bruxa’s bestiary
EVerett coleman
Everett Coleman is a Filmmaker based out of Chicago, IL and Milwaukee, WI. On a daily basis he is balancing the world of technology and filmmaking by keeping both professions at reach. Having produced shorts that graced the screens at local and national festivals, Everett continues his journey diving into different aspects of filmmaking as an actor, writer, director, and editor.
On a quiet afternoon at the Music Box Theatre, we met with Everett Coleman: filmmaker, storyteller, and lifelong student of cinema. The seats were empty, the red curtains lowered, but for Everett, this wasn’t just a location. It was something deeper. Something sacred.
When asked what film means to him, Everett didn’t offer a simple answer. He offered a truth.
“What does film mean to me? In order to answer this question, I needed time to find the right answer, because film means the WORLD to me. I believe everybody has something they can passionately speak about to the point where they sound like a professional. That's me with film. In this world, I know who I am. My affinity and eagerness towards being part of the film industry has morphed me into someone who's found a purpose and hopes to leave a footprint big enough to be seen well after I'm gone.”
Film isn’t just Everett’s calling. It’s his mirror, his compass, his language. It’s how he’s made sense of life—both his own and the world around him.
“And on that note, what film means to me is LIFE. After all, a film is usually a story that highlights a moment in life whether it's fictional or fact. Many times I found myself getting through life because of film. Maybe it's because film is a community that’s brought me closer to good friends, maybe it's because there's a film out there to match any struggle I'm going through, or maybe it's because film is the chosen platform in which I can talk about life. To be honest, it's all of the above.”
Everett’s most recent short, Something in the Water, brings that belief to life. The film documents the voices of five water justice advocates in Milwaukee, who speak on the lead poisoning disproportionately impacting Black communities. Everett took on multiple roles in the project—writer, editor, composer, and narrator—building something that isn’t just informative, but intimate.
“Getting to work on Something in the Water has been an absolute blessing. I got to show off what I'm capable of and I thank Nateya Taylor, who produced and directed the film, for trusting me with the project. Most of all, I'm so happy to see this short film work in both the film community and the activist community. We've had the opportunity to screen this film in festivals and locally organized community screenings. As a result, the conversations that have been sparked about lead contamination, the wave of awareness that has formed, it's all exciting and the reason why Something in the Water has been important to Nateya and myself. I can't wait to do it all again!”
It’s evident that this is the kind of film that reflects Everett’s approach to storytelling: rooted in community, voice, and lived experience.
“And so you see, film is everything to me. Every chance I get, I'll share that feeling and I'll share that passion in hopes that it awakens the spirit in someone else to escape the world for a bit and find themselves in stories that might be the inspiration they didn’t know they needed.”
“Film is everything to me... It’s not just entertainment, it’s therapy, it’s an answer to life, it’s a call to life, and it’s the best damn thing to exist on this planet.”
- everett coleman
“Something in the water”
His recent film, Something In The Water—which he wrote, edited, scored, and narrated—examines the lead poisoning crisis in Milwaukee’s Black communities through the voices of five water justice advocates. The film has screened at the 2025 Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison, Wisconsin.
We asked Everett why he chose the Music Box Theatre for this shoot- what made this space so personal to him. His answer was simple: it’s one of the few places that still gives him that feeling. The one where time dissolves, the outside world disappears, and you’re completely immersed in a story that feels like your own.
“My fortress of solitude, since I was a child, has been the cinema. There's no other place like it (not even the home theater in my living room). The best part is, that fortress exists almost everywhere, so even if I am away from home, I'm likely not too far from a cinema. I've been grateful how close the cinema has brought me with people I've never met before, and even more grateful that it's brought me closer to legends I've only seen on screen (thank you Music Box!).”
For Everett, the theatre is where it all comes together—the dreams, the discipline, the sense of purpose. It’s not nostalgia. It’s devotion.
In a time when screens are everywhere and stories are often reduced to clicks and clips, Everett still treats cinema like a sacred act.
“It's not just entertainment, it's therapy, it's an answer to life, it's a call to life, and it's the best damn thing to exist on this planet.”
In a city like Chicago, where art lives in corners and cathedrals alike, Everett Coleman finds his peace not just behind the camera—but in the audience, in the dark, waiting for the story to begin.
“The cinema has always been that fortress of solitude for me,” he explained. “There’s no other place like it—not even the home theater in my living room. It’s one of the few cinemas where I still feel that full-body connection to film. The space, the sound, the energy—it all reminds me why I fell in love with this in the first place…
and The best part is, that fortress exists almost everywhere, so even if I am away from home, I'm likely not too far from a cinema. I've been grateful how close the cinema has brought me with people I've never met before, and even more grateful that it's brought me closer to legends I've only seen on screen (thank you Music Box!).”
- everett coleman
Writer and Photographer: Baitul Javid
July 14, 2025.
filmmakers
Species: Human (usually)
Class: Bard
Habitat: Shadows, storyboards, city streets, editing caves
Disposition: Obsessed, sleepless, visionary
The filmmaker is a creature of obsession, forever chasing light, story, and meaning through a lens. They trap reality in frames and stitch it into stories—sometimes truth, sometimes illusion. A master manipulator of time and sound, they are capable of shaping minds and even entire identities. The filmmaker weaves spells called scenes, ensnaring the emotions of even the most guarded observer.
Recognizable by their thousand-yard stare and mutterings about “the shot,” they are most active at dusk or in dimly lit rooms filled with cables and caffeine. Approach gently—disrupting their workflow may provoke a lengthy monologue about aspect ratios or funding.
They are both archivists and alchemists, conjuring futures from footage and dreams from dust.