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Giselle Bailey

@giselle.bailey

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Directah. Accidental poet. Documentarian to the unruly.
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#CrüLüv • Blessings, I’m Giselle Bailey. My HBO documentary Seen & Heard comes out September 9. It’s about Black creativity shaping culture, and the importance of us telling our own stories and doing it together. I’ve directed projects for @HBO, @Netflix, and @Hulu, working with @Oprah, @TheRealSwizzz, @IssaRae, and underground icons from New York to Lagos. I move between different formats—documentary, branded, video art, and now fiction—but what ties it all together for me is the belief that creativity is a form of liberation. I learned that from my family. My family has roots in the Rastafari movement, and I grew up between the Caribbean, the UK, and the US. All that taught me: not belonging has its own power, and outsiders are often the ones who spark the biggest cultural change. Right now, I’m building Indigo Films with my brother Stephen (@akabradford), focused on Jamaican stories and the audacity of the diaspora. I’m also starting Crisis Club (@crisisclub.world), a space for artists to learn from the rebellious creatives before us and to build together, even while the world feels like it’s falling apart. For me, it’s always been bigger than making films. My hope is to help create movements of artful unruliness—to join voices, to collaborate, and to shape the future.I think more than passion, I love what I do. Writing was my first love, and it gave me an authentic voice at a time when I felt like I’d lost my own. When I was moving across countries, my accent kept shifting, and I felt like my voice no longer carried my history. But through writing, art, and film, I found ways to express what didn’t always translate out loud. At heart, I’m an introvert, and film became a way for me to build and find community. I’ve never been one for small talk, but making something with people has always felt honest, exciting, and alive. I see a lot of beauty in that rawness. I’ve curated with @TraceeEllisRoss, @TheRealSwizzz, @IssaRae I want to curate with @BadGalRiri, @WalesBonner, @SafiyaSinclair 📸Tap the link in profile ⇾ @filmcru, and read the full feature! 🥳 #CrüLüvWednesday 🎗#Filmcrü 🖤#GoingFarTogether ♻️ by @giselle.bailey
52
a year ago
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With gratitude by @giselle.bailey
156
9 months ago
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I’m so proud of this. To be able to learn from, to celebrate, and to sprawl across the face of Times Square what someone recently described as the story of our childhood is something I’m deeply grateful for. This is a monument to us all.But if you see one of these billboards, I also want you to see it as a siren. Because while it stands as a testament to Black television, it is also the last gasp of it. Anything airing today was greenlit years ago — remember that. The question is: would it be greenlit now? And if you, like me, are a Black creative working in television, you know the answer — across networks — is no. Or at best, probably not.More than me making Seen and Heard, Seen and Heard has made me. It clarified what I’m seeing happening all around me. Our stories are being wiped from the screen. Our careers are being pushed into the margins, we are not working. The tongues that once spoke admiration for our creativity now deliver the message of “unmarketability.” And no, we are not the only ones suffering. But when the mainstream suffers, will it lead to the erasure of their stories? The answer, once again, is no.Still, the most important lesson I have received from Seen and Heard is this: hope is not given to us — it is created by us. This is not the first time we’ve faced these challenges. Each time we’ve been a guiding light into a new lens of storytelling born of our families, our streets, our music, our intellect, our art; from teaching each other, from funding each other, from collaborating together, from simply being authentic.What I’m trying to say is: we are our own greatest hope.If this project is a manifesto, then its tenets are these: Bet on yourself, Oprah. There is an audience, I am the audience, Issa Rae. We must own it, Tyler Perry. Overcoming is a journey not a destination, Debbie Allen. Don’t let the world fuck up your creativity, Lena Waithe. And Shonda Rhimes, I want to take over the world through television.Xx,GPs: thank you to my dear friends @niaandrews and Damion for 📹 and all the support through the journey by @giselle.bailey
63
10 months ago
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With love to my Mama by @giselle.bailey
2
11 days ago
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Sundance Catalyst ‘26 by @giselle.bailey
28
3 months ago
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Caught in a scene in LaLaLand by @giselle.bailey
116
5 months ago
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JAH <3 by @giselle.bailey
6
9 months ago
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JAH (nature) by @giselle.bailey
1
9 months ago
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Let’s go. Part 1 of #SeenAndHeard premieres tonight at 9pm on @hbomax. by @giselle.bailey
6
a year ago
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I miss Jamaica. I miss the sweat on my skin, in my nostrils, wetting my lungs. I miss the tough clang of gates locking shut windows and doors. Faith says the raindrops are bigger there. They are. I miss living her myth. Wind. Frog. Gunfire. Breadfruit hitting soil. Subwoofers as the new drum. When I’m there, I rhyme to myself like… My thoughts are foreign. My blood is not. My voice is foreign. My tongue is not. Holy trinitied down, from head to pelvic floor. From the bend of my arm past the split of my ribs. I cross myself but mother don’t be cross with me. I haven’t visited you in so long. Here is grey. The raindrops are small. And I’m always cold. Xx,G by @giselle.bailey
3
a year ago
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So proud to have directed this one 🖤 Seen & Heard is my love letter to Black television — to the shows and creatives that raised me, and to the undeniable power of our culture.It’s both a celebration and a reminder: our stories and voices shape the future.I’m grateful for the incredible people I built this with — including my brother @akabradford, our series DP — and for the icons I met along the way who remind me how much stronger we are when we support each other.Seen & Heard, EP’d by @issarae premieres September 9 on HBO 🖤Film by @giselle.bailey Directed & produced by @giselle.bailey @philbhere Series DP @akabradford Producers Chelsea Adewunmi, @diasapienne Editors @jeantsien Luther Clement-Lam @chris_silverberg Marcus Taylor AE @keepupwithxay Music Supervisors @vivalaprincessa @funkycolddd Composer @mattheadmusic Creative director @gabriel_tick Art director @xanderopiyo Archival @blackarchives.co Archival producer @tobydana @hbodocs @saramrodrig @hooraemedia @arkmedianyc @theraedio (If I’m missing you dm me your handle Xx) by @giselle.bailey
37
a year ago
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Diaspora GospelRemixed from my archive— The Legend of the Underground x FKA Twigs❤️‍🔥 by @giselle.bailey
3
a year ago
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