In The Closet ~ TMU Thesis Film Fundraising

~ A Queer Short Film with a Crew made up almost entirely of women, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC creatives out of TMU's The Creative School ~

~ A coming out & coming of age story set in Montreal, Canada ~

~ An exploration of intersectional identity through the lens of a young black, biracial, lesbian protagonist ~

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IN THE CLOSET { A Queer Film }

The film follows (half-Black, half-German) Greta during her brief visit to Montreal as she reckons with her religion and her sexuality at a costume party she did not expect. Will she find a way to accept the way women make her feel - or will she fall prey to the dangers of the closet?

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Our team is seeking additional funding to help cover the following expenses:

This short film will be used as a proof of concept for a Feature Length film upon its completion. The goal of its premiere and marketing in the Festival circuit will be to gather additional funding and collaboration in order to begin development on the Feature Length version of this film. Some of this funding will be used for the development process of the next stage of production following the film's premiere, if we reach our goal.

~ Below is the Director's Mission Statement ~

This film has been in development since 2017. I have been developing and producing this project for 7 years now - since I began my degree in 2017. The pandemic prevented my thesis year from occurring as planned, and I couldn’t be more grateful for all the learning I have been able to do between then and now. For this part of my degree, I have only one class: MPF 42; and only one goal: to collaborate with fellow artists in a post-covid world.

The world we live in has a structured place for bodies, and each type has a unique slot. Female bodies have a distinct place, as well as male ones. Black bodies have a distinct place, as do white bodies. Bodies that are in-between create hiccups in the mechanism, as they do not fit into a particular slot and thus reveal the flaws of the whole system. Queer bodies are a site of systemic upheaval. Biracial bodies as well. Put them together and you get a void where the slot should be. To be queer in our world is to question the very nature of your body’s place in it. How should your body be perceived? How should your body move through society? And most importantly, how does your body interact with other bodies?

The world is a dangerous place for an outlier. This is a world that likes to put outliers in their place, whether there is a place for them or not. This is a story about black, queer bodies in the chaos of the world, searching for their place in it. It is about me and my loved ones and our journey out of ‘the closet.’ It is about allowing yourself to fall apart to see what you’re made of.

Ultimately, In The Closet is a film about trusting the world and getting lost and violated - and finding yourself and those who truly love you in the calm after the storm.