Shelley Jarrett is a multiple award-winning entrepreneur, documentary filmmaker, and social justice advocate who comprehensively exhibits her commitment to community and social responsibility. Shelley’s resume showcases her remarkable dedication to supporting women and challenging forms of injustice toward marginalized and racialized communities. We caught up to discuss her career, aspirations, and her latest hard-hitting documentary, ‘What We Deserve – Restorative Justice and Reparation’.
Thank you for agreeing to catch up with Occhi Magazine. Congratulations on your career to date. For readers unfamiliar with your background, have you always had an interest in the arts?
I guess my background really was business. I remember at five years old uttering the words ‘business administration.’ I never knew what prompted me to say those words, but as a young adult, I knew business was what I wanted to pursue along the way. I studied social work and obtained degrees both in social work and human studies. At the time I met my current husband, one of his first messages to me was that his business was providing a future for me in the arts.
It took a few years, but my 2015 and 2016 nominations of myself in Media Arts for Mississauga’s MARTY Awards put me on a different stage, literally and figuratively. For the first time, I felt like ‘an artist’ at the MARTYS. I realized that my creative abilities in founding and publishing SMJ Magazine were being appreciated artistically, and my business skill set had undergone a transition. How did it leave her?
Becoming an ‘artist entrepreneur’ at a later age is valuable if one learns from one’s life experiences. Art can teach business about having an unswerving belief in one’s abilities and working constantly in crisis. However, a business can teach art about leaving legacies rather than relying on fame and fortune.
You started your image consulting business in 2012. Please tell us more about the origins of the business. Were there any particular experiences that shaped your appreciation of business and the industries you worked in?
Pursuit of success in the financial services industry finally dead-ended in the recession in 2008-2009, and it hit me very hard. I had to make some very tough decisions. Many days I would be frustrated, angry and quite miserable with my life. I knew I wanted to do more but couldn’t figure out what it was. (I was searching for purpose.) I was losing control over my life. I needed to find out more about me, about what gifts and talents I had.
In talking it over with my current husband, we came to the realization that I had the answer inside of me. Those gifts and talents that got me that social work degree could be transformed into a related field. I completed a certificate in women entrepreneurship in the winter of 2011-12 and SJ Image Creations was created as a result of the course. It was the start of my entrepreneurial journey and branding.
Can you tell us more about your company SJ Image Creations?
I started my image consulting business in 2012. The primary objective was to help women dress for success in the workplace. I formed a partnership with Jockey and created the “Confident U” workshop for women as one of the many outlets to provide simple tips on how to feel confident when presenting themselves in competitive job markets as well as business meetings. I started getting involved in heading community events and business ventures. I also wrote several articles and blogs about image-building and self-esteem. The business has continued to grow primarily through collaborations and developing expertise in networking, content marketing, and social media.
You are a multiple award-winning entrepreneur. To date, what is the achievement you’re most proud of, and why?
I was picked as one of fourteen Women of Excellence at the inaugural Canada Glass Awards in 2013. Then in 2014 I was selected as one of the inaugural 100 Black Women to Watch by the CIBWE (Canadian International Black Women Excellence). I have been humbled by all the awards I have received since, but these first two hold a special place. The first was recognition which I used as a platform I needed to gain credibility about my business network, and the second was a validation of that platform.
Please tell us more about your film “What We Deserve’ and what readers can expect.
What We Deserve looks at the over 400 troubled years of the British monarchy as it relates to the slave trade and colonialism, with calls for restorative justice and reparation. The documentary details how over 3 million Africans were stolen from their homes and forcefully transported to the Caribbean as enslaved chattel and property of Europeans. The transatlantic slave trade is the largest forced migration in human history and has no parallel in terms of man’s inhumanity to man.‘What We Deserve’ puts the atrocities on full display.
The film is co-produced and written by Andrew Terry Pasieka. Please tell us more about the origins of this project.
My first inspiration for our follow-up documentary came from a worldwide news headline last September 8th. Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving monarch in British history, died at the age of 95.
Decades earlier in my life, I had lived over ten years in England. I was aware of the Queen and had respect for her as a woman reigning over a significant portion of the world in an office mostly occupied by kings over the centuries. But in 2022, I became intimately connected to my Afro-Caribbean heritage when I watched newsreels of various politicians and influential leaders from the Caribbean state in no uncertain terms that they would not be mourning for the Queen and would not take part in any royalist ceremonies relating to her funeral and the ascension of King Charles III.
When I heard these same leaders talk about slavery and reparation, I immediately knew I wanted to explore this issue on film, in the same way, we had explored #metoo in 2019. We went through many titles and finally came up with the longer version of the agreed title What We Deserve: Restorative Justice and Reparation in November, a few weeks prior to filming.
The subject matter and timespan require much research, selection, and editing of data. Please tell us more about your research methods and production of the film.
Democracy Now! Is an independent news program that features international journalists, grassroots leaders, independent analysts, as well as ordinary people directly affected by world events. It was by listening to several of their newsreels and seeing Dorbrene O’Marde for the first time that I really became knowledgeable about the seriousness of the issue.
From follow-up research, I was able to contact Carolyn Punter, Marketing Officer for the Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority in New York, NY – USA. She was able to put me in touch with Mr. O’Marde to secure the main interview for the film.
To help support the content with print from the British media, I had several issues of publications mailed to me by my niece, Gail Ann Bumbury, who resides in England.
What other projects are you currently working on?
Thanks to God’s grace and favor in my life, I am doing what I was created to do. I feel my work has just started and my branding will continue to evolve. I want to use these platforms that I have been blessed with, to transform lives and do my part to further the kingdom. I want to leave a legacy not only as a businesswoman and entrepreneur but as an innovative world changer.
Where can our readers find out more about you? ( Please share your website and social media feeds)
Website: www.shellandhouseoffilms.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjimagecreations/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/shelland_House_of_films
Linktr.ee/JarrettS
photo credit: Ryan Singh Photography
About Author
