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Capturing Your Language:
A Conversation With Elijah Winfield
Interviewer: Asha Taitt
Interviewee: Elijah Winfield
Location(s): Seattle, WA — Columbia, SC
Date: February 10th, 2026
For some, the end of a year is the time to reflect on the past, but for others, it’s a time to speak life into the future. With a new year, comes new opportunities to introduce a different side of creativity.
For Elijah Winfield, this meant that he would take his writing to a fresh, mature, and visually-appealing place. In this conversation we cover a multitude of topics, ranging from: love, liberation, intimacy, and his upcoming film, RF1: If You Try and Fall, I’ll Save You, which releases February 16th.
The following is a journal entry which thematically ties into the film, followed by an interview between filmmakers Asha Taitt and Elijah Winfield.
...I think a good starting point is the journal entry (led u here). One of the main reasons I wrote it is because—I’ve been writing lately—and I wanna include different journal entries and whatnot in RF2 — the sequel to [RF1: If You Try and Fall, I'll Save You].
a:
When I first read it—I was like….I'm a visual learner, right? And, that was a very visual read for me. I texted you that, too…
Where did this stem from? Why are these themes something you wanna explore now?
e:
Yeah, most def’. I'm assuming you're talking about the more intimate feel of it?
a:
Yeah! The overarching theme of intimacy.
e:
Word. I mean — the last time I made a film, I was like 20…I think? I was immature, right? I'm still kinda immature now. I'm just a lil’ more mature than I was then. The thing is—too—back then, I wanted to be perceived as great-and-articulate-and-everything like that, instead of just doing my thing. I tried coming off as more… I don't wanna say proper, necessarily. I don't really have a word for it — it's weird. Instead of just describing things how I felt them, I'd go out of my way to use certain vocabulary and— yeah, most def’. I think it starts there, right? This time around, with RF1, that changed a lot for me, because it was the first film I made in three years, and it was almost the first project I made where I didn't care about wanting to be perceived in any way. That feeling [has only grown] more and more. With RF2 and going forward with anything I do, I wanna be more raw, I guess. I wanna focus more on things I'm actually doing and going through…
a:
[Chuckles]
e:
[laughing] What happened?
a:
When you said 'raw’ — it's like — that's what she said
e:
[laughing] Oh my god.
a:
But, anyway…
e:
Just being more comfortable as an artist, though, is my goal going forward. I'm already stubborn as fuck, and like [creating] my way, and more than likely, because of that, the chances of me making hella bread off of what I do — in regard to film — is like super low. Knowing that, I'm gonna at least do what I want [as an artist].
a:
That's real. That makes me think about [a conversation I heard recently about] how celebrities aren't as important [right now]. People are going through real issues and want to see real stuff. So, I think this is the time to do what the fuck you want, ‘cause that's what people wanna see, anyway. They want someone to express what they actually feel. Especially because I feel like once you hit a certain status or make a certain amount of money, you start to neglect the humane part of yourself.
e:
Definitely…
[Look at] how much more accessible art is becoming, or how trendy it is now [to be a filmmaker or musician]. It's really not as difficult anymore to be a producer or rapper and gain notoriety. I think folks are becoming [artists] for the— I won't say the wrong reasons, but I do believe that it's important to be doing these things for the right reasons, especially with these [mediums] becoming more 'trendy’, so that they're not just trends. They never have been.
a:
Very true…
What do you want to say about [RF1]? What did you feel once you were done with it? Did you have to
revise much?
e:
Let me ask you a question — how did you feel about the project [when you watched it]?
a:
It's inexplicable. You ever had a feeling or thought, but you can't articulate it? I feel like that's what your film was. It was new-and-refreshing-and something I'd never seen before. I would definitely watch it again. I felt like I was tripping — it really [captures] all five senses, for sure. It's five, right?
e:
I think.
a:
That might be your superpower.
e:
Who knows, right? Thank you. I was flowin'. It's funny ‘cause I had like four different versions of RF1 and each version would work, but then I'd be like, “Somethin's off…” It just wouldn't click. I think that’s really when I was like, “I'mma just do whatever the fuck I want.” It was so exhausting making those first four versions. I was thinking [about how much time had passed] since I made a film.“What are people gonna think?” When I let that go, I really tapped into some other shit. And I learned how to make music! I composed this film, and I think that was huge in the process of finishing this
project.
