Aye, I’m Jay.

I’m a documentarian and imperfect practitioner of a non-extractive storytelling methodology.

My projects focus on themes of memory, identity, indigeneity, and the environment.

You’ve found my personal site. If you’re looking to work with my consultancy or want to book me to speak, please click here to visit my company websoite, Create Like You Mean It.

Featured Project

Force of Water

Project Type: Documentary Film [60 min run time]

Role(s): Co-Producer, Writer, Photographer

In Collaboration With: Nathan.works & Green Empowerment

Completed: 2024

Click here to read a breakdown of the project, written by the Director (Nathan Johnson). This link will lead to his website. Come back when you’re done!

Select Photographic Work

  • amaranto x chiquito

    The youngest member living on the ranch, offering up a bag full of his grandfather's amaranth harvest in Southern Mexico.

    Later that day, he sat on his abuelo's knee as the man shared stories of the Mexican Revolution.

  • aleisi

    Twin sisters holding a bunch of aleisi -- some of the rarest rice in the world -- harvested by their mother on the edge of the Amazon in Suriname.

    This rice is a descendant of grains braided into Ma Paanza's hair before she escaped the plantation, and the twins are descendants of Ma Paanza.

  • seeds of maíz

    The moments before sowing a deep diversity of maíz into healthy soil, high in the mountains of Southern Mexico.

    I had been struggling to create a single beautiful photo all day. When she heard me slip into a small ditch and curse under my breath, she locked eyes with me and offered up this smile.

  • seed bank

    The community seedkeeper presenting amaranto rojo in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, before showing us where she stored her maíz, frijoles, and more.

    This woman inherited this milpa from her mother, who moved slowly around the property with the help of two walking sticks.

  • plains x relatives

    His daughter wanted to skip school that day to be part of the buffalo harvest on Wolakota, Rosebud Reservation. He didn't hesitate to let her join him as he took a relative home.

    Sometimes he sets up his shot, then the relative shakes their head "no." He moves on.

  • minga

    Breaking from their shift in the minga -- a collective work structure pre-dating Columbus's exploitation -- in Pichiyacu, a community along the Río Cayapas, Ecuador.

    A couple months after this photo, the community went on to complete their first piped water system.

  • speaking rocks

    speaking rocks

    Many listen to the rocks as they speak in Palawan, Philippines.

    Here we feel the salty breeze as we return from the subterranean river.

Selected Video Works

Click the title of each project to learn more.

Digging In

Project Type: Documentary Film [40 min run time]

Role(s): Co-Producer, Writer, Photographer

In Collaboration With: Nathan.works & SAFSF

Completed: 2023

When we set out to make Digging In we thought we were making a film about food, but it quickly became about much more.

What we learned in the production of this film changed my day-to-day behavior. I changed the way I source food for myself and loved ones, and the project also planted the seeds of what has now become a non-extractive storytelling methodology that I bring to as many projects as I can.

From start to finish, the project took two years to complete. We filmed in 10 locations around the United States — from coast to coast and many places in between — over the course of a year, then spent a few months in post-production.

We purchased reputable carbon offsets for the entire project, paid honoraria to everyone involved in our pre-production research and production, and contributed to rematriation of the land we filmed upon in California by paying the Shuumi Land Tax.

The film premiered at the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders Forum in Washington D.C. in July 2023. Since then, it has been screened at multiple film festivals and in private screenings across the United States.

In March 2024, Digging In was acquired for distribution by Good Deed Entertainment.

If you are interested in hosting a screening of this film in your community, or if you want to learn about the benefits of creating a documentary for your organization, please click here to get in contact with me.

Don’t Rodney King Me

Project Type: Educational Video [4:18 run time]

Role(s): Director

In Collaboration With: Nico Giles Media & SWAGG INC

Completed: 2021

Na’im was placed in solitary confinement in 2018.

That’s when he wrote the business plan for SWAGG INC, and organization that would provide others leaving prison with the support he wish he’d had.

He was released, and he immediately began creating his organization.

His stock quickly rose in Kansas City, MO, during and after 2020. He was introducing the concepts like mass incarceration, criminal justice reform, and returning citizens to circles of power who had never felt connected to the issue.

We teamed up to create Don’t Rodney King Me for Black History Month 2021. It was designed to accompany a workshop that he could take to professional groups and corporations interested in helping interrupt cycles of incarceration.

This video took about 1.5 months from start to finish.

It’s bittersweet to watch this now.

The sweetness comes from how much I love the concept, its imperfections, its rawness. Na’im wrote the initial script by hand, just like he wrote the business plan for SWAGG. Three of my closest friends contributed to developing the storyline and filming the project, and the project truly hit.

The bitterness comes from what was happening behind the scenes. Things were tense between Na’im and me, and our relationship deteriorated in the following years.

In 2023, I received a call while on my way to Atlanta to support the Stop Cop City movement. It was a board member of SWAGG. That’s when I learned that Na’im had been charged with murder and that he was on the run. Later that year, he turned himself in.

Beyond Don’t Rodney King Me, my work with Na’im was some of the strongest narrative work of my career, but at what cost to Na’im? This news caused me to think deeply about the responsibilities of people like me and the organizations funding projects like Na’im’s: creators in dominant positions over the subject.

This consideration has become a core component of the non-extractive storytelling methodology.

If you are interested in doing the deep work that leads to a video for a workshop or presentation, please click here to get in contact with me.

Why We Fight

Project Type: Client Video [6:27 run time]

Role(s): Producer

In Collaboration With: Nathan.works & Farm Action

Completed: 2023

We met Joe Maxwell during the production of Digging In, our documentary about who controls food in the United States.

His eloquence and fiery determination jumped out to me.

When we followed up with him after the release of the film, it turned out that his organization (Farm Action) was facing an onslaught of bullshit from a lobbyist group as FA advocated to reform of the Farm Bill. That’s when we got involved.

He and Angela hopped onto three pre-production calls to help me understand the situation they were in. From there, I wrote the questions for the production team. The team travelled to Missouri and Ohio to film. Three of us collaborated on post-production, my main contribution being to the storyline and how this story would fit into a larger narrative. From start to finish, this project took a little less than 2 months.

Throughout the project, the clients continually referred to this as “a film,” (as opposed to “content”), and we treated it as such.

I think we nailed this thing from every angle: audio and visual is on point, storyline is compelling, we didn’t sacrifice quality for speed even though we moved quickly, and our approach was as close to being non-extractive as we could probably be.

If you’re like to discuss creating a short film like this instead of a static “about us” organization video or testimonial, please click here to get in contact with me.