I’m TJ Griffin, and I named my studio Juan Kurtis, from my full name, Tajuan Kurtis. It means “chosen one of God, well-bred and courteous.” I didn’t choose it as a tagline. I chose it because it’s the truth I’ve spent my life trying to live up to.

Last July, a reaction to a medication shut down my digestive system. I couldn’t swallow. For weeks I lived on IV lines, then months on liquids. I didn’t eat solid food again until the following spring. I had to learn how to swallow, like a child learning it for the first time.

I’ll never forget the day in that hospital bed, looking out over the St. Johns River, my mother sitting beside me. She asked, “Are you okay?” I knew what she was really asking. I told her, “I’m at peace either way.” Then a text came from my pastor, a short video, and one line stayed: “What you say, I will seal in your cells.” So I spoke. Over my body. Over my health. And the light I couldn’t yet see began, slowly, to come.

I climbed out of that valley with one conviction: I would never let an opportunity pass again. I went all in on the craft, and Juan Kurtis Productions came back to life after nearly a year gone dark.

That’s why I make films for the overlooked, the ones sitting in the shadow, wondering if they matter. I don’t hand them easy hope. I sit with them in the dark, honor what’s hard, and walk them into a light they can feel they’ve earned. Because I’ve made that walk.

Stories that earn their hope.