In this interview, African American filmmaker and DJ Ephraim Asili (b. 1979) discusses his upbringing, education, and creative process. Born and raised around the city limit of Philadelphia, Asili’s childhood and adolescence were imbued with hip hop music, Hollywood movies and television. He studied film at Temple University where he finished his thesis project, the documentary Points on a Space Age (2007) with the Sun Ra Arkestra. This success got him into the graduate program at Bard College and introduced him to experimental filmmaking. At Bard College, he was advised by filmmakers such as Jeanne Liotta and Sadie Benning, and began to use a Bolex and 16mm.