I wrote this film shortly after the tragic church shooting that occurred on June 17, 2015 at Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina. At the time, I was completely baffled. I couldn’t make sense of how a deep rooted hate, could drive a person to take so many lives. Why would you willingly, take a life, without considering the affect that it would have on all involved- especially on those left living. I decided to bring the film to life now, because 2 years later, the hate driven acts- and senseless murders- that are still occurring, have me asking the same question.
I often wonder “what’s happening throughout the US, throughout the world? Do individuals truly find validation in hating an individual or group of people, to death? Do they really feel the solution is to take lives, to kill? Why? How does this increase the quality of their own lives? Who Wins? I was compelled to tell a story that made people think, perhaps even begin a conversation in our society. A story lacking a happy ending for all, a story that makes you asks the question “who wins?” That’s my goal with this film.
The film highlights how a massacre by two men, in a small Southern Mississippi town, changes the lives of a young boy and girl forever. Ten years later, we see the physical and psychological affects it has had on their lives. The boy- Ray- once a happy, playful child, has become bitter and angry with the world. The girl- Nori- has vivid recurring nightmares and physically finds herself frozen in terror after awakening from them. As the sole survivors from that day, they only have each other. A fateful, face to face encounter with one of the murderers causes all involved to remain “Broken.”
We begin production on August 31, 2017 in Virginia. We will be filming for 5 days. There is a lot that goes into the making of a movie. We have to have equipment, find and lock locations to film, plan rehearsals, practice stunt choreography, ensure sound is perfect, find camera operators, props, secure travel to locations for actors and crew, have places to sleep, ensure the safety of the cast and crew involved, get filming permits, production insurance, etc., etc., etc., (we haven’t even graced you with the presence of post-production costs). Most importantly (on my set) food! Good food- we must have good food :-)!
For all of the above, WE NEED YOU! We need to raise $5,000 which will only cover the bare minimum of production costs- bringing in cast and crew for 5 days to film. If we were able to raise more we could cover additional production costs and post production costs depending on how much we exceed our goal by.
Please donate any amount you can, every dollar counts!
I thank you for your time, support, and donations, and the victims’ families of the Emanuel AME church shooting, who support this film (check out our video above to see why), send their thanks as well. We collectively thank you for helping to bring this film to life- in light of their family member losing theirs.
Remember our film Broken’s tagline, and when you think of their families know:
“There’s more than one way to shatter a life.”