Preserving Jamaican Culture feat. Maria Hitchins (036)

In this episode (037), I speak to Writer and Filmmaker, Mezan Ayoka, about relationship expectations, as we discuss how some of her relationship ideals were formed, what has actually played out in her life, and also her experiences with online dating. Are you expecting from relationships too much, too little, or just the right amount? Take a listen and see if it changes your perspective.

CHECK OUT THE FOLLOWING LINKS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT MEZAN AYOKA:

She's an introvert, so if you need to hit her up, email her: [email protected]
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mezanayoka/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mezanayoka

BIOGRAPHY:

Mezan Ayoka is a writer and filmmaker with 12 years of experience that spans advertising, copywriting, and producing and directing TV and film projects for traditional and non- traditional media. She attended the Los Angeles Film School in 2008. On returning to Jamaica, Mezan co-directed the short film Grow Jamaica Grow that placed second in the RBC Make a film in 24 Hours Competition held at the 2012 Reggae Film Festival. She wrote and directed Ding, a short film that screened at the Kingston on the Edge Urban Art Festival (2013) and at GATFFEST in June (2017). Summer School, a TV pilot written by Mezan, was awarded a Certificate of Merit in the nationally recognized Jamaica Cultural Development Commission’s (JCDC) Creative Writing Competition (2014). She was awarded a JAFTA Propella! grant for Going Down a short film that premiered at the Trinidad and Tobago Film festival (2018). Going Down has screened at the Denton Black Film Festival in Texas, USA; Black Femme Supremacy Film Festival in Baltimore, USA; Rapport Festival in Brixton, UK; Women’s International Film and Arts Festival in New York, USA; and Hairouna Film Festival in Bequia Island, St. Vincent.

Her feature-length screenplay ‘Bluefields’ was a semifinalist in the Screencraft Screenwriters Residency Program (2017) and was a winner of the ReelJamaica Film Lab Pitch competition. She produced Mango Wars (2017), a short film awarded funding under the JAFTA Propella! initiative. Mango Wars has screened at multiple festivals and recently won the viewers choice award at GATFFEST (2019). She founded a peer review screenwriting group where fellow screenwriters in Kingston, Jamaica can study the craft and critique/analyze pages from each other’s in-progress screenplays. She offers script notes and coverage to scripts in the development and pre-production phases.

A Calabash International Literary Fund Fellow, her poetry has been published in The Caribbean Writer, POUI, Susumba’s Book Bag, Firestick, The Jamaica Observer’s Bookends and On The Dark Path: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry. Her poem Under the House was the recipient of the 2018 David Hugh Literary Prize. In her free time, she can be found watching the latest superhero flick, reading (preferably on the beach) and when the moon is full she reads her poetry (out loud).

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