PREMA QADIR

---

• I was born in 1953, at a time when women were, for the most part, stay-at-home mothers or first-generation, single moms, who had to work in order to sustain themselves and thier children.
• I am the eldest of three sisters.
• My parents separated, emotionally, when I was 5 years old and divorced by the time I was 11.
• Since my mother worked, I was responsible for taking care of my 2 younger sisters.
• I had to learn how to organize and be the leader, despite the resentment.
• Even though, technically, I'm an Early Stage Baby Boomer, my Soul belongs to the smallest generation, sandwiched between Baby Boomers and millennials - Generation X.
• I was born just BEFORE, Generation X, the first generation to grow up with personal computers, thus becoming tech-savvy.
• My technical savvy came about because of my own inclinations and what I studied in college.
• I was too young to be a Hippie. 
• I was a Junior Hippie influenced by my parents, who were grounded in the Beatnik, Beehive, high-heel, "the man is the king of his domain" generation.
• From an early age, I learned how to be independent and resourceful.

• In 1983, I quit my job as a Civil Engineer and bought a one-way ticket to Honolulu, Hawaii.
• I had enough money to not have to work for 2 years. I bought a bicycle and rode it to the beach, every day.
• In 1986, a dear friend invited me to a studio recording for his TV show. I fell in love with studio production.
• I learned every Crew position because I knew I wanted to be a Director and I needed to know all aspects of production in order to create a tight show.
• After I earned certifications for Producer, Director, and Editor., I began producing Studio, Remote and LIVE video productions
• I lived in Hawaii for 25 years,

Have you ever been slighted by someone younger than you? 

Over a decade ago, I signed up for a video class at a prestigious school. I was the oldest person in the class and one of 2 Black people in the class. Any time we were assigned a project, we were divided into teams with team captains.

It never failed, I was always the LAST person chosen for a team and I was sure that it was more about my age than my skin colour. 

When we reached the end of the course, I decided that I was not going to be last. Instead enduring the choosing process, I  managed to work ALONE.

I volunteered to shoot a behind-the-scenes video of one ot the other students, while everyone else served as crew for that student.

On the final day of the course, there was one guy who was still in the editing bay feverishly attempting to edit his video. When he fianlly joined us and showed us what he ahd edited, it was less than a minute and it was horrible.

Everyoone, else was excited to go before me, so I patiently waited - expecting to be blown away.

One after one, bad video after bad video was how it went down.

And then, there was me, the only person standing. 

Old. Black. Me.

The instructor loaded my video and I held my breath as my video played from beginning to end. To my shock, at that time, everyone was watching with their mouths gaping open. In awe. They could not see me coming.

It was then, that I discovered that even at my age I had what it takes to shoot and edit a video.

• Since my early experiences with video production, LIVE production has always been my favorite over remote production and studio production. 
• I enjoy the pressure of getting almost everything "right" in real-time..
• As I enter my 70's, I am excited to be able to produce LIVE shows for myself and others.
• I'm also very much interested in producing LIVE Shopping videos.
• One of my dreams is to produce LIVE Shopping shows between Africa and the United States, featuring African Fashions.