Tale...of a SUNDOWN TOWN, Emerson College BFA Student Film

Summary

Tale of a...SUNDOWN TOWN is an Afro-Surrealism BFA Student Film. It's about a Rod Sterling Architype narrator telling a story of a spring break road trip that takes a terrifying turn. Four black HBCU college students and a white friend strays into a Sundown Town frozen in its racist past. As night falls, they must outwit hostile locals, unearth buried family secrets, and confront a town where the setting sun signals open season on outsiders like them.

What We Need & What You Get

The production will need about 7,000 dollar but some cost can be cut with a budget of 4,000. The Budget will go toward transportation and food for the entire cast and crew throughout the 5-6 day production process. It will go towards getting actors, locations, 20 terabyte drive for filming lunch for the 5 day,snacks, train tickets, ubers etc.

A huge portion will go towards distribution to film festival around the U.S., Boston, New York and Los Angeles. As well as International

You get free entry to the premiere and a plus one if you donate.

If the goal isn't reached, we will do as much as we can with what is given.

The Story Origin

I want to make this project to practice Afro-Surrealism in film by bringing to light an issue that doesn’t seem to be a big deal anymore, but still exists. I hope people learn what a SUNDOWN Town is and visit them with caution. I hope other black filmmakers at Emerson adapt the Afro-surrealist art form by working together on this. I don’t know if my perspective is unique enough to tell this story because I’m technically an outsider but discrimination became a problem that could affect me when I moved from Africa to the United states. This project is a reminder that the world is better but racism is not dead quite yet.

While writing the project I was shocked to be asked by other black people what a SUNDOWN Town was. I’m glad we’ve reached a place in society where race is not at the forefront of everyone's mind. But I think it’s important that we know that the dying culture of sundown towns are not quite dead yet, simply as a safety precaution. Most likely the threat of these places are minimal, but not zero. It’s still happening as shown by the hanging of Javion Mcgee in September 2024, the KKK flyers found in Kentucky(July 2024), the N-word being carved on a black student’s chest at Gettysburg College(Sept. 2024). So if another black kid doesn’t find himself in a town like this after dark, the film would’ve served its purpose.

The Impact

You'll get to see the piece of work with a unique mix of voice and style.

We've made two similar projects to this but the production suffered without the necessary help.

Risks & Challenges

With any production there are always risk and set back. So we do expect a few setbacks. Some may be delayed production, problems with actors or locations. A budget would help prevent that.

A budget could help us locked down a location by paying the owners to used said location. Make sure we have a back up plan in case actors drop out etc.

Some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean they can't help:

Get the word about the campaign out, tell other people who you think might be able to help to donate to the campaign.

Tell other to use the indiegogo link to help out if they can.