Female Filmmaker Spotlight: Jessica Lauren Richmond, Creator and Director of @BakersDozenSeries

Jessica Lauren Richmond, creator of Baker's Dozen. Photo Credit @joshuasterlingbragg

We live in a time where anyone can make content. That doesn't make it necessarily easier to create but it does open doors for a wider spectrum of stories to be told. Without the traditional gatekeepers of entertainment, filmmakers are able to tell their tales their way – especially when it is on the subject of getting tail, know what I'm sayin'?!? This Female Filmmaker Spotlight is on Jessica Lauren Richmond (aka JRich) – the creator of the soon to be released series, Baker's Dozen.

Where did the concept for Bakers Dozen come from?

JRICH: @bakersdozenseries is based on my short story series “Baker's Dozen: 13 dates in 2013 and what they taught me about self-love.” My mom was the first one to tell me it would make a great feminist rom com. When Gabby and I met on set of Khali The Killer I told her my mom's idea. 3 Years later Gabby and I met again to green light ourselves for 13 short form episodes of Baker's Dozen – Season 01. During development we explicated 13 archetypes of those one encounters during their sexual R&D while opting to focus on digital etiquette and solidify the series' sex-positive messaging. Mary Baker's story comes from many women's sexual experiences and the concept is: a woman with agency over her own sexual experience will always come out on top, and the most important relationship she'll ever have is with herself.

Jessica Lauren Richmond's mom planted the seed to take her short story “Baker's Dozen: 13 dates in 2013 and what they taught me about self-love” and turn it into a feminist rom com

This is a sex positive show – are there are any particularly fun storylines you can tease us with?

JRICH: Oh but of course. Get ready for 13 sexi-sodes that address scenarios such as non-touch orgasm, cuming together, riding the crimson tide, GGG, MDMA sexual-healing, kinky play, outdoor sex, and a whole bunch of romantic kisses. We also address the grey area rape of undefined boundary lines, and (spolier alert) we see our main character move on from each experience without folding it into her identity.

I know you are a production rockstar and are no stranger to playing many roles on set. What are all the roles you took on for Bakers Dozen and how does this project compare to producing other people's projects?

JRICH: Production is always collaborative. I consider every project a ship that comes in and out of port; Baker's Dozen was my first self-produced ship to captain, and the bold and committed crew that supported the navigation I set out made the journey possible. I am the writer, showrunner, and directed many of the episodes – I play OMILEE in EP08, line produced and became co-EP during our process – handled Transpo and sometimes 2nd AC'd – managed locations, rentals and crew… For the hyphen-phobic, my role on Baker's Dozen is series Creator.

Multi-Hyphenate Filmmaker Jessica Lauren Richmond

I remember you saying at a lunch we had once that you enjoyed working on multiple projects because you liked winning and you wanted to just keep winning. What advice/words of wisdom do you have for female filmmakers and creatives to start or keep winning?

JRICH: Hahahaha that must of been a really delicious lunch. I imagine I must have been referring to the statistics of participation. But at the moment, I would say to my younger self: fail as often as you can, fail until you care not what others think of your failures. Failures on a clock that you did not set are actually touchstones on the way to winning. P.S. Do you think they might put that on a yogi tea?

As a creator, I find it important to make sure you are intaking art to fill up your creative well. What has been inspiring and/or entertaining you lately?

JRICH: I agree with you wholeheartedly on filling the creative well but also believe it's challenging to take in content while simultaneously creating ( ~ you wouldn't eat a sandwich on the toilet.) But in between projects I drink from the well all I can. Most recently I saw A Quiet Place and Bird Box back to back and am fascinated by the place female character pregnancy has found in our modern apocalypse-culture films (Children of Men would make a great triple feature with those two). Of course there's Black Mirror – which continues to be a great documentary series. And any time I'm at the end of my proverbial rope I turn to Krista Tippett's podcast On Being.