Melvin Taylor II is a Chicago native and New York-based filmmaker, writer and actor whose deeply personal short film “Baldy” has taken the international festival circuit by storm. The film, which Taylor wrote, executive produced and starred in, draws from his own experience with hair loss to create a story about self-acceptance, community and resilience told through the lens of humor and heart. With selections in over 20 festivals worldwide, Taylor has proven that vulnerability and authenticity can translate into compelling cinema.

What inspired you to create “Baldy” and does the story reflect your own experience?

It all came from my own personal experience. It started when I was about 19. I remember taking a picture with some friends, and I had an afro at the time. I really couldn’t grow an afro when I was younger, so I was like, I’m in college, I’m gonna grow this afro, it’s gonna be fun. I took this picture, and I saw the sun was hitting me real crazy on the right front side, and I was like, I ain’t never had the sun hit me like this. I went to check in the mirror, and I was like, oh my god, my hair is thinning. This is at 19. I’m thinking, that’s not supposed to happen until way later in life.

For like a decade, I was just doing whatever I could to hide it. I’m wearing the fedoras. When my friends are trying to go to clubs, security bounces are like, you can’t wear that in here. And I’m like, hey y’all, I’ll see y’all later, I’m going home, because I’m not going in here with my hairline all messed up.

As I started to get into filmmaking and writing, they talk about writing what you know and making what you know. This was an experience that I felt I could make fun of, but also make sure that it has enough heart that people would be able to take something from it. If I got authority on anything, I got authority on this.

You wear multiple hats in “Baldy” – writer, executive producer and star. How did you balance all these roles during production?

It came down to two things. One was having a great team. I had an amazing team of producers, some of my closest friends to this day. I had an amazing director, Eddie Griffith, and our cinematographer, Erin Trout. It was really just being able to lean on everybody and say, I know that we all are good at what we do, and as long as we all hold up our end of the bargain, this film would be able to be as good as we want it to be.

Secondly, being as prepared as possible. Anybody that came on this project, I wanted them to feel as if I had given them enough to be able to take and run with. I didn’t want to give anybody anything where they had to start from scratch. I already wanted to have a foundation for where we wanted to go with this project.

We shot this during the strike, so it was at a point where nobody really had jobs, and we were all like, let’s come together, let’s have some fun, let’s get back into practice for what we know how to do.

Why was it important to approach hair loss with both humor and honesty?

To be real with you, it came from a place of almost desperation, because that’s how I felt when I was going through it. A lot of my friends at the time, if they’re not making jokes, they really just couldn’t understand because it wasn’t happening to them. They’re like, it’s just your hair. But for everybody else, this is how we see ourselves in the world. We sometimes base our personality and who we are at that point in our life off of what we can do with our hair.

To lose a core part of yourself is a really tough thing to go through. I really wanted to be able to use this to help anybody else that would go through this situation and be like, yeah, it’s tough. However, you can use this as an opportunity to reinvent yourself and see who you really can be moving forward.

What were some challenges filming in New York City during the strike?

One of the biggest challenges was honestly just trying to get the funds to be able to make the film. We crowdfunded. Originally, I wanted to shoot out of what I had in my savings, but because of the strike, I was like, I gotta live out of that, so we gotta figure out another way.

It’s pretty nerve-wracking to be like, I’m basing this story off of vignettes in my life, and I’m putting it out there for the world to see and judge. But thankfully, my community was saying, you done came this far, just see it through. Lo and behold, we ended up raising like 80% of our funds within the first 36 to 48 hours. We nearly doubled what we wanted to raise.

How have your experiences working on projects like “Harlem,” “You,” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” shaped you as a filmmaker?

I would not be where I am without having worked on some of those projects. “Harlem” was the first project that I worked on as a set production assistant. Being able to see Tracy Oliver – one of my heroes – take an idea that starts in your head, write it all the way out, and turn it into everything that we can now watch on TV was amazing for me every day.

Writers are economists. If you’re a storyteller, you’re really an economist, because imagine all of the people who now get to go on and live their dream, pay their bills, send their kids to school, all from the idea that you had. I wanted to take everything that I’m learning on all of these sets and be able to put that into the projects that I make moving forward.

When did you first realize you wanted to tell stories on screen instead of just being in front of it?

I booked a role in a cinematic universe that unfortunately went away. After that went away, I was pretty disappointed. From there, and from other auditions where I know that when people write stories, they’re not thinking of a 6-foot-tall black dude with glasses sometimes, I’m going on all these auditions, but my numbers of succession at some points are less than 3% for everything that I’m doing.

It becomes a point where I look at Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Donald Glover, Issa Rae, Tracy Oliver. What did all of them do? Ain’t nobody else gonna do it, I gotta write it. In order to put myself out there more, maybe I just need to put some of the power back into my own hands.

What do you hope viewers take away from “Baldy“?

I hope viewers take away being able to give themselves a little more grace, because sometimes we can be very difficult on ourselves. Travis goes through a journey where he has to figure out, do I want to continue living life the way I have been, or should I look at the advantage that life has now given me and enhance myself in ways that I didn’t even think possible?

Really going back to that community aspect – are there people around me that I can lean on when I’m going through something? Am I the type of person that my friends can lean on when they’re going through something? Sometimes you just lean on your friends, and when they’re making jokes, you can come right back at them.

What’s next for you and Stay Taylor’d Productions?

The next project that we are planning on telling is a family drama in the world of sports. I’ve got a lot of athletes in my family, and because of that, I have a unique perspective into how people view them, treat them, and at times try to take advantage of them. We want to tell almost a cautionary tale of where some of these athletes can begin to set boundaries, especially with them becoming breadwinners so early in their lives nowadays.