. There is never the “perfect time” to take the leap in starting your own business, but there is a better time. You need passion, dedication, and belief in yourself. Also, the knowledge that success likely won’t happen overnight is key to getting over the slower months and the down days. You need to have the long game in sight.
2. Aligning our business with the clients we wanted to attract did pay off. We could have created a production company similar to the ones we already had experience working at. But we took the risk to build our company around documentary filmmaking, non-profit clients, and social justice. By our sixth year we have quadrupled our business and are working on projects we love.
3. When working with partners who are also friends, you have to be able to communicate openly. It’s essential to the success of your business and your friendship. Even the hard conversations where you might disagree. Having those tough conversations allows you to build that crucial trust that is vital as the business grows. It is something that the three of us highly value and work hard to maintain.
4. Build your business model with intention. We talked a lot in the beginning about our financial needs and goals as well as workplace culture. We were transparent with each other about what we expected from the business financially. And we built goals around the types of clients and projects we wanted to attract. These conversations formed the groundwork of where we are today and it’s been empowering to see those goals come to fruition.
5. Don’t be afraid to have hard conversations about race and equity. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. But conversations and interactions can be awkward and sometimes people avoid these altogether. It’s important to still talk about how our company can do better and how we as individuals can do better.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Whatever work a person chooses to do, whether that be filmmaking, teaching, parenting, real estate, civil service, banking, etc. — if it’s approached with intention, respect for others and the humility to keep learning and aiming for self-actualization, that will make a positive impact on society. Likewise, if you find yourself in a situation where you are not empowered, it’s critical to move on.
We are very blessed that many other Social Impact Heroes read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, whom you would like to collaborate with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
We are fortunate to have recently worked with Executive Producer Sam Pollard as well as Firelight Media this past year. These are filmmakers we have long admired, and their guidance has been invaluable. As we look to the future, we would love to continue to align with change-makers and filmmakers that have similar values. Ava Duvernay because her work is grounded in social justice while being beautifully artful. Oprah Winfrey because she is an icon, filmmaker, producer, entrepreneur and master interviewer.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it — Maya Angelou.
How can our readers follow you online?
You can learn more about us and our projects on our website — FLOWSTATEFilms.com. You can follow us on Facebook @FlowStateFilms, connect with us individually through LinkedIn and look out for and watch The American Diplomat on AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS in February 2022.
This was great, thank you so much for sharing your story and doing this with us. We wish you continued success!
Filmmakers Making A Social Impact: Why & How Kiley Kraskouskas, Leola Calzolai-Stewart and Rachell… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.