0. Hanging by a Thread

A FEATURE-LENGTH FAMILY DRAMA HANGING BY A THREAD EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS VIOLA DAVIS AND JULIUS TENNON WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY CRAIG T. WILLIAMS DIRECTED BY ROSALYN COLEMAN WILLIAMS SYNOPSIS ERNIE is bipolar, he doesn’t believe in taking medication. He moves through life on his own terms. A violent manic fight with his brother FLOYD, sends Ernie to the home of his estranged sister INEZ - where Ernie hopes to have a fresh start. Ernie immediately connects with his 11-year-old nephew HAWK - but all is not well. Ernie’s sister Inez is in the middle of a contentious divorce and the home is in disarray. Ernie seizes the opportunity to be the man of the house, even though nobody asked him to be. Snooping, prying, manipulating, all in an attempt to make himself indispensable to the broken family. Ernie uncovers his sisters secret, Hawk has bipolar disorder - and they are medicating him. It’s a nightmare for Ernie. He is shaken, scared, angry and confused. He knows Hawk’s future all too well as the problem child. He’s not gonna let that happen. He’s going to save Hawk and prove to his family he’s not the irresponsible f*ck up they say he is. Ernie takes Hawk away. They get into a car and drive off to parts unknown to help Hawk kick the drugs. But things unravel quickly. Taking care of an 11-year-old who is off his medication, off his routine and away from everyone he knows, is the task Ernie discovers he was not ready for. Hawk is getting worse. Ernie is stressed and desperate. The family and the police are frantically searching for them. Unable to manage his own disorder, Ernie is loosing his grip on reality. Ernie has to decide if he’s willing to abandon his plan to save Hawk and risk being banished from his family forever. HANGING BY A THREAD by person person by person person by person person VIOLA DAVIS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Viola Davis is a critically revered actress of film, television, and theater and has won rave reviews for her intriguingly diverse roles. Audiences across the United States and internationally have admired her for her work- including her celebrated, Oscar-winning performance in Fences (2017) and her Oscar nominated performances in The Help (2011), Doubt (2008). Davis won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her work in ABC's How To Get Away With Murder, making her the first black woman in history to take home the award. In her career, Davis has given her audiences a substantial list of performances, earning a cascade of awards and nominations. JULIUS TENNON EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Julius Tennon is an accomplished film, television, and theatre veteran with over thirty years of experience. A native of Austin, Texas, he began as both a thespian and a star linebacker. Mr. Tennon’s notable screen credits include: Fame, Friday Night Lights, Dazed and Confused, Lonesome Dove, and popular television shows such as Criminal Minds, Rizzoli & Isles, ER, The Practice, Mad About You, NYPD Blue, and Moesha, among many others. In 1999, Julius was blessed to meet the love of his life, Viola Davis, on the set of the CBS series City of Angels. A month after meeting, they began dating, and were married four years later. A couple in every sense of the word, their greatest joy comes from sharing both their life and art together. Julius and Viola have shared both the stage and screen, appearing in such notable projects as Intimate Apparel at the Mark Taper Forum, CBS’ Laws of Chance, The Architect, and Life is Not a Fairytale: The Fantasia Barrino Story, Lila and Eve and upcoming a VR version of Othello that will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. ROSALYN COLEMAN WILLIAMS DIRECTOR Rosalyn Coleman Williams best known as an actor, is the director of the award winning short films Allergic To Nuts and Drawing Angel. Both films have been seen on several TV stations nationally and in film festivals in the US and around the world. Rosalyn was awarded “Emerging Filmmaker” at the Cine Noir Film Festival in the busy film production city of Wilmington, North Carolina. With over a dozen film directing credits including: The Last Piece, Twinkle, BFF, Moth To A Flame and Driving Fish. Rosalyn also directed the re-enactment portion in the groundbreaking documentary Black Sorority Project. A graduate of Howard University and an MFA from Yale School of Drama, Roz has a keen insight into actor-director relationship, she is celebrated as an “actors director.” She served as on-set acting coach for HBO’s 2nd season of the hit series “In Treatment.” Rosalyn was hired