fiscal sponsorship
White Tears
TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Drama
STATUS: Post-Production
LOGLINE
An emotionally distraught woman helps out a stranger who may not be the victim she first appeared to be.
WHEN GOOD DEEDS GO DEAD WRONG
SYNOPSIS
POST 2020: THE PRESENT
Despite her reservations, a grieving Black woman goes out of her way to help out a troubled White woman because she knows it’s the right thing to do. This leads to a series of events that make her rethink her good deed.
This is my second funding effort. Seed and Spark took care of most of pre-production. I still have to pay my editor and sound designer as well as film festival submissions which add up.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
INSPIRATION FOR WHITE TEARS
DID YOU REALIZE THAT GEORGE FLOYD DIED THE SAME DAY CHRISTIAN COOPER (the Central Park Birdwatcher) COULD HAVE DIED BECAUSE OF AMY COOPER'S 911 CALL???
You are not alone.
Do The Right Thing was Spike's Wake Up Call.
White Tears is Mine.
AMERICA: WE HAVE A PROBLEM
One night there was cry outside my window. A white woman. By the end of the night, I learned her story. I woke up the next morning. She was gone.
During 2020’s "Racial Reckoning" I had a thought: What if that event happened in today’s time?
I created a recipe: a dash of Charlottesville, a pinch of January 6th, a dollop of book bans, several cups of #project2025 and DEI as the new N-word.....________________ (fill in the blank with what they think of next)
White Tears is about two strangers and what happens when one makes a sacrifice for the other.
It sheds light on why there's a growing number of Black ex-patriates…which began in 2020.
The film asks:
Will Black people ever feel free in this country when liberty and justice for all rarely applies?
My late mother www.dorothystory.com was a civil rights activist who raised me to amplify my voice. I am a proud artivist and self-proclaimed Creative Missionary who uses stories as medicine. I'm continuing her legacy.
GEORGE FLOYD AND I WERE BORN THE SAME YEAR. In the wake of his death 4 years ago I keep asking...
How far have we really come?
From book bans to voting rights under attack to continued inequity in corporate and political spaces...
Where are all the White people who were at the 2020 Black Lives Matter marches?
- Have they gone back to their bubbles?
- Are they educating themselves and addressing their privilege like my mother did?
- Are they using their voices or staying in White Silence?
Christian Cooper was fortunate that Amy Cooper's 911 call in Central Park (the same day George was choked to death) didn’t result in his death.
2023: Musical prodigy Ralph Yarl rang the wrong doorbell and nearly lost his life with no questions asked and Ajike "AJ" Owens was shot through a metal screen door after a neighbor took her kids' laptop leaving them without a mother.
Every time I hear another news report about a Black life lost that started with a phone call made by a White person I ask:
?WHERE DO THE WHITE TEARS COME FROM?
????????????When will White people realize their work is not done and recognize they are the cure to ending racism?
My affirmation for this film is to begin a new conversation that will lead to some answers.
WHITE TEARS CAN HAPPEN. IN A GOOD WAY.
(Starting with this film.)
KEY CREW
Chris Beal - PRODUCER
Chris Beal has over two decades of experience behind the scenes in the entertainment industry where she has worked as a location manager and producer for independent, low-budget films, and television shows which include Bel Air, Kings of Napa, and Station 19 and her most recent feature She Taught Love. In 2023 she produced Tamika Lamison's Superman Doesn't Steal which has won several awards on the film festival circuit and will premiere at Cannes in May 2024.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0971756/
STACIE E. HAWKINS - LINE PRODUCER
Stacie E. is known as a filmmaker who tells stories about complicated women trying to find their place in the world. Her award-winning feature, The Rise and Fall of Miss Thang, is about a female tap dancer who finds her way back to dance after a family tragedy. Stacie is a graduate of Howard University and has an MFA in Film from Chapman University and has most recently studied Directing Actors with Brad Barnes. Her latest two short films, Pressed and Ollie and The Scary Story were chosen for several film festivals nationwide including the Pan African, Silicon Valley, and Essence.
Her one-hour fantasy pilot script, Night Watchers, was selected for the 2022 Gotham TV Series Lab, and her historical action/adventure pilot Midnight Marauders received an Honorable Mention for the Stowe Story Labs and is an active member of both Film Fatales and Alliance of Women Directors.
http://www.filmfatales.org/directors/staciehawkins
Merrit K Jenkins - SCRIPT SUPERVISOR
Merritt Jenkins graduated from Lee University with a degree in cinema in 2022. Her most recent projects are Signs of Your Heart (2023), A Christmas Vintage (2023) and My Killer Reunion (2023). There is nothing she loves more than a well-told story, and blending the creativity of storytelling with the crucial details of continuity. She takes pride in working with passionate filmmakers whose stories have heart, the kind that can reach the world and is honored to take part in bringing Kaypri's project to life.
Kaypri - WRITER DIRECTOR
Kaypri is the founder of Priscilla Belle Productions and a veteran creative multi-hyphenate who has worked extensively in the theater and film space in NYC and Hollywood since graduating from Howard University with a BFA in Drama. She has received recognition for her writing from Sundance, Stowe, New Humanitas and The Script Lab for The Babygirl Show, her play turned TV pilot which was chosen from nearly 12,000 free submissions and remains on Coverfly's Red List. She has also received recognition for her caregiver-themed PSA The Baton which led to coverage in the Wall Street Journal.
She’s best known for her two popular autobiographical solo plays Babygirl and it's sequel, The Good Daughter & The Do Gooder, and finishing her late mother's book www.dorothystory.com She won a screenwriting award for her short film Everything, and was a PageCraft fellow. She also edited several non-fiction books and is a writer on the webseries SAHM. She has been a WGA captain since 2023. When not creating for herself, Kaypri works as as script doctor for writers of all genres. www.kaypri.com https://www.instagram.com/kayprism/
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