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Oh Happy Day!
TYPE: Narrative Short
GENRE: Student Film
STATUS: Development
LOGLINE
A shy boy must break out of his shell to deliver an unforgettable Easter speech.
SYNOPSIS
Chris, a soft-spoken 8-year-old, has a huge crush on Jazmyn. Unfortunately, he is too afraid to tell her how he feels. But when his rival, Jared, starts to get her attention, Chris decides he needs to step up his game. Much to his mother, Yolanda’s, dismay, Chris spends all his time trying to impress Jazmyn rather than practicing his Easter speech, culminating in an Easter Sunday none of them will ever forget.
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
For any child growing up in the South, there is a 99.9% chance that you were forced at some point in your life to speak at somebody’s church. The church is a staple in Southern culture, and growing up in Georgia it was very much a staple in my household. Easter speeches. Christmas plays. I had to do all of those. So did my parents when they were kids. And, my grandparents before them. Being put on the spot in church was like a right of passage growing up, whether you liked it or not. And, I aim to tell a fun, heartfelt story that reflects upon those church traditions, but also reflects on what it was like to be a kid. Whether you grew up in the southern United States or anywhere else in the world, everyone knows how it feels to have a crush on someone and to search for the courage to tell them how you feel. Finding the confidence to talk about our feelings is something that many people, including myself, struggle with even in their adult lives. And, at its core, this is a story about finding your voice, finding confidence, and taking a chance.
KEY CREW
Ivan Rome - Writer/Director
A Columbus, Georgia native, IVAN ROME is a writer/director currently pursuing an MFA in film at Columbia University. Ivan is the recipient of Columbia's inaugural Bobby Kashif Cox Memorial Scholarship, an inaugural Diverso’s Black Writers in Focus Fellow under the mentorship of Juel Taylor (THEY CLONED TYRONE, CREED II), and was most recently selected as an MTV Joel Schumacher & Sophia Cranshaw Scholar for the 2023 Gotham EDU Film & Media Career Development Program. He has also interned at Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media, is a former Narrative Programming Fellow at The Gotham Film & Media Institute, and was selected for the SEEN Black Filmmakers Program sponsored by Meta and The Blackhouse Foundation. Ivan’s work has screened at Academy Award qualifying festivals like Atlanta Film Festival, deadCenter Film Festival, and American Black Film Festival, among several others. He is a storyteller passionate about writing narratives (usually with a little Southern flavor) that explore the multifaceted nature of black culture through humor and heart.
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