Dreaming Whilst Black is a brand new comedy web-series written, directed and staring British/Jamaican
Adjani Salmon.
With so much buzz going around on it we had to catch up with Adjani and have a chat with him.
OAJ: Describe yourself in 3 words?
AS: Loud, Organic, genuine
OAJ: Is this web series based on your real life experiences?
AS: VERY loosely. It’s much more of a compilation story of all my filmmaker friends’ stories into one character.
OAJ: What do you expect viewers to take away from it?
AS: I hope they laugh, but also think about the underlying issues that the jokes were about, and start a conversation about those issues.
OAJ: Where you born in Jamaica? Or are you off decent? If born what was it like moving to the UK and adapting to the culture there?
AS: Born in England, then moved to Jamaica as a toddler and grew up there, then moved back to go to film school in 2013. It was interesting. The cultural and social practices here are quite different so I’d misinterpret things or people would misunderstand me. For instance I never really thought of myself as loud in Jamaica, but everyone here keeps telling me that I am lol. London being such a metropolitan city as well you get to meet and learn about so many different cultures. So now some of my closest friends are from Egypt, Uganda and Somalia, so it really gives you a window to different.
OAJ: If you were born in the UK tell me about what is like to be of Jamaican descent in the UK.
AS: London is sort of a collection of smaller cultural groups, so you can really engulf yourself in the culture when feeling homesick. So for example my new office is in Peckham, so now I can buy hard dough bread or bun and cheese when I’m feeling homesick.
Stereotyping happens as well but there are so many positive aspects about the city, the nightlife, the millions of things you can do, the diversity of the people you meet that you don’t feel isolated when here. One thing London can really work on though is the weather, my skin wasn’t build for this type of cold.
OAJ: Favourite Line from The Harder They Come Movie?
AS: I was gonna google best lines from the film and tell you but to be honest I haven’t watched the film in such a long time I can’t remember a specific line that I loved.
OAJ: Favourite verse from a Chronixx song?
AS: The first verse of Black is Beautiful. I remember hearing that song for the first time on his album and thinking, “damn, dis a touch me pon a DIFFERENT level”
OAJ: Any thoughts of doing a series about life in Jamaica?
AS: I’d LOVE to do a series in Jamaica. I have a couple ideas in mind, and always open to collaborating it’s just timing and resources really. But it is definitely something that I plan on doing.
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