Director in the spotlight: Edson Jean | Women & Film

Edson Jean, director of the film, “Ludi,” part of the lineup in this year’s Women & Film festival.
Edson Jean, director of the film, “Ludi,” part of the lineup in this year’s Women & Film festival.
Luke Fontana photo
Posted

Despite traffic, time zones, zealous birds, and poor cell service, The Leader managed to catch “Ludi” Haitian-American writer and actor Edson Jean for just enough time to pick his brain about the making of his directorial debut. Filmed in 14 days and featuring a cast of 10, “Ludi” was edited and ready for viewing within a year. The film is Jean’s way of focusing on Haitian culture in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, while being inspired by stories his mother told him about her time as a caretaker. 

A grant of $50,000 from Oolite Arts, where Jean was a 2020 Cinematic Arts resident, funded the film. Watch “Ludi” as part of the Women & Film festival beginning April 22.

In a previous interview, you admitted to being kicked out of a magnet music school because of your truant ways. Do you think it takes a little bit of being bad, to be good at what you do?

(Laughs.) I think rebellious to a certain extent, that’s the word I gravitate to when I think about that question. And not for the sake of being rebellious, but that’s definitely in my nature. What a little bit of rebelliousness offers is the opportunity to learn on your own accord and not necessary follow something because someone else told you. And I feel like lessons, experiences, influence yourself to a greater degree when you learn those lessons yourself because of the choices and decisions you make. 

How did being an actor inform how you wrote your script for “Ludi”?

Oh, I think it informed it a ton because I improv a lot… also back and forth with the co-writer Joshua John-Baptiste. So as a script, it did inform, ‘cause also like your imagination, you’re used to activating your imagination a lot as an actor, and sometimes you like can play out scenes and you can like field dialogue and literally act it out in your own private space in a way that feels authentic to you…

You wrote the screenplay for “Ludi” with Shein Mompremier in mind. How much of her backstory did you know before you cast her as Ludi in the film?

I knew none of it, so that was the crazy part, because there was just so many coincidences, and  like it was very serendipitous in that regard. Her mom was also a caretaker [and] her aunt.

What is the significance of the cassette tapes in the film? Is this something from your mother’s era?

The cassette tapes was something to sort of preserve some cultural elements in the Haitian culture… So it’s something that acted as part of my mom’s experience — well, mine too. I got to know my aunt and my grandma through cassette tapes. We used cassettes to send back and forth to each other… That started to happen because of a large number of Haitians being illiterate, so they would communicate through leaving messages, singing songs, and updating families through cassette tapes and sending them back and forth.

In the short film “The Making of Ludi,”  [available on YouTube] we see you on the phone counting in “a random lady on the side of the road” as a cast member. Did you actually let somebody have a walk-on role type of thing?

Yeah, yeah. We definitely had some randos in some smaller moments.

What’s the next step for you?

I’ve already written my second feature; I’m looking to finance it…I have a few projects in development.

Did you max out your budget?

No, I definitely did not. I went under budget.

What did your mom think about “Ludi”?

She had literally the best response I could ever ask for. After the film she’s crying, and she’s like, “I don’t know, it’s like the whole film, and the writing, and Shein, and the way she portrayed it, and the actress. I felt seen in the movie.”

I was like, ‘Aw, come on,’ like it was as if someone would have told her to say those words, “I feel seen,” but she said those exact words while she was crying to me and talking to me about the experience.