Promise Me Synopsis
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PROMISE ME SYNOPSIS: Charlie still has hope and is adamant in caring for her mother, Yolonda Thomas, LOGLINE: as her health takes a turn for the worse. Loyal, she insists on sticking by her Yolonda and her daughter Charlie are mother’s side until the very end. But ripped apart by illness, an unjust when her school begins to notice system, and a failure to face the truth. Charlie’s absence, she is placed under a system of surveillance and Charlie will soon come to find that some decisions are outside of her control. WHY THIS FILM? Promise Me is a film that is inspired by events while filming a documentary called The Woman I have Become (2008) about eight African, Black, and Caribbean women living with HIV/AIDS in Toronto trying to build awareness about their struggles in the Canadian health care system. The children of one of the mothers was apprehended by Child Welfare, because she was too sick to mother. A week later her mother passed away. Alison Duke carried the story with her and wrote an article about it called The Missing 17 Minutes for the Project Muse journal. The story has haunted her psyche for years and recently, she turned it into a short dramatic script. Promise Me, is her first fictional work to date. GENERAL INFORMATION Film Type: Short Narrative Drama Run Time: 24:47 Country: Canada Language: English Year: 2019 KEY CREATIVES Alison Duke, Director & Co-Writer An award-winning writer-producer-director and passionate artistic activist committed to boldly telling stories of resistance and change. Recently, she co-wrote and co-produced the television documentary 'Mr. Jane and Finch' (19) directed by Ngardy Conteh George which garnered two 2020 Canadian Screen Awards: the Donald Britain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary and Best Writing for a Documentary. During the same timeframe, she directed 'Cool Black North’ (19) a two-hour television documentary special for CityTV/Rogers about the unique and vibrant Canadian Black Community and its role in our country’s contemporary identity. The movie goes about it through the POV of 15 former winners of the Harry Jerome Awards. The film was Roger’s top 10 streaming show in February 2019. Inspired by Ava Duvernay, #metoo and the reality that opportunities for women behind the camera in Canada are long overdue, Alison hired five Black female Canadian directors to helm short films for the 'Akua Benjamin Legacy Project’ (16) which celebrates the legacies of Canadian-based black activists Dudley Laws, Charles Roach, Rosie Douglas, Marlene Green and Len and Gwen Johnson. Alison got her start directing and producing documentaries with the hip hop cult classic, ‘Raisin’ Kane: a rapumentary (00). From there she worked as a segment producer and field director on syndicated factual and lifestyle shows. Eventually she made her way to social issue docs; ‘A Deathly Silence (03). She also collaborations with other filmmakers as a producer; Andrew Nisker’s ‘Garbage: The Revolution Stars at Home’ (07), Dany Chiasson’s ‘My Joan of Arc’ (08) and Thomas Allen Harris’s ‘Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photography and the Emergence of a People’. She is now focusing more attention to fictional storytelling. 'Promise Me' (2020) her first short fiction inspired by the seminal HIV documentary 'The Woman I Have Become' (08), is currently touring the festival circuit after winning the Winston W. Moxam award for Best Canadian short film at the 2020 AfroPrairie Film Festival. Alison has an MFA at York University in film production and is sought after lecturer. She founded OYA Emerging Filmmakers Program, a 3-year initiative to support black youth who are graduates of film, television and digital media programs access essential training, mentors, networks and film industry spaces. Lindsey Addawoo, Co-Writer Lindsey is a filmmaker from the Toronto area and graduate of Ryerson University's RTA School of Media (fka Radio & Television Arts) program. In 2014, she earned a Tara Award nomination ('Best Upper Year Script') for UNDERside, a student-based webseries project highlighting underprivileged youth based on their social class, gender, and race. In the past, she has worked in TV broadcast journalism as a freelance news writer and chase producer at CTV News Channel. With a strong interest in sci-fi, fantasy, supernaturalism, and cultural mythology, she now lends her efforts to diversifying the speculative fiction world. Her script, 'ROOM 219' (formerly called 'Diagnosis'), placed in the quarterfinals for ScreenCraft's Pilot Launch TV Script Contest. That same script later took her to the Caribbean where she was a recipient to mentorship under the Bahamas International Film Festival 2015 Screenwriters Residency Program. In 2016, Lindsey completed the BlackWomenFilm! Leadership Program. In 2018, Lindsey co-wrote and co-directed, Queen of Hearts, an Afro-futurist tale about a ruthless