As young mixed black males, my co-creator and I have stake in this story because these are the stories of our family, stories that echo in realism and reality. A lot of these stories we don't get a glimpse at, but much of these issues we still fight and die for today. It's about Inclusion.

AS OF SEPTEMBER 22, WE ARE AT 100% OF OUR GOAL!!! THANK YOU!!!

You've come this far with us, please join us in going even further to our

NEW STRETCH GOALS!!!

 

Every dollar we get helps us expand our vision.

Help us spread the word, reach more people, build our community.

Let all our voices be heard together.

 

     People marching and fighting in the streets. Buildings burning, people dying, tear gas, violence, speeches about rights, and protest. All these things are happening now down the street as I am typing.

How did we get here? What are some of the events that occurred to get to this point?

     In order to better understand and to get a glimpse of this, it's important to look back into those moments. This project AFTER LAUGHTER is a brief glimpse into one of those stories.

     A story of a FAMILY pushed together and stretched apart in order to pick up the pieces only to find the importance of living a FULL LIFE.

     A question that we find ourselves asking to people who lived through important events in history are: What were you doing when ... this happened? Where were you when ... this happened? These are stories based on factual worldly life events that show you what someone might have been doing, or going through.

     We want to show how these worldly events can affect and shift and shape what's going on personally. This is beyond important today because it's happening again. Right now! History has a tendency to repeat itself, and these are the STORIES that we NEED to TELL. 

 

     AFTER LAUGHTER takes place throughout two and a half decades of early 1960s through the late 1980s in Baltimore.

     We see the world through the history of a black family and the characters involved. The house being a character as we sift through a middle-class and low socio-economic family in these times.

     Finally, it’s an homage to films such as Birdman with long takes—with the emotions and feelings of Whiplash and Moonlight—but set in historical background of films such as Malcolm X and Selma.

 

     Jamal and Malik, two African-American boys, learn what it’s really like growing up in America through the 60's, 70's and 80's.

     Each decade provides emotions and challenges that bring the boys into adulthood.

     While Malik deals with his sexuality and family conflict, Jamal experiences loss and struggles finding his voice.

     How will their family and friendship survive the changing of the times and how will they learn to become men in a society full of turmoil and rampant injustice?

 

Currently, we are in pre-production. All we need is you and the right finances in order to film Principal Photography. We are still casting and hiring but we have booked most of our talented cast and crew, along with a tentative location (pending). We just have to climb up over that hill so that we can actually bring our vision to life.

Our plan for AFTER LAUGHTER is to get it out there as much as possible. We want to bring it to the Festival Circuit and submit to the Sundance Film Festival, TriBeCa, sxsw,... and more.

Thanks to your donation we get the opportunity to shoot this beautiful film the way we want to.

 

These are harsh and trying times. It's proving extremely difficult to film anything due to COVID-19 because of the regulations now required to film. This pandemic comes also with a price tag that productions have to follow for testing for cast and crew along with other safety precaution protocols.

We want to shoot in a safe and healthy environment.

However, despite this with COVID-19, the recent social events in our world and my community made us realize that now more than ever is the time to tell this story and other stories like this. Stories of Unity and Inclusion and the Struggles involved are vital.

These are the stories we need right now.

 

 

 

Check out all our cool perks!!!

 

Be part of one of our Production Meetings!!!

 

Why Stretch Goals?

When we started this campaign we thought it would take us the whole 30 days to reach our $15,000 goal. Thanks to your amazing support and response we have reached that goal in just two weeks!

We could never thank you enough. We would like to use the time we have left to reach some stretch goals that can take After Laughter even further.

$15,000 is our minimal budget for production and it covers exactly what we listed: key crew, talent, set building, location and production design.

Here are other things that we need:

Every dollar we get helps us expand our vision.

You can help us spread the word, reach more people, build our community.

Let all our voices be heard together.

THANK YOU!!!