Meet one of the newest, most sought-after film directors in the industry.
Who’s behind Drake’s music videos?
Thanks to twitter, which is the new-age college considering I’ve learned more scrolling down my timeline than I have in school, I’ve discovered a film director from Canada that has changed the game at just 22-years-old: Karena Evans.
What struck me was that she is a woman, and one of color at that in a position like hers. I applaud all my favorites dominating the media nowadays from magazines to music to fashion, etc. but it feels extra good to shine light on the behind-the-scenes dominators. I am so happy that a female POC was given the opportunity to express her visual creativeness for some of the biggest names in today’s music.
We have tenacious, talented women of color in the filmmaking industry such as Ava Duvernay and Issa Rae, so I am nothing less than joyful to discover another creative and genius mind.
We need to be hyping up up-and-comers a lot more. People of color, especially women, are the first to be headliners in negative news. So why can’t they be the first to headline game-changing, impressive, monumental news? There’s no valid reason why this can’t happen.
According to Complex, Evans has been the eyes behind “all three of the videos for Drake’s Scorpion singles, “God’s Plan,” “Nice For What,” and “Im Upset.””
After doing more research on her, I found that she also made history as the first woman to receive Canada’s most impressive honors for direction in the Prism Prize’s Lipsett Award for her groundbreaking role and creativity in the art of video. All the more reason why I love her and now want a picture of her on my wall. We love a queen!
According to Blavity, “Popprok (where Evans works) is a production company that specializes in popular culture storytelling through commercial work, branded content and music videos where Evans is lovingly called “the first lady.”” Director X, the company’s founder, gave her the opportunity to work as an intern who evolved into a director under him.
He posted a video of a BTS moment during the shooting for Drake's single"Nice For What," commemorating her in the caption for her hard work and success thus far.
Like Director X, I'm feeling the proud mommy vibes while typing up this post.
Not only has this queen worked with Drake, but other celebrities such as SZA, Donald Glover, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more. The fact that a lot of us haven't heard of her before up until now makes me want to do even more research to discover more women of color being game changers in these elite industries.
Let's not forget there are a lot of men putting on for us minorities too, such as Black Panther's director Ryan Coogler, and I'm not taking away from that. But it is statistically known that in any race and field, women have it worse than men to succeed and break glass ceilings. So for Evans to be a living symbol of hard work, tenacity, passion, brain, and beauty, it is all the more significant and gripping for a young, female, person of color such as myself and some of you reading to learn about and emulate this success story.
As if her Canadian award wasn't enough, Evans is a nominee in four categories in this year's MTV Video Music Awards. Tune in this monday, Aug. 20 to see her and more legends get the recognition they deserve.
Here's to more history-making by minorities.