EDGEWATER PARK – Maurice Paramore caught the filmmaking bug during his undergraduate years at William Paterson University.
Parramore, 39, was in his final year and was tasked with a capstone project, the culmination of what was learned in the school’s communications program. He decided to make a 30-minute short film and fell in love with the storytelling process, deciding he wanted to tell more stories.
The 2001 Burlington High School graduate, who was once a DJ, started his own full-service production company called Dream Boy Vision after college. The company makes films, music videos, TV shows and commercials.
Paramore currently writes, directs and produces numerous short and feature films and is currently preparing for the premiere of his third feature film, Kodak. It premieres Jan. 6 at the Burlington County Library Auditorium in Westhampton. He has a distribution deal with Homestead Entertainment and hopes to achieve the same success with this project as he did with his 2021 feature Regrets.
“Kodak” tells the story of a young woman whose life changed after being separated from her mother. Expressing herself through photography helps a woman find her identity and gives her a much-needed outlet.
“I love telling stories about young ladies, giving a voice to women that sometimes they don’t always get those opportunities,” Parramore says.
“Regrets” tells the story of an incarcerated boxer who tries to reconnect with his daughter, who was lost in foster care. The film tells about how a teenager tries to figure out his relationship with his father.
This movie was picked up for distribution by Homestead Entertainment and released on Tubi TV. It was picked up as part of Comcast/Xfinity’s Black Experience in March and can be streamed on Xfinity On Demand and Peacock TV.
Paramore has won numerous accolades in the independent film industry and feels like he’s just getting started. He also likes to film many of his scenes in the Burlington County area, which allows him to acknowledge local businesses and attractions.
He says having supportive parents—Kim Parramore and Adrian Dace—has also been instrumental in his career success.
We asked Maurice Paramore about his life and career.
Question: You grew up in the town of Burlington?
Answer: I moved to Burlington around sixth grade. I’ve been here almost ever since. We’ll move to Willingboro for a bit, then to Edgewater Park. … I spent some time in Camden, I spent some time in Delanco, but once I came from Delanco to Burlington Township in the sixth grade, I’ve been here pretty much ever since. … I now live in Edgewater Park.
Q: So tell me about your interest in film and how it came about. Is it something you’ve wanted to do since you were young?
A: I have always loved movies. Since the minute DVDs came out, I have collected so many DVDs. When I was in college, people would rent DVDs from me because I just loved them. I have never made films. I think it was a natural progression. I started as a DJ. I’ve always been in the entertainment industry. I was a DJ at a young age, since about the fourth grade. I DJed at house parties, block parties in Philly, neighborhood parties. I went from DJing to producing and writing hip-hop music. Then I went to school and focused on my hip-hop career, but at the time I needed visuals, music videos. I was introduced to the communications program at William Paterson. My friend worked in the hardware department. I went there and rented some equipment and I kind of just got the bug from there.
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Q: So the director was born?
A: I enrolled in a communications program and started making music videos. I got a camera and made my own music videos. Didn’t really know what I was doing, but it was pretty cool. Then I had other friends who were into music and I ended up making a few of their music videos. I thought that was really cool, let me do it a little bit. In our final year we had capstone projects, which are your last project before you leave. That’s all you’ve learned up to this point. Communications consisted largely of radio, television, studio production, and everything in between. It wasn’t really filmmaking; it was a little bit of everything mixed into one. We had a filmmaking program, but I didn’t take it. My last project—everyone was doing TV commercials, radio, studio projects—I decided to make a 30-minute short film. Don’t ask me how, why. But I felt like I wanted to tell this story. That I kind of mixed hip-hop music and live acting and made it into one project. Got an A. I wanted to tell stories. It was kind of a natural progression from being a DJ, to being an artist, a music director, until it was time to write and direct my own films.
Q: Your movie Regrets … when did it come out?
A: Regrets began as a 15-minute short in 2018 about a teenager dealing with his parents. But I knew I always wanted to tell a complete story, so in 2020, when the lead actress, Jabria Anderson (from Willingboro), was a little older, I wrote a feature-length script that was more grown-up because I knew she could handle more deep storyline questions and required a more advanced level of acting. Shortly after writing, we started production right in the center of COVID.
This story has always been special to me because it gave young women a voice. Many of these absent father stories are often about a father and a son, but I wanted to explore the effects of an absent father on a young woman’s life. I also wanted to touch on the effects of foster care, as I personally know people who have gone through it. (The film was released in December 2021)
Q: I understand the film won awards.
A: I think this short alone won about five Best Film awards at some festivals in New Jersey, one in New York and one in Philly. Three years later, we made a full-length film that was accepted into the Miami Urban Film Festival. We went there and we won the award for best feature film. He then won three more awards. Then we released it to the public and then two platforms picked it up.
Q: How did you feel when you were taken?
A: It was amazing. I have been involved with the film festival for many years. I did a lot of short films year after year. I felt like I was running in circles for a while. I did the same festivals that were really great for me. Really supportive but I’ve been trying to figure out what’s next and how do I get to the next level? It was amazing (to be picked up) because I knew I could finally show this film to a bigger audience. I had so many people who wanted to see my work, but they couldn’t go to the festival or couldn’t make it to the premiere.
Q: When did you start Dream Boy Vision?
A: I started it two years after I graduated (college). It was in 2008 when I launched company. I knew this was what I was going to do full time. I really had no plans to work or another company. At that time I was already doing my thing with music videos and I had already started my film so I thought it was official.
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Q: Tell me about Kodak and how it came to be.
Answer: Kodak is about a young woman named Willow whose life is pretty much turned upside down after being separated from her mother for very unfortunate reasons. In this journey, she seems to find a way out through her photography. The opportunity to express herself creatively and, as it were, to find her personality in a space where there are few people around her, she took too seriously. It’s an amazing story about following your dreams, going against the grain, finding yourself, and art has always been very important to me. … A lot of times you don’t see these stories being told after a young woman.
How to watch
Kodak premieres January 6 at the Burlington County Library Auditorium in Westhampton at 5 Pioneer Blvd. Red carpet at 6:00 p.m., movie starts at 7:00 p.m., and party at Il Portico Ristorante at 10:00 a.m. in Burlington.
General admission to the premiere is $30, VIP is $55, and $100 gets you “The Dream Boy Vision Experience” (automatic Dream Boy Vision raffle entry, VIP bag, early bird entry, signed movie poster cast and director and much more).
Visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kodak-film-premiere-tickets-443354945577 for tickets.
