Although filmmaker Josh Ayantola has always been interested in making movies, he call his road to video a “crazy story and long adventure.”

Ayantola is the owner of Ayan5 Media, located in the historic Higgins Armory building here in Worcester. Ayan5 was a childhood nickname of his. Being the fifth in his family, “it sort of just fit together,” and it became the name of his company.

Up until now, Ayantola has focused on corporate and wedding videography but has never lost sight of his “number one passion” – documentaries. Ayantola recently started creating a small series of documentaries called Hear My Story.

“I love just hearing peoples stories and being able to tell them,” Ayantola said
Ayantola himself has quite an interesting story. Growing up in Texas, he became interested in video while in high school. No matter where he went, he always had a video camera in his hand.  However, Ayantola’s father, who was assisting him financially, didn’t think that there was a bright future in video. Ayantola attended a small community college in Texas and obtained a degree in deaf studies. He then continued his education at the University of Connecticut, where he earned a degree in counseling.

“At that time, it wasn’t very big; I still had the passion for video, so I took classes whenever time allowed,” Ayantola recalled.

Ayantola worked at YOU, Inc. for six years, starting as a mentor and moving onto the Positive Parenting program. Even though Ayantola doesn’t have children of his own, he has a lot of nieces and nephews.

“I feel like a parent some days,” he remarked with a wide grin.

Although his YOU, Inc. experience was rewarding, he said, “I still had the desire to do video, so I knew it was something that I needed to pursue.” Ayantola decided to head back to school and obtained a degree in Video Production/Film Video from Fitchburg State University.

Now, he’s working on a project of his own.
After about a year of “mulling over how I wanted it to look and how I want people to view” the videos, Ayantola is bringing his ideas to fruition. Right now, Hear My Story consists of three videos – with more in the works – each capturing the story of an individual’s own passion and journey.

To date, Ayantola has artfully captured the stories of Mufaro Kambarami, a singer and Berklee student who is finding her place within the “industry of healing”; funnyman Orlando Baxter, the self-described “welfare Kevin Hart”; and has gone “in the corner” with local boxing sensation Khiary Gray.

“It has been fun,” Ayantola said of being able to “go out and shoot for a couple of days” and then edit the footage. In the future, Ayantola hopes to market the project and pitch it to Netflix or Vice as a small series of different individual stories.

“It is a hustle, definitely something you have to be passionate about because it takes a lot of time and effort. There are some nights that I am here until four or five o’clock in the morning trying to push something out or trying to render something. “

Ayantola said other artists in the field, to bounce ideas around with and to inspire one another, have been hugely important in his career. The biggest factor, he said, is “you have to have the passion for it.”

Ayantola encourages people with a unique story to connect with him after viewing any of the existing Hear My Story videos. For more information, visit Ayan5.com or email jayantola@ayan5.com.

Audra Brackett