UNO documentary: The Cupcake Collection

What: The Cupcake Collection

Film by: UNO student and documentarian Aaron Cohen

Editor’s Note: ViaNolaVie partners with students of UNO professor László Zsolt Fülöp, pairing them with artists, non-profits, environmental groups, and cultural entities to facilitate a live curriculum that results in a short documentary. This documentary short was made by Aaron Cohen, a student in the Film and Theatre Department at the University of New Orleans, about a family business called “The Cupcake Collection.”

[Full transcription of Mignon Francois]

My children’s generation is the first generation of African-American people as a collective that has access to wealth, transparent outside of an insurance policy. We for the first time will be passing on businesses and property and wealth. And so it’s really important to me that we establish for those coming behind us an opportunity. I am Mignon Francois and I am the founder and director of joy at The Cupcake Collection. 

The reason why I decided to make all of the things in-house is because I want it to be true to myself and who I am. So the more authentic that I am myself, the more people receive that and they trust me to do things for them. It’s the way I look at my children. And so that’s why we do everything as straightforward as we can with as minimal ingredients as possible.

[Full transcription of Alaina Theriot]

My sister Mignon Francois, who was the CEO, asked me. She know I loved to bake, I would bake just for fun. But would never think it would be a job but when she asked me, I was like why not? My sister asked me, like I said she couldn’t bake so I’m like now if she could do it, I definitely could do this. She’s building on the legacy, once she became successful, she was like why am I only the one being successful? I want my family to be successful. 

[Full transcription of Mignon Francois]

I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t just here getting wealthy, building wealth, and watching my sister struggle. And if there was something I could do to teach them how I learned to fish, so that they could fish for a lifetime, that’s what I wanted to do. So passing on what I knew so that they could also live was key for me. As a culture, we might not have generations-long of people who can say my great grandfather ran a business like this and this is our family tradition for the last three hundred years. I want to start that tradition right now. 

[Full transcription of Aisha Faulkner]

She just wanted to do something for the community and help out this community. She wanted to help out her family at the same time and build a legacy for, you know, help us to be able to build a legacy for our children, for our children’s children to create generational wealth. And she drafted me into the business after she became successful at it in Nashville. We want them to own something. We want to instill in them too, you know, work for yourself, to create your own wealth.

[Full transcription of Mignon Francois]

What I wanted to do was show them what they can do if they believe and I wanted to open the door for opportunity in the family. And so I think I do that whether my children stay or not.

We definitely want to explore opportunities to grow our business and plant it in other cities to continue to create that wealth transference across the country.

But it’s definitely not something that I want them to feel like they have to do it because this is my dream, not theirs. Our vision is to be a lighthouse in the community, to show people what good business looks like, and then to illuminate the path for other entrepreneurs so that they know what they can do if they believe. Cupcakes are just the avenue or the carrier we use to bring joy to people as they go throughout their daily life. That’s what we’re here for.