Filmmaker Sixx King wants Black romance back on the silver screen

Sixx King says he wants Black love back on the silver screen.

After directing Mothers of No Tomorrow, a short film following three Black women who lost their children to intracommunity violence, and two full-length movies — Once Upon a Time in Philly (2019) and Once Upon a Time in Philly Part 2 (2023) — the filmmaker set his sights on his most ambitious project to date.

This summer, King released Jonesing: When Love is a Habit, a spiritual successor to the ‘90s Black cinematic classic Love Jones.

For Jonesing, King knows it was a risk putting his hands on a cult classic. While he didn’t think Love Jones required a sequel, he believed it was the proper foundation for a new frame for Black romance. 

“Love Jones is one of my favorite films, right? It came out when I was a young man, so, you know, it really brought me back to that point,” he said. “[But], I always wondered about the characters. Did they get married? Did they have children? I wanted to reimagine what a continuance would look like, but through the lens of the daughter.”

Jonesing follows Simone (Aaria), the daughter of beloved Love Jones characters Darius Lovehall and Nina Mosley. The movie begins with Simone’s devastation as news of her parents’ divorce makes rounds on social media.

Simone doesn’t understand how her parents, who influenced a generation of couples to “stick together no matter what,” can’t follow their own advice. As she’s processing her parents’ decision, she attends a poetry night and meets the movie’s love interest, Myles Cole (Kamaj Nixon Myers). 

From that point, Jonesing becomes its own story. 

“You know, Black folk, we love our characters, but when they went to see the film, they got to really sit with it, and they understood that this is her [Simone] journey, and this is a different beat,” he said.

King’s goal was to pay homage to Love Jones “without ruining a great classic.” Major themes include Simone’s dating life in the digital age and grappling with how her experience differs from the one she grew up with. 

It was also important to the filmmaker to highlight the vulnerability of Black men. King believes Black men are expected to be pillars of strength in the community while taking care of everyone else. Before meeting Simone, Myles is dealing with the pressures of being a student-athlete and trying to keep his head above water while building a connection with her.

“These athletes that go to school, they’re put on a higher pedestal,” King said. “[Black men] always have a thousand people we have to take care of, and this is our why, of why we’re playing sports or why we’re going to school. So, I wanted also to be able to show what he was dealing with on the level, how he carried it and honored that vulnerability.”

King spent months in pre-production before shooting the film in 10 days. “I don’t have time to be doing 19 cuts, so we’re going to do this Zoom every weekend for a few months until we get it right,” he said, jokingly.

Several actors in Jonesing worked with King in previous movies, but Simone’s role was initially given to someone else. When that person dropped out of the film, the role went to Aaria. The director called her a “blessing” and a “lifesaver” because she quickly gelled with the cast.

The film’s success is undeniable. According to Forbes, it made history. It’s one, if not the only, Black film made by a Black filmmaker that is entirely self-financed and yet receives national distribution without the support of major studios or streaming services. Before he scored this opportunity, Sixx King devised a brilliant plan to bring the movie to his audience.

He rented theatres and brought his own audience. 

During the run, King charged as much as $100 per ticket. “I was selling out 450 seats every [90] minutes,” he said.

These events were more than just a movie showing. He turned them into moments.

“The experience of being on the red carpet, being with the actors, seeing a quality movie, is something that it took me some years to really hone that in. So, I had a built-in audience already,” he said.

He started that fanbase in the late 2010s, following his tour with Once Upon a Time in Philly. He would buy shows from a theatre on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and sell tickets for $75 apiece.

“I was selling those seats every [90] minutes,” King said. “I started going to Regal Cinemas, where they had stadium seats for 450. I did it like a stage play. I took it to Philly. I took it to Tallahassee. I took it to all of these forgotten cities where people spent money.”

His self-confidence and hard work were proverbial middle fingers to an establishment that paid him very little attention. King previously submitted his work to film festivals, but those entries didn’t pan out. 

He bet on himself with Jonesing.

“I’m going to make them call me,” King said. “ I know the power of the Black dollar. So, I’m going to make my own direct deal with the theatres. I knew that was going to be very hard, but I knew the numbers at some point were going to make a difference.”

Eventually, he closed a distribution deal with AMC and made history. Due to Jonesing’s success, additional plans are in place to create a TV adaptation. It is set for debut in Fall 2026.

Sixx King’s story is something of a miracle. In the early 2000s, while still in the early stages of his filmmaking career, King conceived a somewhat ingenious idea to bring his dreams to life.

He crashed awards shows. 

“I had a DVD that I did. It was called Hustling Hollywood, and I was the first to walk up on stage and accept other people’s awards,” King said. “I did it with the Foo Fighters. I made a speech with [them at] the 2003 Grammys. I’ve crashed the MTV Awards five times, and then I accepted 50 Cent’s award for Artist of the Year.”

The stage crashing made him notorious among the entertainment world, and he used that notoriety to promote his work. His antics eventually landed him on Howard Stern’s radio show, where he’d mention the site to sell merchandise and support his creative endeavors.

Later, King took an even bigger swing that, under normal circumstances, would have been quite fitting for a villain origin story.

In 2006, he had an idea to digitize his DVD, allowing it to be downloaded directly to a buyer’s computer. He charged a dollar for the download because “the internet was still sketch. I knew people had at least one dollar to mess up on anything,” he said.

King assigned one friend to transfer money from PayPal and snuck on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards with another friend to execute his plan.

“I bought the domain name ‘MTV 6000’ because it was easy to remember,” he said. “I walked on the stage with Panic! At The Disco. I told everyone to log on to MTV 6000.”

According to King, millions logged on to the site and purchased the DVD. 

King said he was arrested for the stunt and ended up sharing a cell with Yaasin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. The Brooklyn rapper was jailed on charges of disorderly conduct after performing his song “Dollar Day,” a song aimed at the George W. Bush administration, which was widely criticized for its slow response in assisting Hurricane Katrina victims

King said police allowed him to keep his phone, which he used to call his friend about the online sales. King said the numbers were astronomical.

And here’s where the heartbreak comes. 

King’s friend didn’t transfer the money from the PayPal account to King’s personal account by the following Monday. Paramount, MTV’s parent company, sent PayPal a cease-and-desist letter.

PayPal refunded all purchases of King’s downloads. 

“I was like, ‘You gotta be f—— kidding me.’ I was devastated,” he said. “A lot of people said, ‘That’s the first movie I ever downloaded, like you were ahead of your time.’ And I was like, ‘I know. I was supposed to have the money.”

Almost 20 years later, King took a victory lap for his achievements.

He received the Nelson Mandela Award during Apulian Fashion Week in Italy for his “historical run in film and television, and for using creativity and storytelling as tools for unity and social progress.”

Dr. Ndelika Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter, presented the award, which is named in honor of South Africa’s first Black president.

King said it was “an incredible honor to receive something connected to Nelson Mandela’s legacy, especially in an international space celebrating art, culture, and purpose.”

King said people “ain’t gon’ be able to tell me s— for like a week.”

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