Meet Sahvannah Rae | Writer/ Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sahvannah Rae and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sahvannah, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Creative freedom was at the forefront of creating Skye Film Studios. I didn’t just want to work in the film industry, I wanted to contribute to shaping it and I realized the only way to do this was to create a platform that embodied everything I believed in as a storyteller. I not only aimed to create a platform that I felt inspired my own authentic work, but also attracted likeminded creatives in the hopes of building a community with authentic agendas. Since starting Skye Film Studios, my producing partner, Skye Bleu and I, have worked on the most incredible projects with the most amazing individuals. It has been the greatest privilege seeing an idea of ours blossom into a creative community that has created projects we are proud to call our own. As a filmmaker, I have always aimed to focus my projects on raw, unique, and female character-driven films. I strive to create thought provoking content that pushes the mind and challenges perspectives. Through Skye Studios we have created a platform that will leave behind a legacy of films that prioritize showcasing the worst and best parts of the universal human experience in the most genuine way.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I can’t pinpoint exactly when I lost my sense of curiosity as an adult, but I can pinpoint the exact moment I regained it. After quitting my job and facing the daunting question of “what’s next,” I realized whatever it was it was, it going to be filled with the kind of art I would be proud to spend my life creating.  After graduating film school, I spent 3 years taking the typical “climb the ladder” approach to the industry, until I admitted to myself that the lack of risk was slowly driving me insane. I had replaced my curiosity with complacency and therefore lost my keen sense of purpose.
So, against all words of advice, I let go of societal expectation and fully immersed myself in my own potential as a writer.  I invested the next year of my life without a paycheck, molding my craft and discovering my voice as a creative, and it was the most important investment I have made in my career thus far.  If I hadn’t left the social norm, I would have never discovered what it meant to bet on the undiscovered creative potential lying dormant. It took a year of experimenting, to learn how to trust my creative instinct and become confident with my own creative process. Giving myself the space and time to figure out my voice as an artist allowed me the credence to start my own production company, Skye Film Studios, alongside my sister and producing partner Skye Blue. Since opening in 2022 we have debuted our first short film that has just won its 6th consecutive film festival, wrapped filming on our first feature that will be released in November 2023, and finished my first novel that will be released in September 2023. All of this would never have been possible if I didn’t take the time to discover myself as a writer, as a director, and above all as a creative. It took leaving everything behind to lean into myself and redefine what success meant to me. The best investment I’ve made as a business owner is in my own ideas and the time it takes to let them form a personality of their own. This investment gave me an unfaltering belief in myself and my future as a creative as I found a newfound curiosity that I had no idea I had lost.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would fill our day with anything that would evoke a creative spark. Because I believe art inspires art, I would start us with a coffee from Alfred followed by an adventure at the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles so we could pick out a piece of literature that would hopefully become our new favorite book. I would proceed with an outdoor rooftop lunch at Mamma Shelter, and finally end with a sip and paint and charcuterie!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would love to dedicate my shoutout to all the other female filmmakers in the world who are brave enough to risk their own vulnerability through storytelling. Choosing a life of creative openness has been the most terrifying part of my journey, and I condone every person who chooses this path. In my experience, the films I create always begin with a story that is a mirror of my own fears, traumas, angers, or happiness’s.

Stories are an entity in themselves, and they come alive when they are told. They are extensions of people that become the legacy left behind by those daring enough to share their deepest secrets, and through the experience I have come to love and respect fellow filmmakers more than every before.

Website: skyefilmstudios.com

Instagram: sahvannah_rae

Image Credits
Skye Bleu