Name: Sabrina Thompson
Occupation: Filmmaker | Photographer | CEO, Kuu Productions (kuuproductions.com)
City: Brooklyn, New York via Wilson, NC
Superpower: My Southern Charm
I love my job because…
I get to travel the world and document stories of fascinating people and organizations. In addition, I love the fact that I get to make the images in my head come to life for everyone to see.
My dream is to….
I have a ton of dreams regarding my career, but I’ll briefly mention two for now. The first one is to create scripted TV series and films that are creative, memorable, and contribute to shifting narratives about misrepresented and/or underrepresented people in society. My second dream is to own a few film and TV production lots that also have an educational institution to it for professionals to come in and teach seminars on directing, film financing, photography, writing and overall production classes to talented creatives. I want the institution part to serve as a pipeline to mold and employ dope artists who may not always get access to opportunities in huge Hollywood studios/production houses.
I made it this far in my career because…
I trusted God, relentlessly researched what I wanted to do, maintained transparent and organic relationships with all types of folks, and took risks.
My honest thoughts on balancing a love life and career are…
Pretty cut and dry. Don’t try that ish in your 20s. I’m so serious. It’s different strokes for different folks, but I truly believe your 20s is the best time in your life to take outrageous risks in your career and say yes to almost anything (well, legal that is) to see what you may be good at or like. You don’t have a lot of wisdom and good sense in your 20s to be in super serious relationships and trying to juggle a new career. Focus on the career up front when you have youth and less inhibitions on your side…love will always be there. In your 30s and beyond, you are likely to have more wisdom and be less trivial regarding love. You are more likely to sift through qualities of what you need versus what you want in a mate to actually build a lasting bond.
The last time I felt like giving up on my dreams was…
Never…my mom and dad did not raise me to have a quitting mentality. The notion of quitting was and still is not an option.
The last time I cried was…
On a doggone Tuesday night watching NBC’s “This Is Us” …it’s such a well written and well casted show.
I get through my darkest moments by…
Listening to some old-school Kirk Franklin & Fred Hammond.
The last time I looked in the mirror for self-reflection & self-evaluation was…
hmmmm. Good question. Let me see where my hand mirror is…(laughs).
Self-love is important because…
Without it you have no barometer on how others should deal with you. Folks can detect a person with low and/or high self-esteem from a mile away and will treat you accordingly. It’s essential to level up with yourself first and foremost so that you set the tone about how the world should interact with you.
Three things no one knows about me…
hmmmm…. who truthfully answers this question on a public forum? (laughs)
But I’ll take a light stab at it.
a—I have never seen “The Last Dragon”
b—Whoopi Goldberg is absolutely my spirit animal. LOVE HER.
c—Are you ready for this?? When I was in college one summer, I was the big ole’ rat at Chuck E Cheese. They gave me a choice of coming out for 15 minutes every hour or cleaning tables. I’m a bit of a germaphobe so I said, “where is the costume?” Surely, I scared at least 20 kids an hour that summer in that huge costume.
My three most memorable career moments were…
So far…
a—being selected as one of the official photographers for the historic Women’s March in DC in 2017.
b—traveling the country as one of Hillary Clinton’s cinematographers specifically covering the Mothers of the Movement (The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner). It was one of the wildest emotional roller coasters I had ever been on, especially when the mothers and I went to the University in Oxford in England. I have stories for days.
c—When AT&T picked me to direct my first major TV commercial starring pop star Ciara.
I feel disturbed about the pressure women feel nowadays to look “perfect” on social media….
Folks really have gotten it twisted to the point where they are comparing themselves with people who have fake body parts and guys expect women to “naturally” look like these fake women. We now have a society of teenagers who are suicidal or have eating disorders because they desire to look like someone whose body is not real. If folks want to get surgery…go for it, but I just want folks to be able to be critical thinkers and detect reality from fiction.
The best advice I ever received came from my parents and it was…
“Put God first and do the work”
My future goals are…
To start a family, keep traveling the world, lift as I climb and keep paving my own lane within television, film and social justice.
People with good vibes can find me at…
@kuuproductions and to follow my personal shenanigans go to @IamSabrinaT