A Father With a Transformative Gift: Boris Thomas Path to Filmography

By M. Todd Manuel
FWIS Contributing Writer

I discovered I wasn't the only person displaced and inspired during the 2020 pandemic to open a visible business. Boris Thomas started, during the COVID 19 pandemic, creating videos for businesses after having been a journalist in California for a short time. Thomas says he has always been interested in creating videos and worked with Come as You Are Church in Fort Wayne previously. Boris was one of three people running the video and audio for the church for several years. Moving into videography allowed him to return to journalism more meaningfully by using resources available to the public at the Allen County Public Library. Although he is not formally taught, Boris Thomas is a self-taught videographer who has built a profitable business with skills partially developed by checking out and utilizing free resources in our community.

Boris has always been business-minded, so videography and photography came after being a music magazine editor and writer. Writing for a  magazine allowed Boris to make money from advertising within the media's circulation while also cutting hair as a barber. In Bakersfield, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles, Thomas was a mobile barber and has been a mobile barber in every state he has lived in. Boris remembered that, "when I was ten years old, my people saw that I had a passion, and so every Christmas they gave me a pair of clippers," they would add to his supply.

Boris still cuts hair, and in 2010, he received his barber's license and made his talent and passion hustle yet another side gig as he worked full-time at the local General Motors plant. Because GM offered excellent benefits, it offers Boris to have significant benefits but now he focuses more on the videography business, which compliments his daytime job better. He likes to focus on commercials and special occasions like weddings, birthdays, church events, and funerals. He is looking forward to other events, including those for one's final arrangements and other types of events.

Boris believes God has called him to use his passion, skill, and talent to help others.

He developed a method of providing a resource to his community and taking care of himself and his family by learning about something he truly cares about: businesses. Boris still cuts hair, and his most rewarding and highest job is being a great father and husband. With less time and more uncertainty, he learned that if you can identify what is needed, you will likely be given a solution after you know and work through it.

Thomas has lived in several states and maintained through several different environments because he is committed to creating what is needed. What he identifies that people need is God. He envisions an eventual place to show others how God can bless.

"Getting off course then realizing what the system is, in that way, you learn from the study”. I said, "OK, Boris, it's time to make that change because it's not about you. It's about your children. So, at 22 or 23, I stopped making the irrational decisions that I had made before.

Boris Thomas was raised here in Fort Wayne, IN. He was no stranger to the upbringing we all see, and he managed to get off and then back on course in a way that he wanted to share with others. “I had to wake up and do it God's way." Boris talks about changing his habits.

"I gained a lot of wisdom from bad experiences. I learned that path leads to death or incarceration, and when my first child was born, that is when I started to get into this mode...now it's time to become more responsible."

Boris Thomas is a man who changed his life around for his wife and children; he turned to God.