BROWN GIRL BEGINS

category: afro-futurist, diaspora, feature films, narratives

BROWN GIRL BEGINS

It’s 2049 and Toronto the Good has been taken over by the wealthy. A wall has been built around the city and the poor are expelled to an island off the coast, known as The Burn. The segregated Burn dwellers have been forced to scrape out a living by bartering, recycling, and farming. Mami is the unspoken leader of the Burn, sharing her Caribbean herb lore and leading her followers in an ancient spiritual practice. Ti-Jeanne turns 19 and the time has come for her to succeed her grandmother and become a Priestess. When Mami tries to prepare her to take part in the same possession ritual that killed her mother, Ti-Jeanne refuses. She flees with her young love Tony to the other side of the Burn in hopes of leaving the spirit business behind.
Until - out of the ashes of The Burn, a drug lord rises to take control of the remaining population and uses his right hand, Crack, to torment the Burn dwellers and prepare them for sale to mainlanders as smart slaves. When Crack begins torturing the children of the Burn, Ti-Jeanne can no longer refuse her other-worldly powers as a priestess. She is the only hope to save them.  
Can Ti-Jeanne handle the power of the spirits she has been so afraid of and save her people, or will her fear kill her?

directed by SHARON LEWIS
I was studying directing in Los Angeles at UCLA when I walked into my favorite bookstore and saw my fellow artist and colleague Nalo Hopkinson’s award winning novel, Brown Girl in the Ring on the shelf. #blackgirlmagic unfolded from the moment I read the first page. I knew then that I had to bring this bold and unique story of a young black teenage heroine growing up in a post apocalyptic Toronto to the screen. Just like the epic journey of Ti-Jeanne, the heroine in the book, it has taken me time to acquire the creative skills, experience and resources needed to be ready. And ready we ready. I am now part of a movement of people who have brought this project to life - all working their own magic. Ti-Jeanne. She is the future.

CANADA || 2017 || 70 mins