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Logline

When a beauty enhancement drug causes a zombie apocalypse in LA, Keesha and Toya debate whether or not they should fight to survive in a world that doesn’t appreciate or respect Black women.

Synopsis

When a beauty enhancement drug causes a zombie apocalypse in LA, Keesha and Toya debate whether or not they should fight to survive in a world that doesn’t appreciate or respect Black women. Keesha, hardened to the world, has no desire to fight to escape. Toya, an open-hearted optimist, believes that if they survive this zombie attack, they may live to see a better world. After an intense debate, Keesha is guilted into following Toya’s plan. All they have to do is kill a couple of zombies, not murder each other in the process, and maybe they’ll survive…Maybe.
 

Meet the Filmmakers

Rochée Jeffrey – Writer/Director
Rochée Jeffrey is a writer/director who hails from Jamaica. Her credits include Golden Globe-nominated comedy series SMILF (Showtime), Woke (Hulu), Bigger (BET+), and co-executive producer of grown-ish (freeform). As a Film Independent Project Involve Fellow, she wrote the award-winning, Oscar-qualifying short film Suitable, which was a finalist in the American Black Film Festival HBO Competition and premiered on HBO in February 2018. Rochée also wrote and directed Mr. Talented, a short film which screened at the Austin Film Festival and competed for the HBO Award at the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival. She recently directed an independent television pilot starring David Arquette.

In 2018, she was selected for the Viacom Emerging Directors Program. Her feature, Not Your Average Queen, was selected for the 2021 Film Independent Screenwriting Lab and the 2021 WIF/Sundance Financing Intensive. The film is executive produced by legendary author and icon Roxane Gay, Killer Films and Valerie Steinberg. She has an adult animated series executive produced by Lizzo set up at Tomorrow Studios. She co-created, co-wrote and directed an upcoming narrative podcast series for Audible that is produced by Broadway Video and stars Sam Richardson. Rochée is a graduate of the 2022 WGA Showrunner Training Program.

Ebony Elaine Hardin – Producer
Ebony Elaine Hardin is an LA based Creative Producer with roots in casting for TV, Film, and Broadway. She’s worked with NBCUniversal, Netflix, TriStar, CH Media and Focus Feature on various series and films including Sense8, Pretty Little Liars, Baby Driver, Nocturnal Animals, Jason Bourne, and Dimension 20, among others. She produced the short film, Mr. Talented (dir. Rochée Jeffrey), which screened at the Austin Film Festival and competed in the HBO Short Film Competition at Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival.

In the short film space Ebony recently produced The Bluest Hour (dir. Logan Jackson) as part of Film Independent’s Project Involve and Dinner Party Dictator, written and directed by Emmy Award winning writer, Bente Engelstoft. Ebony is honored to have been selected as a NCBW Maya Angelou Phenomenal Woman Award Winner, a Constellation Incubator Producing Fellow, and a Film Independent Project Involve Producing Fellow. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.

Takara Joseph – Producer
Takara Joseph was born in the Virgin Islands and raised in Atlanta. She is a Daytime Emmy nominated producer and director of the 13-time Emmy nominated series, Giants, which originally premiered on Issa Rae’s YouTube channel where it amassed over 6 million views before moving to BET+. Most recently, she produced the short film, The Spirit God Gave Us which was an official selection for OutFest LA, San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. Her first docuseries, The Black Beauty Effect, captures the current evolution, revolution, and upheaval in the beauty industry premieres this Fall on Comcast NBCUniversal.

Phillip Jackson – Cinematographer
Phillip Jackson is a Virginian from a big family of 8, living in Los Angeles, who misses a good meal at Waffle House. He creates in multiple mediums but finds cinematography to be the most fulfilling. Finding the combination of artistic expression, creative problem solving, and teamwork is a perfect match for him. He’s been selected as a mentee in the American Society of Cinematographers Vision’s Program in 2020 and was a cinematographer cohort in Film Independent’s Project Involve in 2022. His latest feature as a cinematographer, Three Ways is streaming on Hulu.

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Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.