LOGLINE
Jillian an African American woman who is afraid of marrying a man. Because deep down inside she knows the truth that is a lesbian. She has been struggling with the truth for years that she is gay. Join Jillian on her journey searching for her inner truth.
SYNOPSIS
Jillian's Peak is a 22-30 minutes scripted inspirational drama. Episode One "The Wedding Scene" is the pilot. We will be tackling some of the African American Lesbian issues like family, community, and gay youth. The series evolves through Jillian’s marriage to Keith with twists in feelings of sexual jealousy and rivalry, expectations within relationships, and infidelity. Jillian’s career in photography causes conflict with Keith as he sees this as a threat to his vision of home life. Keith feels he is losing his wife, and in the end, the marriage dissolves. Jillian moves to New York to pursue her career as a photographer and discovers much more about herself. There are expectations commonly assumed as Jillian meets her first lesbian interest, Sheena. With the help of her best friend Gail and a colorful cast of supporting characters, this story is a journey of self-discovery, challenges, and much more.
Our mission in developing this series is to encourage the visibility of women of color in the LGBTQ community, specifically women of African American descent whose lives are not part of the syndicated programming in mainstream media. A demographic that is underrepresented. There is a need for more true characterizations of lesbian women of color in an original scripted drama that was not represented in other series. Jillian’s Peak aims to tap into a massive audience to share our commitment to creating the type of premium quality content exploring lesbian women of color families, celebrating their lives, empowering the viewers and learning not to fear the stigma about lesbians of African American, Hispanic, Asian, Caribbean descent, and other ethnicity's culture and their lives thru film platforms worldwide. Most importantly to combat the negative stigma by television networks. What better way to increase visibility and ensure that our stories get produced and seen in the mainstream media to inspire and change the world.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
Charzette Torrence Is a proud Detroiter and C.C.S. alumni. She has always been a spokeswoman for making a change in diversity in the photography, film and television industry. The project Jillian’s Peak which is an episodic drama series made for television and streaming with her Domestic Partner Danielle Johnson. Jillian’s Peak script was officially selected in two major film festivals in 2018 in N.Y.and LA and voted as one of the top 10 scripts in 2019 for the LGBTQ Toronto Film Festival. She is a member of NYWIFT, IFC, and SAG-AFTRA New Media Project. Charzette and her partner Danielle have both been casting, screening, review, rating, and voting on films for IFP New York, LA, and the Gotham Awards for the past six years. Also, her lifelong partner Danielle are Judges for the New York Independent film festival in 2020. This spring they will be filming a short trailer for Jillian's Peak with a well-known African American female producer making her directorial debut. They are the newest upcoming creators of content for streaming and television media
KEY CREW
Charzette Torrence - Co-Executive Producer/ Co-Creator/ Sceenwriter
She is a proud Detroiter and C.C.S. alumni. She has always been a spokeswoman for making a change in diversity in the photography, film and television industry. The project Jillian’s Peak which is an episodic drama series made for television and streaming with her Domestic Partner Danielle Johnson. Jillian’s Peak script was officially selected in two major film festivals in 2018 in N.Y.and LA and voted as one of the top 10 scripts in 2019 for the LGBTQ Toronto Film Festival. She is a member of NYWIFT, IFC, and SAG-AFTRA New Media Project. Charzette and her partner Danielle have both been casting, screening, review, rating, and voting on films for IFP New York, LA, and the Gotham Awards for the past six years. Also, her lifelong partner Danielle are Judges for the New York Independent film festival in 2020. This spring they will be filming a short trailer for Jillian's Peak with a well-known African American female producer making her directorial debut. They are the newest upcoming creators of content for streaming and television media
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Danielle Johnson - Co-Executive Producer/Co- Creator/Writer/Musical Director
Danielle Johnson is the founder of her own Music/Social Media company “deejayandcatsproduction”, a musician, mix engineer, music producer, a Digital Media Content Creator for end-user/audience in specific contexts, and Co-Executive Producer/Co-Creator/ Screenwriter of her first scripted drama series known as Jillian’s Peak with her lifelong partner Charzette Torrence. She has been an advocate in the Industry for the diversity of African American women in screenwriting, music, television, and streaming. Their script, Jillian’s Peak, was officially selected in two major film festivals in 2018 in N.Y. and LA and vote one of the top 10 scripts in 2019 for the LGBTQ Toronto Film Festival. She is a member of NYWIFT, IFP, and SAG-AFTRA New Media Project. Danielle and her partner have been casting, screening, review rating, and voting on films for IFC New York, LA, and the Gotham Awards for the past six years. Also, her lifelong partner Charzette are Judges for the New York Independent film festival in 2020. This spring, they will be filming a short trailer for Jillian's Peak with a well-known African American female producer making her directorial debut. They are the newest upcoming creators of content for streaming and television media.
ACCOLADES
The The Gotham Film & Media Institute fosters the development, production and promotion of hundreds of feature and documentary films a year. Learn more about us or become a member
