Yashaddai Owens
studio.yashaddaiowens@gmail.com
@yashyoucan
Eats ice cream every Sunday
Yashaddai Owens is a daily documentarian seeking to extract the extra from the ordinary.
Owens was born in 1998 in Brooklyn, New York. He spent much of his early life traversing several different U.S. states with formative years in Chicago, Illinois before settling back in New York, where he currently lives and works. Owens is the eldest of 11 and was raised in a Black Jewish community.
His upbringing and observation of the various places he's lived has led him to cultivate a penchant for storytelling. This fascination led him to eventually work on a long form storytelling project in the form of his debut narrative feature film, Jimmy (2024). Jimmy imagines the young life of James Baldwin in Paris. Jimmy world premiered at Telluride Film Festival and the New York Film Festival with five sold out screenings.
Awards, Residencies and Exhibitions
Converse All Star 2025
Denniston Hill Resident 2025
Film Festivals
Official Selection:
Telluride Film Festival 2024
New York Film Festival 2024
New/Next, Baltimore 2024
Houston Cinema Arts 2024
Indie Memphis 2024
Black Harvest, Chicago 2024
Göteborg Film Festival 2025
Cinéma du Réel 2025