LOGLINE
Two best friends, Mariah and Kimberly, attempt to slide back into their after-school routine but quickly fall apart at the seams when they address their feelings for one another.
SYNOPSIS
Two best friends, Mariah and Kimberly, attempt to slide back into their after-school routine but quickly fall apart at the seams when they address their feelings for one another.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
TODAY AND TOMORROW came to me out of nostalgia for my childhood, my home, and the innocence of young romance. I wrote it during a moment in my life where I felt myself spinning out of place and desperately craving familiarity. The story appeared to me as I walked out of the Myrtle Ave and Wyckoff Ave train station on my way to my parents’ apartment. I looked up and found the sun coming in through the big windows falling on the escalators and I imagined a young girl waiting for her friend. My parents had moved back to Bushwick after a decade of living in Bed-Stuy. Their new landlords were forcing them to move, and it was painful. We were losing our headquarters and roots to a neighborhood we knew as our home. When I was back in their old neighborhood, I found myself walking through blocks I hadn’t seen since the 8th grade. I wasn’t prepared for the ways they had changed—the delis I got breakfast at were now cafes with eight-dollar croissants, the laundromat of my middle school best friend was now a condo building, her front door no longer existed. I walked by our childhood church looking for this chicken spot I took my first girlfriend to and found a smoke shop there instead. Still, I found a lot of it still here—my family is still here, I’m still here, and I felt inspired by that. Life moves at such speeds that you can’t fully take everything in, and without realizing it, my nephew is growing up in the same neighborhoods I did, creating the same memories, and through him I get to preserve quintessential Brooklyn experiences. Through him, I know that there’s an entire generation that needs places where they can find, hear, and see themselves, media they can point to and feel that excitement in their bellies when they spot their train stations and hear people that sound just like them, giving language to their experiences—especially queer, trans children. This film comes after a four-year filmmaking hiatus. In that time, I’ve grown as a producer, film programmer, family member, and person. I am now in a place ready to get back into the director’s chair and continue growing as a storyteller and leader. With your support in TODAY AND TOMORROW, you will be supporting not only for my personal growth, but also for all the cast and crew members involved in this labor of love.
KEY CREW
Yoko Kohmoto - Producer
Yoko Kohmoto (she/her) is an eldest daughter of immigrants, a Leo, and a producer-writer based in NYC. Her producing work has been showcased at Tribeca Film Festival, Vimeo Staff Pick, Frameline, American Black Film Festival, and CAAMFest, among others. Her priorities as a producer are to build community, ensure safety, and uplift marginalized voices. In 2024, she started a yet-to-be-named initiative to create spaces for women and nonbinary artists of color in the NYC film industry. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s from Northwestern University.
Mariales Diaz - Writer/Director
Mariales Diaz (they/them) is a gender-expansive Dominican writer, director, producer and programmer living in New York. Their storytelling explores experiences that exist at the intersection of survival and love. They are the co-director of programming at TIDE Film festival and most recently produced the documentary short Still Waters, which premiered at BlackStar Film Festival and won their Audience Award for Best Documentary Short. It later played festivals including Indie Memphis, Doc NYC, Hot Docs, SFFILM and has been acquired by POV. Diaz has worked on the production and post-archival teams at companies such as Pilgrim Media Group, Religion of Sports, HBOMax, and Proximity Media. They are a graduate of the SUNY Purchase Film Conservatory and a current 2024 Sundance Institute Trans Possibilities Fellow. They also have participated in fellowships and artist programs such as Film at Lincoln Center's Artist Academy, Sundance Ignite, Creative Culture at The Jacob Burns Film Center, and NeXt Doc.
Liat Z. Rubin - Producer
Liat Z. Rubin is a film and television producer dedicated to telling stories that reflect and reveal the nuances of our world.
As the founder of LZR Productions, she has developed and produced numerous narrative and documentary projects, including the narrative comedy HOT SEAT (dir. Sohrob Nayebaziz) which will premiere at NewFest 2024. She also produced 51ST STATE (dir. Hannah Rosenzweig) which premiered at DC/DOX 2024.
In addition to her work in independent film, she is currently a development producer on a Radical Media docuseries. She was a producer on Hollywood Black, a docuseries about the history of black cinema directed by Justin Simien. The series was produced by Radical Media, Significant Productions, and Culture Machine, for MGM+/Amazon and premiered at Tribeca 2024.
She was also a producer on HBO’s upcoming continuation of Henry Hampton’s landmark 1987 docuseries, EYES ON THE PRIZE. Previously, she co-produced the 2021 documentary special Eyes on the Prize: Hallowed Ground (MAX).
Alongside her producing roles, Liat co-directed MakeMake Residencies: a nine-month paid residency program designed to open pathways for diverse professionals working in the entertainment industry. The program is supported by the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity and MakeMake Entertainment.
Liat has worked with top filmmakers including Justin Simien, Melina Matsoukas, Dawn Porter, Smriti Mundhra, Asako Gladsjo, Angus Wall, Jason Koenig, Geeta Gandbhir, and more.
ACCOLADES
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