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 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
I am very disturbed by the rash of “Karen’s” and the impact they have had on the Black community well before George Floyd lost his life four years ago. While white women have called the police about everything from a Black girl selling water to Black people barbequing in a park, Amy Cooper was the most dangerous example. Christian Cooper could have been killed by a trigger-happy policeman the same day George Floyd was choked to death in 8 minutes and 46 seconds...for birdwatching!
Like my main character SOLAIRE played by Tene Carter, I too gave a white woman my hospitality but she disappeared the following morning. I never saw her again.
The experience stayed with me until this day and time. I wrote the play version of it pre-pandemic but in 2020 i revised the story adding modern-day current events as well as grief an emotion I am well acquainted with. .
This is not what one would call a typical Black Lives Matter story because it focuses on the humanity of both characters, Black and White.
Many cannot articulate the anger they feel about racism. This film gives them a voice that I pray will educated others who don't understand.
Both these woman have something in common as most of us do -- but society often prevents us from seeing our commonalities because many Americans don't see each other they only look and make assumptions which hurts us all.
I want this piece to help my fellow Americans to recognize their blindspots and alter their behavior going forward.
On a personal note, I was raised by a true white ally, my mother who dedicated her life to racial justice and acknowledged her white privilege my entire life and did something about it, especially to educate others. The month after George Floyd died, I held zooms for white allies because I knew they needed it. They were grateful.
This film is a way to inform others and serves as a necessary conversation piece for those who fight for racial justice daily as well as those who don’t know where to start.
It is my way of continuing my mother’s work in the cinematic space.
Thank you in advance for helping WHITE TEARS HAPPEN.
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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