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So often we see so many complexes in the world of complexion. How many times have you leaned to your own understanding of something or created your own outcome to a scenario? If you’re reading this then you’re like most of us in the mindset of we’ve all been there a time or two. What if you just took a moment to understand things differently, easier said than done. A new film entitled, Mixed Girl, was co-written and directed by saucy and creative director; Des Gray. Des Gray who’s no stranger to the world of filmography and art, recently SHEEN was able to catch up with Des in between projects to discuss Mixed Girl.

SHEEN: Let’s discuss the reason we are here. We are here to discuss your new film that will be streaming on Moneybagg Yo’s network. We are excited because you had a lot of stars to be a part of this movie. We are talking about Mixed Girls.

DES: It’s actually streaming now on REVOLT TV, you can get that on AMAZON, it will be on MoneyBagg Yo’s platform, Bread Gang. It’s going on TUBI Friday and it will be also going on Peacock on January 15.

SHEEN: So basically that means that nobody has an excuse not to watch this.

DES: They need to watch this. Mixed Girl is about a lot. It’s about low self-esteem, colorism, and identity issues, it’s about not knowing who you are in your environment. It’s about fatherhood, motherhood, drugs.

SHEEN: One of your stars in the film is the late Jacky Oh. I am not going to lie when I first saw her, I thought she was a caucasian girl. When she passed I started researching her and I watched one of her YouTube videos and I saw that she was bi-racial. I also found out that she was raised by her father who is African-American. So how did you guys get her to be a part of this film?

DES: You know what’s so interesting about that, God rest her soul, she always said she wanted to work with me and that whenever I did a movie she wanted me to call her and she would have my back. Now Jacky was supposed to be the main character, but because of the age changes, she actually couldn’t play that role, she still wanted to tell her side of the story, so she portrayed the friend. She read the script and she said, “Des is really really good because I went through this with my father and my mother. I want to be a part of this because a lot of people don’t talk about this”. I love being a black woman and we have our experiences. The thing is, when I was talking to Jacky, she said, ” I want my kids to be able to see this and have an understanding”. In the story of Mix Girl, you can see the main character’s relationship with her mother and her father.

SHEEN: I like it because, well, I have only seen the trailer, but I like the fact that you changed the stereotype. We see the caucasian family in the trailer park, and it’s like you changed the narrative. What made you go with that concept?

DES: So how I actually came up with that concept of a mixed girl is, that I have a good friend who is bi-racial, her mother is white and her father is black. She is beautiful, and one day I was talking to her and I asked her why she was always walking with her head down and she said, “I feel like I belong nowhere”. She started explaining how she gets treated when she goes around her different sides of the family how they made her feel and how she felt lost. She actually started crying. I felt that I wanted to tell a story about that because I never would’ve thought about that. It’s just one of those topics that people don’t talk about. Think about the torture and the self-esteem issues that a mixed person goes through.

SHEEN: I love that because we see a lot of it on social media. People want “Designer Babies”. Some of our black men have made statements about wanting to have kids with women of other races for whatever reason, but I always wondered, does anyone stop to think about the child? What must the child go through?

SHEEN: Let’s talk about the fact that you did a lot with this film. You had a partner, Nikki Carr, and Yandy Smith.

DES: Me and Nikki Carr wrote the movie together and Yandy co-produced.

SHEEN: Ok. So what did Yandy actually think about this film?

DES: Yes. Yandy did a lot as well. As a matter of fact, let me call Yandy. I’m calling Yandy Smith right now, she is filming for Love and Hip Hop right now.

Yandy: Hey y’all. How yall doing?

SHEEN: Hey Yandy. So I wanted to know what made you come aboard on this project.

Yandy: Wow. Well, first of all, I have known Des for many, many years. We met a long time ago in this industry and I bumped into her again. When we bumped into each other, we sat down for lunch and I was just amazed by her and all that she does as a director, a producer, and all. She’s worked with many of the greats. She mentioned to me that she wanted to move into the movie industry and that she had been working on some things. She talked to me about this script, and I thought that this was an amazing story and it started conversations. This is about a mixed beauty and I wanted to be the person to help her amply understand this story because with the right voices and the right resources she (Des) can change what making movies look like.

DES: I love that.I know you are busy right now filming and I will let you get back to that.

SHEEN:  So what are you hoping that people take away from this film?

DES: I feel like I am here to shine a light. What I want people to take away from this movie is to stop looking at things just one way. When you look at people you never know what people are going through. I want people to take away the understanding that no matter where you come through, we all go through the same struggle. Even the town that we shot, we filmed in Loganville, GA, and the mayor of that town came by and gave us a thank you because no one comes to film here. When we were filming the project we experienced racism.

SHEEN: Even with that example that you just gave, that’s like a testimony to why our people need to continue to build each other up because racism is still out there and we don’t need to attack each other. So would you say that with the cast, crew, and location your vision came to life?

DES: Yes. My vision came to life. One of the things that I would say is that I learned so much. I learned a lot from this production. My cast and crew was amazing and I am beyond grateful.

SHEEN: So we also found out that you are an amazing video producer as well and you’re working on other projects. So what’s up next for Des?

DES: Ok. Yes, so if you guys don’t know me, I have directed videos for Lil Baby, Chris Brown, Yung Thug, Rick Ross, and just about everybody. Coming from music videos, I knew that I wanted to be in movies. My goal in life was to become a filmmaker. I took on music videos as a way to sharpen my skills. I am so fortunate to be an award-winning, international director. We are at my studio right now sponsored by Monster Energy Drink, Collab Studios. This space was designed for content creators. We are partnered with Meta and SnapChat as well.

Innovating and cutting-edge films are literally at the forefront of this generation and we love that. We love a good film that stimulates our mind and helps us gain clarity into areas of life where we may just have been lacking a deeper education. Make sure you stream Mix Girl and show your support.