INTRODUCING
Atelier: The Story of Brownmill Company
Directed by Anya Dillard | Cinematography by Godard Aristil
Atelier is a lyrically experimental documentary short film about Justis Pitt, Kwaku Agyemang, and Taha Shimou – the three young men behind the budding Newark-born clothing empire Brownmill and Company. Through sentimental archival, mixed media, and verité style observational footage, this documentary will provide an intimate and inspiring portrayal of how three young black men managed to take their love of art and fashion and turn it into a business that has forever changed the fabric of their community.
Atelier: The Story of Brownmill Company is being endorsed by Gucci North America’s 2025 Creative Fellowship Grant and is currently in production.
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A Film Anchored Entirely by Rutgers Film Students
The Atelier team is led by five multi-talented Gen-Z creatives from the Rutgers University Newark Video Production community — Anya Dillard, Laila Hoff, Godard Aristil, David Perez, and Key’shaon Robinson. With each of them bringing their technical training and lived experiences as young POC artists to this film, they are not interested in creating a formulaic or detached documentary.
“We want Atelier to serve as a love letter to kinship, creativity, and Black ambition; a piece capable of igniting dialogues about the importance of creative agency, Black ownership, and fashion as a form of resistance.”
- Anya Dillard
Laila Hoff, the associate producer and co-editor of this film, is a gifted portrait photographer and senior undergraduate student majoring in Video Production with a minor in Journalism. Godard Aristil, a rising junior Video Production major and recording artist, is our outstanding Director of Photography and Post-Production Supervisor. David Perez – a senior Video Production major, comedy buff, and gifted horror author – is our trusted AV Supervisor and Post-Production Assistant. Last but not least, Key’Shaon Robinson – a junior Video Production major, entrepreneur, and hip-hop scholar – is the official creative director and production design consultant for Atelier: The Story of Brownmill Company. While their technical skills make them a force to be reckoned with, so do their various diasporic identities and cultures.
With family origins rooted in Guyana, Trinidad, Liberia, Haiti, and Puerto Rico, each member of this crew makes it a point to utilize their unique perspectives on fashion and culture to inform the messaging and vibrance of this project. In addition to their core production team, these young visionaries have also enlisted the help of numerous other Gen-Z filmmakers, photographers, and fashion enthusiasts to make this project a reality, including ABYSS by ABP CEO Asare Bampoe-Perry, motion picture photographer Zion Laster, and former Brownill employee Tristan Jones. Anya Dillard even went on record to say that the majority of the production’s PAs are undergraduate students from her alma mater, Rutgers University Newark.
