Director's Works
Fortuno, Wanna Believe U Ja'Lisa Arnold
Ja'Lisa 'J'ai La Soul' Arnold is a Los Angeles based filmmaker. A visual artist by training, she received her BFA in Film from Syracuse University and went on to assist a roster of award-winning directors, primarily Daniel Wolfe and Justyna Obasi, who have all had a hand in developing her craft and eye for visual storytelling. Her work has been featured at several publications and film festivals, such as Director's Library, BAMCinemaFest, and Syracuse International Film Festival. She cultivates every project like a poem, inscribing a lyricism heavily indebted to her art-house cinema influences — poetic realism, French impressionism, and docu-style filmmaking. Currently, she is working on her debut short film, West Savannah, an 80’s punk film.
On the surface, Wanna Believe U is another break-up song. While I was writing the script, I discovered that the lyrics were written in mourning of the lead singer’s fallout with a close friend. This revelation added so much depth and nuance to the words. It also reiterated a big theme we (director, band, and our community) were experiencing in our lives at the time. As a group of twenty-somethings floating through life and relationships, we were all going through heartbreak in some form or another. Many were with romantic partners but a lot of those heartbreaks we experienced were from completely platonic relationships — close friends, family members, mentors, and all other loved ones. Some of these relationships changed us more than others, but every single break-up was brutal and heart-wrenching, nonetheless. We took all those experiences and translated them into the story we have.