Behind The Scenes of Soraya Azzabi’s Tracey Mills “Making It Against All Odds”

In the film, Tracey Mills who was abandoned by his mother and abused by his father as a child shares his story of how he made it through the trials and tribulations. How he started under the wings of Christian Audiger on his rise with Von Dutch & Ed Hardy. It depicts how Tracey went on to be a creative consultant for the Yeezy collection by Kanye himself and eventually creating his own apparel Visitor On Earth.

What is your new film about?

Making It Against All Odds is an animated documentary on the life story of Tracey mills. Who was abandoned by his mother and abused by his father as a child? He shares his story of success and reveals how he made it. Starting under the wings of Christian Audiger he helped the rise of von Dutch and ed hardy, Tracey then became the creative consultant to Kanye West, which led him to launch his own brand Visitor on Earth.

What is the meaning behind it?

For me, its very Forward, growing up watching actors, models, designers be successful always felt like it was magical, one day it just happened for them. So I wanted to create something very forward and tell it how it is and Tracey has been extremely generous with sharing his life story to empower those that are living the same thing or that are going through a hard time.

How will the viewer relate to this story? What will they learn?

We all have different experiences and some are more difficult than others but this film will show you perseverance and self-love can really get you through those hard times. This film will show you the bad times, the good times but also Tracey’s unique sense of humor. Thought his story I believe that there is a lot we can apply to our thinking, to be the best version of ourselves. And even to those that are fortunate and privileged, I think this is a film that would build their empathy.

Where was it filmed?

The interview was shot in Los Angeles at the Milk studio and the animation was done in Toronto.

When did you know you wanted to be a director?

When I first had the idea of creating this film, it was so clear to me visually thought the best person that could do it is me. I like to give artistic freedom to the people I work with and I knew that I would have not been able to do so in this case. There is really nothing worst for an artist then being creatively restrained.

Who/what inspired you to create this piece of art?

What drew me too this project was when I realized how many people I knew had a very difficult upbringing and never shared their story, even after achieving success. I want it to not only inform but empower and encourage my generation and the next. For me, this documentary is a way to motivate the way we think and is crucial for social cognition.

Harper Harrison

Harper Harrison is a reporter for The Hear UP. Harper got an internship at the NPR and worked as a reporter and producer. harper has also worked as a reporter for the Medium. Harper covers health and science for The Hear UP.