Flowers and Bikes: A short student film

Daniel Kayamba is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hi there! My name is Daniel Kayamba and I am a filmmaker and photographer from Portland, Maine currently living in Chicago, Illinois. This summer I’m directing a short film backed by my school, Columbia College Chicago, and need your help to make the film come to life!

Our Producer Sasha Rosenberg is a 20 year old filmmaker who is believes in positive complex representation. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA with regular trips to Costa Rica, he learned to appreciate people who lived outside of his normal. Sasha hopes to share a similar appreciation with the world and encourage the recognition of perspective.

The Story

Flowers and Bikes is a short film that follows two 14-year-old-boys in the Southside of Chicago during a hot summer day, both unaware that their lives are about to connect as a result of a stray bullet.

The story follows Andre and Mac. Andre is a young romantic who is on a mission to deliver flowers to a girl he likes. Mac is a quiet boy who is on a ride with his older brother learning the hard realities of the street after his bike was stolen by the neighborhood bully.

The film follows these two storylines as we see each boy deal with the positive and negative influences surrounding them. Flowers and Bikes explores themes of toxic masculinity and the loss of innocence. We see love being corrupted by hate.

Our Mission

My team and I want to tell an honest story that showcases the beauty and triumph of the black experience in Chicago. We want to capture Chicago’s rich culture and show how that beauty gets lost through the violence in so many communities. The film does not stereotype or judge characters who make bad choices; it shows why they are in the position that they are in with authenticity.

We want to make sure that we address the topic of gun violence truthfully and do not oversimplify the issue. In preparation for our production, my team and I educated ourselves on this topic by connecting with young people in the community.

Why Tell this story?

We are addressing the topic of gun violence in Chicago, and the horrible impact it has on everyday people, through the eyes of the youth in this city. The story focuses on stray bullets and how an unintended target’s life is tragically cut short as the result of the crossfire.

We want to break the traditional style of black story telling by adding an experimental take on a very universal black story. By using different types of medium (Iphone camera, 16mm, camcorder) this film will represent the style and culture of youth today in Chicago.

Flowers and Bikes is a love letter for the city and its people!

Why help us?

Engaging the community is a big part of our mission, and your support allows us to keep moving forward with our dialogue to help youth make positive choices. After the film is complete we hope to screen the film throughout Chicago public schools and various after school programs, and continue the dialogues about changing the narrative of the city.

This project is part of an independent project summer class at Columbia College Chicago. The school will provide cameras but students need to be able to fully fund other expensives on their own.

We are all Student filmmakers and funding a project at this scale is extremely difficult.

The Majority of the film takes places outside and we need to secure and pay for filming permits and security.

Our Camera Department would need to rent out gears (Car Mount, Dolly etc ) to make our shooting days move smoothly.

Our Art Department needs to purchase/rent expensive material to decorate our set (Cars, Flowers, special effect Make-up, Gun)

Feeding the cast and crew is also a big part of our fund. We need to provide breakfast and Lunch for a crew of 20 or more people for four days.

Our Shooting Dates are July 18, 19, 20, and 21.

Our deadline to collect all the funds is July 9th.

Thank you so much for joining us on this journey! No amount is too small and anything would be greatly appreciate. Supporting this vision and sharing the campaign is a big way to also help.

(My Previous work )