Her blog, This Moi!, started on a whim more than two years ago and proved Kartina Richardson to be insightfully witty, candidly funny, and intellectually quirky. And now Richardson's new project MirrorFilm.org, launched last month, confirms that her outlook is as prominent as the coffee she always has in hand. 

3 (+1) Interesting Facts about Kartina Richardson:

1. "I interned briefly with Spike Lee and at Sesame Street. Simultaneously. And when I walked onto the Sesame Street set for the first time, I cried."

2. "The Boston Globe wrote an article about an acting class I taught."

3. "When I was a teenager I looked like this."

4. " 'This Moi' comes from a Liz Lemon quote from 30 Rock, which I'm obsessed with."

VZ: You have a specific style of writing and a specific scope of topics you write about. Where do these things come from?

KR: I'm not exactly certain where my writing style came from, but it's definitely influenced by E. Nesbit, a British author from the turn of the century. Being African American and Malaysian, race is a big part of my life. So I tend to notice a lot of things having to do with color, power, marginalization, and identity. Also the rhythm of my writing is more important to me sometimes than what I actually say. As you may have noticed

I do this

type of thing

a lot.

This could possibly be a bad thing.

VZ: What about other kinds of writing, aside from your blogs?

KR: Whenever I write a play or script I usually begin with one line of dialogue. It might come from nowhere. But that one line will inspire me to write another line, and then another, and then I'll eventually start to hear a character emerge and from that character I'll create others, and then I'll eventually find out what the story will be. 

VZ: You consider yourself a filmmaker/playwright before you consider yourself a blogger. What roles do those mediums play in your life?

KR: I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker in 8th grade, and that's when I made my first short film. It was really horrible and starred my sister as a schizophrenic woman with smeared lipstick named "Shirley Templeton."

I left film school for a number of reasons. It was an extremely difficult decision. I was frustrated by what seemed to be a fear among my peers—to be serious, thoughtful, or experimental. Everyone was doing dorm room comedies. And not even good ones. The film department, in my experience, didn't approach making movies in a way that I believed in and I noticed I was beginning to think about film in a way I that I really hated, so I decided to leave that environment.

I started writing plays in school because I found that the theater department was more open to the artistic or unusual. It is also a solitary activity, whereas making a film is collaborative. You can write a play and have no money and no social skills and no friends (not that it will necessarily get produced, but...), but you definitely can’t do that while making a film.

VZ: Any current projects? 

KR: I've been working on a script about three brothers, a dog corpse, and a dead dad. It's ... coming along. Haha!

I'm currently giving private Adler lessons to three teens and one adult. I prefer larger classes because they're more of a challenge. Although I love working with teenagers. They are simultaneously the best and most horrible people I know. I think most human beings will agree with me on that. 

One thing that's extremely important to me right now is MirrorFilm. The site has videos with my voiceover commentary in which I look at a scene or moment of interest in different films. I also have special series of videos, the first being Race in Film, which looks at portrayals of people of color in films that do not explicitly deal with race. 

I think it’s surprising to some people. No one expects me to know as much about movies because I'm a woman, I'm young, and I'm a person of color. I’m confident in my encyclopedic knowledge of film and I hope more people like me will see that they can have a voice, too. 

Not that you asked for it, but: The best advice I can give to any young lass who wants to do anything in film is to watch movies nonstop like it's your job. I mean, like, five movies a day if you have the time. In fact, make the time, dammit! Pick a director and watch all their films in chronological order. Keep a notebook and jot down your thoughts. You’ll absorb the rhythm of great filmmaking and though you may not think it’ll make a difference, it absolutely will. 

Follow Richardson on Twitter @ThisMoiThisMoi

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