Red, Pink & Black: Final MFA Student Thesis Film

Thank you for the gift of your time. We’re excited to share this MFA student thesis film with you.

We ask for your support to raise $8,000 to meet the minimum requirements to make this thesis film for graduation. We aim to debut the film on the 1st of April at the College of Visual and Performing Arts MFA Exhibition. Once the film is complete, we will submit it to film festivals for marketing and distribution.

The entire film will be shot in Syracuse, New York. Syracuse University gives all film students free access to equipment for production. For our location, we have the support of Reverend Gail Riina of the Lutheran Campus Ministry’s Koinonia Community at the Parsonage, and Ammarachi Attamah.

With this narrative short film, the money raised will be used for crafty to feed the cast and crew during production, transportation costs, production design, professional crew, and actors’ fees.

This film is being made through the collaborative spirit of brilliant Syracuse University students and talented alumni. We also have additional professional crew members, Michelle DiBernardo, our Unit Production Manager and Jeremy Jung, our Sound Designer, that we need to pay.

Red, Pink and Black is a dream we hope to turn into reality through your support. Every dollar will bring us closer to a complete film.

When a young immigrant woman, Anaya, grapples with a new bipolar diagnosis, her little brother offers her an opportunity to prove her sanity. She soon realizes that the truth is not enough to keep her out of the Psychiatric ward.

When a family copes with mental illness, no one gets out unscathed. In her memoir, The Collected Schizophrenias, Esmè Weijun Wang states, "We deteriorate in a way that is painful for others. Subject to self-censure and stigma to others.”

Whether you’ve experienced living with a mental illness or seen a loved one affected, the uncertainty, fear and pain of being cared for or being a caretaker is one that we must confront. Our film immerses you into the complex, weird, and exhausting experience of mental illness from the perspective of an overcomer and a team committed to changing the mental health narrative through film.

This is a film for everyone touched by mental illness, for those who don’t understand the complexities and contradictions of mental illness.

We are honored to have a black female Motswana director leading a diverse crew and cast of exceptional filmmakers representing different cultures, races, and perspectives.

Community and collaboration are among the fundamental values we share. We invite you to join our community and help us tell this story.

Your Name will be included in our credit roll to appreciate your contributions.

If you are unable to contribute but would still like to help, here is how you can support the project:

We'd love for you to reach out to us with any questions, thoughts, ideas or even just for a chat. We will post updates regularly to keep you posted. Our Director's Facebook and Instagram will share more information.

We're so grateful for your time

Let’s heal together

-Team Red, Pink and Black