(January 8, 2021) - "God gave me my first music video project," said Dominga Martin, a film writer, producer and director. That music project was for Russell Taylor (VH-1). "I never really wanted to direct other people's projects. I always wanted to write and direct my own stuff."

Martin's first film project was a short film called Bum (2001) through her company House of Ming. Then she released Yellow (2005), which aired on BET. Yellow won the "Best Short Narrative Award" at the Hip-Hop Odyssey International Film Fest. In 2008 her project was a documentary called Fiche D'Identite where she followed the President of Senegal. In 2014 she toured Italy for 10 weeks producing and directing short films by request. In 2015 she wrote and directed a national commercial for Walmart starring Toccara Jones ("America's Next Top Model") for TV One. Dominga has also designed a 2021 academic curriculum in music, visual arts, dance, theatre and multi-media, as the Arts Ambassador for the Massachusetts Statewide Artist-in-Residence program via their Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"I'm attracted to projects that are interesting," she pointed out when I asked. "All genres of films - shorts, documentaries, national campaigns..."

Dominga Martin's career started when she interned at L.A. Reid and BabyFace's label LaFace Records (TLC, Usher, Monica) while attending Clark Atlanta University for Radio, TV, Film and Journalism. As a journalist Martin wrote for such mediums as Rolling Out, Vibe and Essence magazines and BlackFilms.com. She went on to work on the New Edition 10 Year Reunion Tour as a back-up dancer via a contact she had with Bobby Brown's sister. After the tour she landed a VJ gig on "In the Mixx" where she interviewed everyone from Diddy and Jermaine Dupri to Lil' Kim and 112.

"Russell Taylor, I've known him for over a decade. I directed his 1st music video off of his first album. We met after my short film Yellow," she pointed out. "After Russell's music video, I got Musiq Soulchild's music video ("Forever" featuring The Floacist). It was kind of destined (directing music videos). I don't even answer a question without consulting God."

How the Boston native came to direct a music video remotely began, she said, when "In 2018 I felt stuck. I did not understand why I accomplished so much but for me I felt stuck. I then felt God nudging me to make a switch. So I put in a file folder my visual references for inspiration for future projects. One day I got a call from Russell, after the pandemic hit, he said, ‘I got a project I want you to direct.' He said, ‘We can do it remotely.' I asked him what do you see. And oh my God, it was my visual references in my future projects folder. So I sent it to him."

Dominga also directed the music video for Russell Taylor's single "Come Morning." The current music video she directed and produced remotely for Russell is for the single "Wake Up" (2020), which features Trina Braxton (Braxton Sisters), Sy Smith and Kimberly Nicole ("The Voice").

"I'm finalizing a documentary I've been working on the last two years about social justice," Martin said when I asked what was her next project. "I'm staying focused on 2021; working on music videos is really stressful (today). Trying to keep the entire staff safe is so stressful. I had to take a break and focus on writing the documentary." www.DomingaMartin.com