Blake’s Budding Filmmaker

It was clear from the start, as I sat down for my interview with Alex Kamara, that our conversation would be beyond insightful. The budding filmmaker was comfortable and composed, as though he’d been through it countless times, giving me the feeling that I was face to face with a seasoned vet, a Spielberg or Scorsese.

Alex is a senior at Blake and an aspiring film director. He has recently written and directed two short films, the first of which earned him a place at GRAMMY Camp, a week-long training program hosted by the GRAMMY Museum for high schoolers interested in music careers. The film, entitled “YARA,” tells the story of a teenage girl navigating life and processing her emotions through music. When asked about his influences in the world of directing, Alex brought up figures like Ryan Coogler, Spike Lee, and Issa Rae who, as he put it, tell “authentic stories.” YARA is one such story. As a lover of both film and music, Alex used YARA to explore the relationship between his two passions. This relationship would be central to his activities at Grammy Camp, where he worked alongside singers and songwriters, shooting and editing music videos.

Creative since childhood, Alex was a sort of Renaissance kid, trying his hand at theatre, playing in a band, and starting a clothing line along with his younger sister. Alex’s sister was and continues to be a frequent collaborator and stars in Alex’s latest release, “Secrets of Her Love” (more on that later). During the pandemic, Alex and his sister started a YouTube channel. This was his first foray into video production and where his love for directing began to take shape. Soon after, his first real “film” project came in the form of a promotional video for their clothing line, which he wrote, directed, and produced with the help of a professional videographer. “After that moment,” he said, “I was like, ‘yeah, this is it.’”

Entering 9th grade, however, Alex had to take a step back to focus on school. Thus began a rough period for him artistically: he knew he wanted to be a director but was halted, as many young creatives are, by the uncertainty of the entertainment industry. He started to question whether that should really be his goal. This attitude shifted coming into his junior year. “I was like, I need to focus on something. So I wanted to focus on that and gear my last two years of high school towards really getting into filmmaking and building up a strong portfolio to go to college for it.”

The latest addition to Alex’s portfolio is a short film called “Secrets of Her Love,” about a teenage girl finding a letter in her adoptive mother’s closet—a letter from her biological mother. Working under the constraint of a two-minute runtime, “Secrets” is suspensefully short and no less impactful because of it. The film was created for Alex’s application to the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts, the top film program in the world and his dream school. Undeterred by low acceptance rates, Alex is aiming high. “I do really want to go to film school,” he said, “and see where that takes me.”

Alex has a film coming soon titled “Until It’s Gone,” starring friend and fellow Blake student Aayden Taylor. No spoilers on that yet, but stay tuned; exciting things are on the horizon.