Artwork by Anatashia Saminjo
1950s, USA. Thirteen-year-old Grace and her two sisters spend every summer at their grandparents’ house down south. However, this summer will be unlike any other. Now that she’s finally 13, Grace must participate in the communal tradition of baptism. When she learns that a repentance is required before the ritual, she begins to question the budding romantic feelings that she has for her best friend, Louise.
Grace is a dramatic Black Southern Gothic and queer short film set in the 1950s that explores the conflicts that religious traditions and rites of passage often present in relation to identity formation. It’s a film about faith, hot combs, peach picking, and summer love. It rewrites and rights the history validating that Queer Black women have always been here; thriving, existing, and being.
Grace is directed by award-winning filmmaker Natalie Jasmine Harris. The film is supported by The Jacob Burns Film Center’s Creative Culture Filmmaking Fellowship, and The Future of Film is Female’s Production Grant.
~ Kickstarter link ~