Koura grew up in New York in an environment that promoted inventive expression through singing, dancing, painting, and playing outdoors. Her mother cleverly trained Koura to use her time well. Meaningful connections with her grandparents and aunts and uncles were her introduction to how different people live at different times from the 1900s to today. They highlighted the significance of humanity and solidified her view that storytellers are ambassadors of humanity, tasked with sharing pieces of themselves with each other. 

“Filmmakers have the added responsibility of creating visual worlds around these stories,” writes Koura. For this reason, Koura and her husband, Spaceship, focus on films that entertain and aim to showcase all pieces of humanity, as you will hear. You will find out the story behind Spaceship, his artist name, and an online collaborative media platform called HitRECord, where they met in 2013. That same year, Koura founded Space Dreams Productions.

Day Playing is a phrase used in the movie business to name those working on a movie set who are not part of the core team. We need to replace the term ‘independent contractor’ with Day Playing. Doesn’t that sound intriguing? What did you do today? I was Day Playing at such and such a company. Koura was Day Playing as an apprentice learning the movie business for 10 years. Day Playing gave her the flexibility to learn the ins and outs of making movies, from learning production design, set and light rigging, building sets, working with electricians to hair and make-up, budgeting, and event planning.

Koura talks about the importance of having master and apprentice experiences. This resonated with me. We have been remodeling our house, particularly flooring in our kitchen, entryway, and den. I was pleasantly surprised to see our electrician training his son as they replaced a lighting fixture. The same with a family-owned flooring business we hired. Our rebuilt redwood oak steps were sawed, buffed, and oil-base polished by a father-son team. As I am writing this, I can hear the master singing to the music in the background and mentoring his apprentice as the apprentice is sawing off the bottom of one of our entry doors. Wait, what? Ok, they know what they are doing. The precision and careful attention to detail make them master craftsmen matching the Swedish carpenter’s careful design of the home he built in 1962. We have benefitted from this kind of master craftsmanship. We haven’t needed to do much work on our house for over two decades.

Leading a panel discussion at an Indie Film Festival, Koura alleviated a stigma around not going to film school. I guess she is not the only filmmaker who learns the art and craft as she goes. On-the-job training can fuel the courage, innovation, and excellence rewarded in the movie business.

 In 2019, Koura was awarded the Mico Award for courage, innovation, and excellence in a film career. Early in her career, this award set a new bar of self-expectation, personifying her desire to live up to the award and continue pursuing her passion as a filmmaker. She mentors other filmmakers through her podcast, Filmmaking [actually].

We talk about core values. As you might expect, Koura refers to a favorite movie, Cinderella, and Walt Disney’s quote above about making money to make films.

When things fell apart on Koura’s first short film, Names On The Wall, they lost funding, and the director quit. She emerged as the director. A move that took great courage. You can enjoy a spacecraft analogy in her explanation of things breaking away to help focus on what is essential.   

On the road to excellence, we come face-to-face with who we are and what we are made of. What if what you are doing works? A question Koura asks herself. She inevitably develops a constructive way to work through stress and pressure. Talking openly about what we feel and how we work through our struggles and mental health challenges is a strategy that empowers us to own our feelings instead of the other way around. It fits with May being a national focus of Mental Health Awareness Month. Let’s get rid of the stigma around mental illness and move into healthier ways of relating.

Koura hopes that anyone looking to grow their business or grow professionally to become a filmmaker can learn something from listening to our conversation. I agree. DOWNLOAD

NEXT STEP: Challenge yourself and do the Conscious Attentive Leadership Mentoring (C.A.L.M.) Activities, below.