Short Film - "Here After"

Update 2-23-2025

With the completion and premiere of the short film, our attention has now shifted to festival submissions. We've already been honored by the Canada Shorts Film Festival at the end of 2024. Our goal now is to send a few more submissions and be accepted by at least 5 more festivals.

While submission fees vary, they can add up pretty fast. Any help that we receive will be greatly appreciated. For anyone donating $50 or more, you'll receive a signed print of the film poster!

Thank you again for all your support!

Nathaniel

*Original posting 3-2024*

Thank you so much for your assistance to Dapper Dragons and our very first short film Here/After, currently in pre-production. My friend Gilbert Taylor and I decided to join forces as filmmakers firstly for our shared love of fantasy and sci-fi storytelling, but also and perhaps more importantly as queer men of color.

Our short film is the story of Darius Jones, an elderly janitor reflecting on his life and the many regrets he still carries. In the night he is visited by two angels: one to uplift and affirm all the good he has accomplished, and the other to reinforce his low self image, ultimately aiming to reap his tattered soul.

As co-writer and one of the actors for this short, I would very much love to bring this story of second chances to life. While pre-production transitions into actual filming in a few weeks, we are hoping to supplement the remainder of our budget for shooting.

Whatever you contribute will go toward paying the actors, director of photography, stage manager, location fee, green screen studio rental, feeding the cast and crew, as well as editing and visual effects in post production.

Over the last seven years, representation for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ stories has seen a major increase in film and television, and yet the same inclusion behind the camera has been a steeper incline to conquer. With few people of color in the director’s chair or holding a writer’s quill, there are even fewer queer storytellers of color producing fantasy and sci-fi epics. Not only does our dark fantasy short film, Hereafter, feature an entirely BIPOC cast, our writer and director Gilbert is a proud Black gay man who has always longed to see himself battling angels and demons or piloting a star cruiser.

Please help us produce the first of many projects to come. Be part of the castle's foundation that Dapper Dragons hopes to build!

Thank you,

Nathaniel Nuñez