a:
How did you compose it?
e:
Yo! So — shoutout to my homie, first. My homie [Mors Calumnia] — he go by A.J., but I call him Mors. He was teaching me about chords and stuff. He was originally gonna score the film. I had a feel for things because I know how to DJ, but producing is obviously hella different. I sampled a bit. I'm still learning now! I wanna learn more about instruments and music, period. I love music.
a:
Do you feel like your films can be successful as a one-man show [production]?
e:
That's honestly how it's been from the start [of my filmmaking career]. There's two ways to respond [to this question] — yeah, in a sense... I don't wanna be just a filmmaker going forward. I wanna explore the musical side of things more. I wanna get back into the editorial side of things. For a lil’ bit, me and some of my friends was running an underground film magazine. It was called PAGE2FRAME. Shoutout to all the P2F folks.
a:
[chuckles] Right.
e:
I wanna do hella stuff. Before anything, I'm a writer, so I just wanna write more…
I feel like I'm super far off of what you asked me [laughs].
a:
No! You're lucky I'm having a good memory day.
Do you feel like you can maintain a sort-of ‘one-man show’?
e:
There are films imma do where it's gonna be just me working on it. For example, RF1, RF2, and I'm only gonna do this up to a third film, so RF3. Anything that's very personal — yeah. Films that I see myself submitting to festivals, though, I don’t think I'd wanna be. I have a cool eye, you know? And I'm always gonna color my own [films], but I'm not a D.P. My shit looks nice, yeah, but I know what a cinematographer is supposed to be, and I'm not that — I just have a bit of experience [as a filmmaker] and a cool eye, but there's so much more that goes into D.P.’ing. Going forward, I don't really wanna D.P. my own stuff. Could I? Maybe. Do I want to? No.
a:
I'm also like a one-woman-show kind of person. I'm just now starting to let go of the reins a little bit because I realized I could do everything, but could I do it to the best of my abilities? Is what I envision not necessarily where my skill level is right now…?
What I thought was interesting — you said that you're a “writer first,” but you also have a love for music. I feel like a lot of creative people are many things in one. My question is — when did writing become something you had to do? For example, I knew from a young age I was gonna be a writer ‘cause I sucked at math, and I thrived in English [laughs].
e:
Word! Literally the same for me. Shawty, I was terrible at math…
I started when I was real young — like 15. Small stories and shit.
a:
Do you remember any of them?
e:
My memory crazy. Let me try and think… When I was sixteen I wrote this webseries — Misunderstood.
a:
Wow.
e:
[chuckles] Right. At the time, I was really the only person around my age group that I knew of [in Charleston] doing what I was doing, in my head. So, I wrote that and was like, “I'm a genius.” [laughs] It was like the most cliche teenage-coming-of-age shit ever. And I wrote it after I listened to-like Blonde by Frank Ocean.
a:
[laughs] Oh my god.
e:
Yeah, that's one of them I can remember. Can't really think of nothin’ else, right now.
a:
What's the next step with the journal entry you wrote? Do you know where you're gonna put it [in RF2] yet?
e:
I have no clue. Building stories is weird. You can start from a character first or start from just a line first. There's no correct way or incorrect way to go about writing a script or story. I'm not gonna write a script for my next film, though — I can tell you that. I think it's gonna be much more hybrid-documentary-esque with some choreographed photography [included]. I'mma find a place [to put the entry], though. The themes of the piece coincide with the themes I wanna attack in the film. Intimacy — not even in an exclusively sexual sense. I wanna explore the psychology of sex more — blending the physical and psychological senses. That was really the focus of the journal entry as well. There's so many ways to convey and look at that.
a:
That's so interesting. I appreciated how you could tell where the entry was leaning, but it never felt gross.
