EP 15 — FOR REAL
Devon Silas
Documentary filmmaker who points his camera at blocks the news skips
SAMPLE PROFILE — FILM SLOT
His story is coming to the series soon.
No Plan
Devon Silas drifted out of high school in St. Louis with no plan and a diploma he barely felt attached to. He worked retail, delivered furniture, and took a semester off that turned into two years.
At twenty he enrolled at a community college mostly because his mother made him, and picked a video production class because it fit his work schedule. The first time he cut two shots together and made them mean something, he felt his brain turn on.
A camera got me into rooms my report card never could. Find the tool that gets you in.
Porch Light
He moved to Champaign in 2019 for a videographer job and started shooting his own films on weekends. One summer he knocked on doors in east Urbana and filmed porch interviews with elders about the neighborhood's history. Sixty hours of tape.
That project became his first real documentary, and it plays in classrooms now. He works out of a small edit suite, one camera, one lens he actually uses. He tells young people the gear is the least of it. The listening is the job.