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about
J.J. Anderson is a self-taught filmmaker who fell in love with the connective power of storytelling while attending her parents’ NA & AA meetings as a kid. Witnessing such vulnerable exchanges inspired her to focus on creating loving representations of Black and Brown youth and intergenerational relationships. Much of J.J.’s work focuses on digging deeper into elements of culture, community, and lineal healing practices that keep our distinctive spirits alive.
After attending Tuskegee University for one year, J.J. earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics at Cal State Northridge and co-founded the Los Angeles-based production company HRDWRKER. Through HRDWRKER, J.J., and the small but mighty team developed a range of intentional content for entities including The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, ARRAY, Studio Museum in Harlem, and more.
Her black curatorial-focused project, Positive Space, was labeled groundbreaking by Shonda Rhimes’ digital platform, Shondaland, on which it now streams.
j.j.’s tenderhearted spot celebrating the C.R.O.W.N ACT entitled Own Your Crown was spotlighted by various outlets, including Good Morning America and Adweek. J.J. was a cohort member of Array's inaugural film fellowship hosted by renowned disrupter & filmmaker Haile Gerima. She went on to direct the multi-award-winning short Home / Free in collaboration with Slack, now streaming on Amazon. The short film stars John Legend and brings light to the overwhelming reentry barriers formerly incarcerated folks face regularly.
J.J.’s first feature film, Sacred Soil: The Piney Woods School Story, produced in collaboration with Andscape is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+. The project delves into the minds and worlds of a group of students at a historically Black boarding school in Mississippi while celebrating the simplicity of their brilliant existence, as well as the institution’s fortitude.