Role: Co-Director ✦ Co-Cinematographer ✦ Editor ✦ Colorist ✦ Sound Designer

Since pre-production, I wanted the film to follow Mandy’s daily rhythm (unlocking the shop in the morning, reviewing her booking notebook, preparing her tools, and moving through appointments). Customers are mostly seen only through fragments such as hands, shoulders, shoes, and the backs of heads so the focus stays on Mandy’s interactions and presence with them.

A quieter section of the film shifts attention to the décor throughout the shop: photographs, handmade crafts, and other objects customers have gifted Mandy across the years. These items become very important after talking with Mandy about how Maupin’s Barber Stylist is more than a shop. It is a space shaped by mutual affection, memory, and long-lasting relationships.

The visual focus returns to the chair at the end of the day. Once the lights are off, it sits in the same place where it began but now carries the weight of the day, the work completed, the people cared for, and the community around it. The film, Mandy’s Chair, is a love letter to a woman and a barbershop that have taken care of me from middle school to an independent grown adult.