Whimsy Is A Practice, A Serious One

This week we continue May’s “Find Your People” series with Week 3: Mentors. In Community Notes, we are talking about whimsy. Not the aesthetic. The practice. Why uncovering new pathways of thinking is the real work, why whimsy and faith are cousins, and what happens when we put it back on the call sheet. Plus the ABFF 30th anniversary lineup landing, Aleshea Harris’s debut opening in 1,510 theaters, two African directors making Cannes history, a new market platform built for African producers, four grants worth your week, and a word from Regina King on kicking the window all the way open.

Let’s get into it.

May’s series is “Find Your People.” Week 1 was The First Believer. Week 2 was Collaborators. This is Week 3: Mentors. The person a step or two ahead of you. The one who pulls you up.

1. Name one. Not a celebrity. Not someone you saw on a panel once. Someone close enough that their path looks like a path you could actually walk. Write the name down today.

2. Ask for fifteen minutes. Not an hour. Not a relationship. Fifteen minutes this month. Bring one specific question you cannot answer alone. Make the ask easy to say yes to.

3. If the answer is no or no answer, ask the next one. Mentors are not assigned, they are accumulated. The person who replies is the right person.

The myth is that you find one mentor and they hand you the map. The truth is you find a handful of people two steps ahead and you take what works from each. Start with one this week. The map gets built in the meetings.

The Whimsy Shall Set You Free

There is a woman I have been following on Instagram named @manifestlikemom aka Joaane, and this week she said something that cracked open how I have been thinking about my work. She was talking about whimsy. Not whimsy as aesthetic. Not whimsy as decoration. Whimsy as radical optimism. Whimsy as the practice of constantly uncovering and constantly creating new pathways of thinking.

We have been trained to treat whimsy as something soft, something extra, something you allow yourself after the real work is done. The strategy deck first, then maybe a little razzle dazzle at the end if there is time. The treatment first, then maybe a weird beat if the budget allows. We package it like dessert. But what if whimsy is the meal? YUM right? What if the uncovering, the imagining, the willingness to follow a thought into a room you have never been in, is actually the work itself?

Joanne mentions faith in her video, which brought me to the conclusion that being whimsical and having faith are related actions. Both are practiced in the absence of guarantees. Faith does not promise the outcome will look the way you wanted. Whimsy does not promise the room will accept what you made. Neither comes with a receipt. What they both come with is internal satisfaction, the kind you can only get from the act of believing the next pathway is real before there is any evidence of it. The kind you get from showing up to your own imagination with no one watching.

The industry we are watching restructure right now was built by people who left whimsy off the call sheet. The new one is going to be built by people who put it back on. Not as a tone, as a structure. The director who casts the unlikely person because their voice does something the script needed. The producer who funds the strange one because the strange one is the only one that will outlive the trend. The writer who keeps the joke in even when the room goes quiet. The editor who lets the long take breathe. That is whimsy. That is the practice.

So this week, do one thing your serious self would talk you out of. Write the line that does not pitch easily. Cast the friend, not the resume. Show up to the table with the idea that does not have a precedent yet. The pathway you uncover this week becomes a road later. The road becomes a film. The film becomes a body of work. And the body of work, when you look back, will be the receipts of every Tuesday you let whimsy lead.

It does not guarantee acceptance. It does not promise perfection. But it almost always guarantees the one thing the industry cannot give you and cannot take from you. The satisfaction of having made something only you could have made. Be whimsy my friends, I’m serious. =)

What’s moving in the industry this week.

American Black Film Festival Unveils 2026 Lineup Featuring Jamie Foxx, Marsai Martin, Courtney B. Vance, Jesse Williams and Coco Jones, The 30th anniversary “Homecoming” slate dropped this week. Marsai Martin and Courtney B. Vance lead Girl Dad produced by Jamie Foxx. Jesse Williams headlines Montmartre. Coco Jones stars in That’s Her with Loretta Devine. Festival runs May 27 to 31 in Miami Beach. The room is forming. Variety, May 2026

‘Is God Is’ Review: Filmmaker Aleshea Harris Fulfills Her Destiny in This Fizzy and Fiery Revenge Debut, Aleshea Harris’s directorial debut, adapted from her Obie-winning play, opened May 15 in 1,510 theaters via Amazon MGM and Orion. Opening weekend: $2.2 million. Rotten Tomatoes: 97%. CinemaScore: B+. Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, and Sterling K. Brown star. A Black woman playwright translating stage to screen with studio backing and rave reviews is the case study. IndieWire, May 13, 2026

African Duo Makes History in Cannes With Un Certain Regard Premieres ‘Congo Boy,’ ‘Ben’Imana’, Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Ben’Imana is the first Rwandan film to ever play in Cannes’ official selection. Central African filmmaker Rafiki Fariala’s Congo Boy premiered May 15 as the first from the Central African Republic. Dusabejambo spent more than a decade getting Ben’Imana made, developed at Cannes’ La Fabrique Cinéma, Marrakech’s Atlas Workshops, and Ouaga Film Lab. The ceilings keep cracking. Variety, May 2026

Nomadic Film Space Launches Traveling Market Platform for African Creative Producers at Cannes, A new traveling market connecting African and diaspora producers to private equity and institutional capital launched May 14 and 15 at the Marché du Film. Backed by Afreximbank, Film Fund Luxembourg, SACD, CNC, Téléfilm Canada and others. Built to fill the financing gap that has kept African producers locked out of conventional rooms. Infrastructure is being built. Variety, May 2026

Open as of May 19, 2026.

Austin Film Society Grant for Feature Films, Up to $20,000 in cash for Texas-based filmmakers in pre-production, production, or post-production. Includes the New Texas Voices Award ($15,000) for first-time feature filmmakers bringing new and underseen perspectives. Deadline: May 20, 2026 at 6 PM CT. If you are Texas-based, today is the day.

Roy W. Dean Summer Grant 2026, $3,500 cash plus $20,000+ in services and discounts. Open to documentaries, narrative features, shorts, and web series budgeted under $500,000. Open globally. Every applicant receives a 15-minute consultation on funding strategy. Deadline: June 30, 2026.

Mountainfilm Commitment Grant, $1,000 to $5,000 for documentary filmmakers celebrating adventure, activism, social justice, culture, environment and indomitable spirit. Deadline: July 1-16, 2026.

XPRIZE - Future Vision, $2.5M+ prize for a 3-minute sci-fi trailer depicting an optimistic, abundant future for humanity. The prize is to turn your vision into a feature. Deadline: August 15, 2026.

“You give us a little window, we’re going to kick it all the way open.” , Regina King

King said this to Gina Prince-Bythewood in the Hollywood Reporter feature after her Oscar win for If Beale Street Could Talk and her directorial debut with One Night in Miami. The room had cracked open a sliver and she made the math plain. A sliver is enough. A sliver becomes a doorway. A doorway becomes a hallway you walk other people through. Regina is ABFF’s 2026 Festival Ambassador, returning to Miami Beach for a Legacy Talk at the 30th anniversary. The window is open this week. Bring something to kick through it with.

Scene & Heard is a creative platform producing live film events, readings, and community programming in Los Angeles. Founded by Michael Oloyede in collaboration with Suzen Baraka (Program Director) & Jowaan Sullivan (Creative Director). Come through. Bring your people. sceneandheard.co | Reply to this email anytime.

To support the work we’re doing to create space for the next generation of creative voices, tax-deductible donations can be made at seriesfest.com/sceneandheard.