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This time of year always reminds me of the moment I was caught “sneak-watching” re-runs of Queer As Folk by my mother during the holiday break. What could have been a moment that scarred me for life was handled with immense grace and served as my first lesson in bravery. Instead of casting a cloud of shame, she invited me to watch the show that explored the explicit and sex-positive dynamics found in gay culture. These were the first days of the DVR and slightly before the widely popularized “Google it” era. I’ll never forget the solace I felt watching this overtly gay television series and feeling seen by the only person that mattered in my adolescent world. (Yes, I was very much a mama’s person.)
Long gone are the days of me hiding behind the “channel recall” button or secretly indulging in content deemed inappropriate by the masses. But that simple exercise has stuck with me forever; guilt and pleasure will never belong together. Fast forward two decades and it’s completely fitting that I’d be serving as the Co-Founder and Executive Director of an Emmy-nominated non-profit and distribution platform committed to empowering intersectional artists to share their bravery with the world through short-form media.
While I often come back to that moment of bravery instilled in me, it hasn't always been simple to live out my values.
When I co-founded Open Television (OTV) at the tender age of 22, I was fresh out of university, and like many millennials, I was hell-bent on changing the world through media. Over the years, our mission and vision have expanded, but our guiding question is the same: What does open television look like? For the past several years I’ve had the opportunity to witness a community of storytellers, filmmakers and creatives stand up to their realities and create revolutionary stories free from guilt and anchored in pleasure. Unlike many streaming platforms, television networks and arts nonprofits, OTV’s commitment to intersectional artistry guides our growth as we employ liberatory practices through an anti-capitalist lens.
These are values that I learned at a very young age from the incredibly strong, Black women who raised me — women who taught me to stand up for what I believe in and never back down from a challenge that required the perfect balance of grace and grit. I often come back to those sacred moments shared where my mother, aunt and sister would sit around the living room dissecting the dysfunctional family dynamics on Six Feet Under or the harmful, bureaucratic systems perpetuated by the government and media on The Wire; often searching for parallels between these fictional storylines and our very real lived experiences.
As a young, Black, non-binary, queer and self-proclaimed media junkie from the hood, it comforts me knowing that intersectional artists in Chicago, and now from around the globe, are finding a home for their stories through OTV’s app and artist development resources. TV has taught me so much about the person I am today. Since its inception, the role that television has played in shaping our cultural and political landscape is undeniable. Media and storytelling hold such power over our lives. On average, according to a recent report from Stastista, audiences around the globe spend close to eight hours a day engaging with some form of media, with Americans spending “around 347 minutes per day with traditional media, along with 470 minutes of digital media.”
It is clear that the media possess a great deal of influence on how we look at the world around us. And as much as I hate to admit it, consuming Queer As Folk, a deeply problematic show about a group of upwardly mobile white gay, cis-het people frolicking through Pittsburg, provided me with a portal to a universe that was completely different from my own. These are the moments of wonder that I hope OTV’s artists and audiences unlock when they tap into over a hundred intersectional series, pilots, short films and video art.
One component that has always inspired me about my work over at OTV is our unparalleled perspective on what it means to amplify and sustain intersectional arts and artistry in the age of digital media. In addition to providing a network of care to foster the entire trajectory of a creative project from inception to release, we also offer connectivity, financing and consultation throughout the journey of the project.
This is all to bring the stories of our time that are often underrepresented or missing from TV to the public. As we continue to cultivate the next generation of storytellers and audiences for their stories I’m deeply proud of the ways we have been able to experiment with alternative ways to develop, produce and exhibit art and television.
We are an incubator for those who are ready to share their bravery with the world. And just like those moments of courage instilled in me at an early age, I try to share that fearlessness with all of the artists who welcome us along their journey. Since OTV’s inception in 2015, we have prided ourselves on being artist-centric, that is to say, our artists are an integral part of shaping our organization and platform.
Film, television and media play a huge role in sharing a wide range of identities, cultures, viewpoints and more. These stories allow us to reach across time and space to learn better ways for coexisting. There is so much beauty and possibility in seeing one's humanity reflected on the screen, and I am deeply committed to ensuring that intersectional representation is accurately portrayed. I don’t think that there’s a coincidence between 2021 being labeled one of the “deadliest” for Black and Latinx “transgender and gender non-conforming people in the U.S.,” according to the Human Rights Campaign and the highly popularized shows that put these identities front-and-center, such as Pose (FX) and Veneno (HBO).
As we look toward our 10 year anniversary, I’m consciously aware that representation does not often lead to acceptance. This is why I work diligently with the OTV leadership team to design a pipeline and ecosystem that nourishes our artists' creativity alongside their personal and professional goals. To this end, each one of our programs is designed to engage intersectional filmmakers, storytellers and producers at every stage of their careers to ensure a sustainable entry into the film and TV industry. Whether it’s through our global 48-hour film competition (Brave Futures), our annual fellowship program (OTV Fellows) or our masterclass-style film courses (OTV Study Hall), we are working hard to remind creatives who are often marginalized by their intersecting identities that the time is now for the world to invest in intersectional storytelling.
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Elijah McKinnon is the Co-founder of the Chicago-based intersectional, queer and POC-led television platform Open Television (OTV).