by the prestigious Cinereach Foundation to coach Sundance directors on their sophomore projects, most notably Terrance Nance, creator of HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness. As an actor, Rosalyn’s professional experience includes Broadway, Film and TV. She has acted with Meryl Streep, Viola Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Halle Berry and Tom Cruise. She appears nightly in the hit Broadway play To Kill A Mockingbird and Rosalyn can be seen in feature film“Miss Virginia” starring Orange Is The New Black’s Uzo Aduba. CRAIG T. WILLIAMS WRITER / PRODUCER Craig T. Williams is a producer/screenwriter/editor and CEO of Red Wall Productions, a film production company that he runs with his wife, Rosalyn Coleman Williams. Craig has produced over 50 film projects including independent short films, promotional videos, educational films, actor reels and the groundbreaking documentary Black Sorority Project. Craig’s original TV pilot How Ya Like Me Now, about the 80’s rap rivalry between Kool Moe Dee and LL Cool J won 2nd place in the prestigious 2020 Page International Screenwriting Competition. This script was also a finalist in the 2020 Film Independent TV Lab, the 2020 Cinestory TV Retreat & Fellowship Competition, the 2020 Stowe Story Lab Fellowship, the 2020 Seriesfest Pitch-A- Thon and the 2020 Orchard Project Episodic Lab. How Ya Like me now was chosen for the 2019 IFP Episodic Lab, was a finalist in the Sundance 2019 Episodic Lab. Allergic, another original pilot was a 2nd Rounder in the 2019 Austin Film Festival and was the winner of the ABFF/Turner best original 30 minute comedic pilot. “Title VII” is a feature screenplay he co-wrote with writer/director Nicole Franklin, was a finalist for HBO Best Feature Film at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival. FROM ROZ: A DIRECTOR’S THOUGHTS. 2019 finds the Max siblings hanging. The brothers, Ernie and Floyd, are in full time old school hustle mode, Ernie is self This movie is about those patterns we can't escape when a family managing his bipolar illness and Floyd is managing a crisis occurs. If we don't break out of these patterns the neighborhood restaurant. On weekends they work street fairs, relationships become toxic and we lose the ones who are best Floyd sells socks, Ernie sells his hand made designer clothing for suited to help us heal and become whole. the fashion conscious woman. Business is slow. When their soon to be divorced sister shows up to sell the family home for some “Am I my brother’s keeper” is from the Bible but I remember it as much needed cash, a thread is frayed. Ernie begins to unravel. a line from the movie New Jack City. In the movie the response is Then when it looks like Floyd has slept with Ernie’s girl, snap, that “yes I am.” This belief is the way that black families have made it thread is broken. Ernie’s violent reaction sends him to live in through. My father told me that in 1940 my aunt Ercel moved from Inez’s house where a new more desperate scheme is born. He Alabama to Detroit and bought a house. She then worked to believes it’s a new plan, but really it’s an old pattern. move all of her nine siblings up from Alabama to Detroit. One by one, she allowed them to live in the house until they were able to Through Ernie's attempt to overcome, we see our own struggles move out and live on their own. She was her brother’s keeper. with our siblings. If only they would lend us a hand, we could fulfill our dreams. Stop judging us and we would be able to grow into Hanging By A Thread asks the question: our potential. Stop seeing us as the baby in the family and we What is our responsibility to our struggling family members? could finally be recognized for our achievements. I believe that working through the differences we have with our Or are you an Inez? You value your rugged individualism. You are adult siblings, accepting who they choose to be and finding the someone in your family who everyone else looks to bail them creative ways to pool our resources as our ancestors taught us, is out. You’re the one who can never ask for help. You have worked the only way we will survive as a people. hard and pulled yourself up by your bootstraps. You have played the long game. You held your tongue when micro aggressions This is the film we make to honor who we are. occurred so that you could move ahead in your career, suffering in silence. You brought home that paycheck and then were judged by your family for being the responsible one. TONE & STYLE CAST SIMONE MISSICK LAKEITH STANFIELD ATTACHED IDEAL CAST Playing Inez - wound tight, dressed tight.

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