It was very intentional. I think it definitely has to find a way into whatever you do next.
e:
How else did you feel about it? I'm not good at asking questions [laughs] — forgive me.
a:
Don't worry…! I took myself and my own experiences and-like compared them to what [you're describing in the piece]... At first, I thought maybe [this particular piece] was about two people who knew each other, but I also thought—some of the things you said—this could be just a now experience. I'd be doing your piece a disservice to say it was about a situationship-or-something like that. There was some sort of connection [between these two people]. I just couldn't tell if this felt more like two people who knew each other's bodies or something that happened once and never happened again. I don't know. It's kind of cool, though, because it leaves a lot open to interpretation. I don’t know if everybody [reading this] has had a one-night stand before, but sometimes those are good, y’know…? [laughs] Do you have to know someone to know their body?
e:
That’s wicked interesting, right? “Do you have to know someone to know their body?” Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know if I was exploring that in my journal explicitly, but who knows if it was somebody I knew for a very long time or if it was multiple women. Not saying it was, of course! I think that’s the beauty in writing, though — this could’ve very well been written about one person or many… I feel like with Rocket Fuel 1—a lot of hinting at internal issues and maybe addressing them at surface-level—with this next film, I wanna be much more explicit, though. Diving more into the why when exploring these things.
a:
It’s also important to figure out your intentions, in general. Not just you but anybody who’s creating something—how far are you willing to go to make something tangible, memorable? You have to also be vulnerable, in a sense. If you’re not comfortable—for example, I noticed you said, [“Not saying it was, of course!”], or whatever. There was still this desire to not paint yourself as this person who’s explored a certain amount of partners in whatever timeframe, and I think that’s kind of shaped by the way society views sex, right? Like sex is good — in one way, it’s viewed as good for you — it’s expressive. But, on the other end, sex is good to a certain extent. Like you shouldn’t be having sex with multiple people, because that’s bad, right? How vulnerable do you have to get within your work to make sure that you’re telling a story that aligns with what you actually want to say versus what’s palatable to most people? If you were to depict someone who had multiple sexual partners, would that be received differently, even though it’s
true?
e:
Mmm. I feel a lot of what you just said. Like you said, I was very careful with what I was saying—whatever’s true, you just gotta roll with it. For me, that’s a huge reason why I want this next film to be so transparent. Regardless of whatever I’m doing in my life — whatever vices are good-or-bad-or-whatever — the point of making any piece, in my opinion, is almost like therapy. Whether you’re telling [your perspective] through a character or just using yourself. It’s funny — when you’re younger, you feel hella pressure to—you know how it is! By the time I was 15-16, niggas around me was having sex. Not to be crude, of course, but that’s just the truth. So, I was like, "Damn. I gotta start—”, you know…? We don’t consider how many people rush into something like that, and it's a bad experience for them, and something they carry forever… We preach individuality but only when it isn’t inconvenient to us. I’ll take accountability myself. You can’t preach individuality but look at every woman that you sleeping with as the same…
a:
Yeah. There’s a lot to explore in your sexuality [when you’re younger] — when you were introduced to sex, the idea of sex, and the things you have to rework now that you’re older. In my case, I was a late bloomer, so for me, I felt this pressure, but I also didn’t feel the desire to do anything. I had this sense of self, in the back of my head, that prevented me from just following the pack because I had a lot of friends that lost their virginities at like, 15. So, I [questioned], “Oh, is that what we’re supposed to do?”, but I didn’t really feel like it — I wanna at least like the person…! A lot of my friends that started early, though, are either in committed relationships or abstinent now — or pressing abstinence. It’s a really interesting journey — to start so young and then end up in a place where you’re not interested at all anymore or trying to understand the why behind intimacy in the first place, which I feel is where you’re at—the why behind it.
e:
I don’t know, really. My brain is like, fucked—excuse me [laughs]. Sometimes, yeah I want to understand, and be introspective, but then I have periods where I’m like—I’m a gambler, you know? I have days where I’m just doing shit I’m not supposed to be doing. Instead of me looking to fix-or-work on any issues [within myself] with this film — I think it’s somewhat therapeutic to just scream it all out and then after— asking the “why…?” Everybody’s path is so different. You say your friends who “started early” are in committed relationships—or abstinent—or whatever else. And it’s like—I was pretty early, bro. I wasn’t a late bloomer. But I was also a dumb kid [laughs]. Everybody around you losing theirs, so you like, “I’mma lose mine, too!” But, my path is hella different — like, I’m not in a relationship nor am I abstinent. Going back earlier [on individuality], regardless of if [the person you’re intimate with] is someone you do know or don’t know — we just don’t know what people have been through. Person A could’ve been with X amount of people—many, right? But then they get involved with Person B, and they’re just an outlier for them. Now, Person A is wicked nervous—it’s just different for them. I know it’s simple and redundant, almost, but we all are really hella different [from one another]. We don’t know the effect this person has on that person, and so on.
