PARIAH - Narrative Feature Film

Images

PARIAH Still 1

Website

http://www.pariahthemovie.com

Topics

Arts & Culture: Dramatic Narrative
Human Development: Urban, Youth
Human Rights: Gender, Sexuality
Information & Media: Culture
Politics: Activism

Project Geography

US: National, New York

Identity Niches

African American, Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Transgender, Latino, Women, Youth/Teen

Budget

Raised to date: $ 250,000.00
Estimate to complete: $ 300,000.00
Total Estimated Budget: $ 550,000.00
The budget numbers above are accurate as of 05/02/2009

Status

Research & Development

Media Type

Video

Project End Use

Theatrical

Key Personnel

Dee Rees
Writer/Director

Award-winning writer/director DEE REES is a recent alumna of New York University’s graduate film program and a 2007 Sundance Screenwriting Lab Fellow. She has written and directed several short films, including PARIAH, which has screened at over 40+ festivals including the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and garnered several accolades including the Audience Award at the 2007 Los Angeles
Film Festival.

Most recently, Dee continued development on the feature project PARIAH at the 2008 Sundance Screenwriting & Director’s Labs and the screenplay has been nominated as one of three U.S. finalists for the 2009 Sundance/NHK International Award. Dee was also named as one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” for 2008, and was awarded a 2008 Tribeca Institute/ Renew
Media Arts Fellow (Rockefeller Foundation) for her work. Dee is currently wrapping post-production on a feature documentary on Liberia titled EVENTUAL SALVATION, which was honored with a grant from the 2007 Sundance Documentary Fund and will air on the Sundance Channel in late 2009.

Dee worked as a script supervision intern on Spike Lee’s films “When The Levees Broke” and “Inside Man” and also worked as a development intern with producer Barbara De Fina. Dee earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Florida A&M University and slaved away at three different, successively more soul-crushing FORTUNE 500 companies in a far, far distant former life.

Nekisa Cooper
Producer

Nekisa Cooper, an accomplished marketer and emerging producing talent has produced
various multi-media projects, including the award-winning short PARIAH, which has had over 40 screenings, including the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and won over 25 festival awards. Most recently, Nekisa was selected as one the producers to represent IFP at the 2009 Rotterdam Producing Lab and she was also named a member of the Film Independent Project Involve Class of 2009. In July 2008, she was also selected to participate in the inaugural and highly competitive Sundance Institute Creative Producing Initiative.

In 2005, she produced the short, ORANGE BOW, which screened at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival and aired on BET-Jazz. Nekisa is also partnered with award-winning writer/director, Dee Rees, in producing the Sundance Documentary Fund-supported feature EVENTUAL SALVATION, which will air on the Sundance Channel in Fall/Winter 2009.

Prior to film, Nekisa had a successful marketing career working in brand management for
such companies as General Electric, L’Oreal and Colgate-Palmolive. She also coached
women’s basketball at the Division I, Division III and high school levels. Nekisa earned a
BA in Government with a minor in Japanese studies from The College of William & Mary
and an MBA in Marketing from Clark Atlanta University.

Bradford Young
Cinematographer

Bradford Young has lensed an impressive amount of multi-media projects. Bradford recently wrapped production on ENTRE NOS, the 2007 Winner of the IFP Market Award for Best Screenplay and official selection of the 2008 Tribeca All Access Program. Bradford also completed his fifth feature in 2008, MISSISSIPPI DAMNED, directed by Tina Mabry, which was supported by the Film Independent (FIND) Screenwriting, Directing and Producing Labs. Bradford’s latest documentary feature shot for Alicia Keyes titled “Alicia in Africa,” debuted on national TV during the 2008 American Idol “Idol Gives Back” program. Bradford was Director of Photography for BLACK SHEEP, WHITE LIES, directed by James Spooner (AFROPUNK), which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

Bradford is a native of Louisville, KY and received his Bachelor of Arts and MFA from Howard University.

Outreach/Engagement Plan(s)

SOCIAL CONTEXT
Not only is there a paucity of films centering on LGBT youth of color’s struggles with their sexual identity, but there is also a lack of academic research and literature on the subject. When looking at studies on adolescent research published from 1972 – 1999, a National Youth Action Coalition study found that less than 1% of that research focused on LGBT youth and only 18 of those studies (3.6% of the 1%) focused on LGBT youth of color. The study goes further to state:

“Virtually all of the literature on LGB youth and adults speaks to feelings of being required to balance and often prioritize the demands and allegiances of ethnic and mainstream lesbian/gay communities, neither of which accept all aspects of an individual’s identities. This is especially difficult for adolescents who are trying to consolidate and integrate multiple stigmatized identities, meet the cultural needs and demands of their family and ethnic community, negotiate developmental tasks of adolescence related to intimacy, sexuality and relationships, and find support for dealing with same sex desires.”

OBJECTIVES
Our primary objective is to produce a film that personalizes the struggles of gay/lesbian youth of color in such a universal way that evokes empathy, opens doors to communication and promotes dialogue within families and communities. Second, we want to give their struggles mainstream exposure that will motivate the funding of research based on the voices and lived experiences of diverse populations of LGBT youth of color.

PLAN
In the development phase of the project we’ve begun to reach out to organizations such as the National Youth Advocacy Coalition and the Hetrick Martin Institute in NYC to build strategic alliances that will help us with our community efforts for the film. Specifically, in the production phase of the project we will hire at least 4 interns from the LGBT youth community to work on the film so that we demystify the filmmaking process and expose them to the various options for careers in media.

Once the film is completed, as a compliment to the commercial distribution efforts, the primary outreach tool will be our educational distribution plan that will reach university level LGBT studies, Womens’ Studies, African-American Studies, and Sociology programs throughout the US through their national conferences and local/regional support groups. Additionally, a council of prominent LGBT advocates will be charged with developing the supplemental materials to accompany the film and endeavor to help close the gap in the academic literature about LGBT Youth of Color and the challenges they face in coming of age. Our website – www.pariahthemovie.com - will be come the focal point for our outreach endeavors, which will be promoted in association with the screening of the film.

In a 3/6/08 NY Times article, Rebecca Winters Keegan sought to evaluate whether “a film can change the world” and she concluded that about 30% of respondents to a TIME poll of 1002 registered voters said a movie changed their minds about an issue. Almost 20% said the movie persuaded them to donate to a charity or inspired them to volunteer. We view this as an opportunity to increase dialogue on subject matter that previously been taboo. We aspire to the idea of “change - one popcorn bucket at a time.”

Funders

Location(s)

65 Pine Avenue
#375
Long Beach, 90802
See Google Maps