Elevating The Culture

Mike Jackson, John Legend, and Ty Stiklorius, partners in Get Lifted Film Co., raise the bar, delivering multicultural, multidimensional media to the masses.

Within a short period of time Get Lifted Film Co. has positioned itself with an amazing list of projects ranging from Broadway and television to the Silver Screen, with the upcoming release of their next film “Southside With You” premiering this Friday, August 26, 2016. We were able to grab a moment with founding partner Mike Jackson and discover the method behind the machine.

Monarch magazine: A principal partner in Get Lifted Film Co., how did this journey begin?

Mike Jackson: I really wanted to tell multicultural stories that highlighted all facets of life and present them on the platform that made the most sense. However, I didn’t want to be limited to multicultural, just inclusive. There are so many stories about all walks of life and the goal is to build a company that has the freedom to help share them with the world. It could be a film, television series, or play. So with ideology in place, I called John to see if he’d be interested in launching a company that could accomplish this goal. Knowing JL for years and what was important to him, I knew our interests were aligned before I even approached him, so it was a really easy conversation. He said “yes” instantly and then we brought in our third partner and his manager, Ty Stiklorius, and rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

Monarch magazine: What got you started in film production?

Mike Jackson: I moved to Boulder, Colorado in my early twenties and stumbled into a job promoting parties. I soon realized that the guys making the money were the cats producing the events SO I decided I was going to become one of them. Soon after I launched my first production company that produced events in Boulder, San Francisco, New York, and my hometown of Philadelphia. I eventually realized that my passion for producing events wasn’t enough and I wanted to be a part of sharing a larger narrative through storytelling and soon after transitioned into TELEVISION production for a company in Philly called Banyan Productions. This experience was my grad school. I traveled all over the country and produced episodes of a dating show on The Learning Channel. It wasn’t the kind of stories I wanted to be telling, but it afforded me the opportunity to learn the process and that was invaluable to me. I eventually moved to Los Angeles and launched my first company with the financial backing of some friends from Philly. I was able to produce a few feature films that did the festival route and eventually got distribution. Since then, I’ve gradually built my career and eventually launched Get Lifted

“Southside With You” premiering Friday, August 26, 2016

Monarch magazine: Get Lifted has seemed to find a niche of entertaining while educating; was this intentional?

Mike Jackson: We know that we’re creating entertainment so we never want people to feel like they’re sitting in a classroom. With that said, I can’t say it was intentional as much as I can say we try to put out projects that we’d want to see. I think it’s a byproduct of opportunity and taste.

Monarch magazine: What type of projects interest you? What projects garner the attention of Get Lifted Film Co.?

Mike Jackson: As I mentioned before, we like projects that we’d want to see. If you looked at our slate, we literally have projects in so many different arenas. So to answer your question, we’re interested in anything that’s good—anything that allows us to catch a glimpse into a sub-culture, world, or character that we may not know a lot about.