a:
Mhm. There’s a lot to unpack here — I’m interested to see where you go with this [in your next film]. I think I’m learning a lot from what you’ve said, though, so whether you discover it or not, I think talking to you has helped me to understand what your purpose is behind choosing [this subject] to be included in your next focus, in terms of film. It’s really refreshing and bold—why not? We’re in this identity crisis-thing where people are trying to rediscover their relationship with God—rediscover their relationships without social media, regarding whoever else. So, I think it’s important to revisit your relationship with sex, other than just, “I fucked today.” [laughs]
e:
That’s jokey. I wanna explore more than just intimacy, too. Even-like gambling. I don’t like being a gambler [chuckles]. That’s one of the things I’m working on. I noticed I have an addictive personality, so I’m working on my discipline… Vanity—I wanna touch on that, too. I wanna explore what the beauty in life is for me, but how it can be confused with—well, who’s to say there’s no beauty in vice as well? There’s been some times when I felt wicked alive gambling…
Based on what you’ve seen in RF1, what do you expect to see with this next piece, technically or philosophically?
a:
Two things [primarily]: I expect there to be a distinct coloring to it. The second—I like what you said about having an “addictive personality,” so I’m interested to see how you weave that into [RF2]. Maybe showing the different things that give you that feeling. More dialogue could be interesting. The score. Just looking forward to seeing the things that tie it all together.
e:
Fa’sho. I’mma go crazy with the music this time, definitely, ‘cause I’m just learning. I think the music for this last film was decent.
a:
Yeah! It was good. I didn’t know you did it until today, which means it definitely wasn’t bad! [laughs]
e:
Oh my god. That’s jokey [laughs]. Thank you — I feel like I have such a strong relationship with music. I probably consume more music than I do film. I probably like more music than I do film. I’m almost more excited to create the music for the film. I’m excited, though. I’m a very fair—real person to myself, as an artist. For example, every [film] I did leading up to RF1 was called good, sure, but do I actually think they were that good? Not really. My reasoning is probably different than what would be expected, though. I think objectively speaking, visually, this is my best work. It was my first time shooting on film.
a:
Wow. Really?
e:
Yeah.
a:
Well, keep doing that. I will not be joining you, but—
e:
Yo! You gotta come over to the light. Film is like—oh my goodness. I shot on digital for literally everything I’ve done up until this film, but the experience of shooting on film is just—man... I wanna play with a bunch of different formats — security camera… I wanna fuck around with printing, animation — there’s a bunch I wanna do…
What type of filmmaker are you when it comes to showing-vs-telling?
a:
I like to feed the audience a little bit. I don’t want people to get certain things misconstrued. Dialogue can help people get on the right path — I am a little dialogue-heavy. Regarding the visual side, I like for things to mean more than what they actually mean. With this film I’m currently working on, the sex scenes will be in the form of dance because I think dance is intimate. I think sex scenes have been done poorly, in general. I’m not saying sex scenes aren’t cool! But a lot of times people will be talking, and then it just jump-cuts to people fucking, and it’s like the most porn-heavy audio I’ve ever heard in my life… For me, until I find a better way to execute sex-on-camera, I wanna do it in a way that represents what sex feels like, and I think that would be received well through dance.
e:
Have you danced before? Are you a dancer?
a:
Fuck no! I like dancing, though. I took a ballet class in college. It was super cool to do that with a bunch of Black girls who were getting back into dance. For some, it was their first love. I don’t think dance is something I’m amazing at, but it makes me feel something, you know?
e:
I feel you. I never took a dance class. I knew dancers, though. I used to be heavy into dialogue when I was younger. I still like dialogue, but I noticed that the older I’ve gotten—really recently, I’ve become more of a showy person. When I’m sitting down writing, the way I remember something is literally how I’m writing it now. I think naturally, with that, you become less tell-y. I enjoy dialogue-heavy things still. Everybody got their own way of doin’ things…