queen who has to deal with the betrayal of a lover. The script won a premiere at the Inside Out Film Festival along with a 50K production award. Fonna Seidu, Producer Fonna Seidu is a producer who champions narrative projects that have compelling storylines and niche audiences. Fonna Seidu brings her many years of experience as a project manager to 2SLGBTQ+ and BIPOC-led productions with bold, vibrant stories often untold. She entered the screen-based industry in 2018 and since then, she’s worked on over 30+ commercials, docs, and films. Fonna’s producing debut was the multi-award winning short, PROMISE ME, directed by Alison Duke. In 2019, she helped produce BEING BLACK IN TORONTO, a six-part documentary anthology in partnership with Oya Media Group and the Fabienne Colas Foundation, currently on CBC Gem’s Absolutely Canadian. Currently, Fonna has multiple projects in development with CBC including Aden Abebe’s upcoming IPF funded series virgins! and Lu Asfaha’s short film FRESH MEAT, winner of BIPOC TV & Film’s Reel Work Filmmaking Initiative and was a Screencraft Film Fund finalist. Other projects on her slate include Carolyn Wu’s short film TOE THE LINE which won Breakthroughs FF pitch contest; producing Kiley May’s romantic comedy DISCLOSURE supported by ImagiNATIVE and Charles Street Video; working on the fully-funded feature VILLAGE KEEPER with Karen Chapman and Lora Campbell; and in the late development stage of a queer comedy heist feature called LET’S DO THIS. Through her company, Snail Mail Media, Fonna is producing various shorts, features, and web-series funded by CBC, IPF, CMF, and Telefilm. Review her projects at www.snailmailmedia.com Lucas Joseph, Cinematographer Lucas Joseph is a Canadian Cinematographer based in Toronto, Ontario. Crafting his technical and creative skills at Sheridan College, Lucas was selected for a post grad internship at SIRT (Screen industries research and training centre) after 2 years with the team, he expanded his network and started his own freelance production company at Lucas Joseph Media (LJM). Working professionally for now 5+ years in the film industry, Lucas had various roles including DP, camera operator, camera assistant, and focus puller for multiple commercials, music videos, Episodic/reality TV and short films. He has over 35+ cinematography film credits under his belt ranging from commercial shoots with Cossette, Rogers Media, eOne entertainment, Gearshift Productions, Leader media, Mad Ruk entertainment, Mowad Productions, OPC, Skin and Bones, Sparks, TSN, Nike Vanguard and more. Currently he's worked on over 15 productions internationally including productions in Cuba, Korea, Germany, the UK and all across North America. Eui Yong Zong, Editor Eui Yong Zong is an award-winning filmmaker whose works have screened at TIFF Student Showcase, Hot Docs, Montreal World Film Fest, CamFest, Reel Asian and many others. He directed a docu-fiction Leftover which won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award in 2015. His first fiction film Sun screened on CBC’s 2017 Canadian Reflections programming and on Air Canada’s Enroute inflight entertainment system. He’s recently completed a mid-length doc Until We Meet Again as part of his MFA thesis (York University), which was funded by SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council grant). Yong worked as assistant editor for films such as My Enemy My Brother (Hot Docs), Sugar Sisters (CBC), Superfood Chain (TVO) and War Story (History Channel). His editor credits include Over Time (Bravo Factual), I Hold the Decho in My Heart (CBC), and Here and Mars (NFB FAB). Ezinma, Composer Ezinma (eh-zee-mah), also known as Classical Bae, was a featured violinist in Beyonce’s Homecoming (Netflix). Beyonce is quoted as saying, “Her violin adds so much to my music.” Ezinma also worked with Pharrell Williams as a violinist on the score of Black Panther (2018). Ezinma first picked up the violin when she was three-years old. Born in Lincoln, Nebraska to a Guyanese father and a German-American mother, Ezinma’s mixed cultural and ethnic background influenced her musical upbringing and helped mold her into the versatile artist she is today. Growing up, there was a melange of music booming from the stereo: Parliament, Bill Monroe, Bob Marley, Van Morrison, Billie Holiday, Earth Wind and Fire, Bob Dylan, and Roberta Flack to name a few. These artists—along with her classical study of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart—were influential in Ezinma’s development and continue to inspire her today. In 2012, Ezinma moved to New York City to pursue her professional career as a classical violinist. In New York, she performed with string quartets and orchestras at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Madison Square Garden. While classical music will always be a passion for Ezinma, she felt a strong need to present the world with a different side of her and a new context for the classical violin.