Hidden Canyons - Season 2
Los Angeles, California | Series
Comedy, LGBTQ
A social media sensation with 3 million+ views and winner of the Outfest Episodic Audience Award, our series tackles poly relationships, mental health, modern parenthood, non-physical relationships, and trans girls in sports. We need help with production costs, equipment, & crew/talent fees.
Hidden Canyons - Season 2
Los Angeles, California | Series
Comedy, LGBTQ
1 Campaigns | California, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $23,982 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
122 supporters | followers
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A social media sensation with 3 million+ views and winner of the Outfest Episodic Audience Award, our series tackles poly relationships, mental health, modern parenthood, non-physical relationships, and trans girls in sports. We need help with production costs, equipment, & crew/talent fees.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Hidden Canyons is the world's first fully-produced narrative series designed for social media. With hard-hitting LGBTQ+ narratives explored in the space of minute-long posts, the series is already a viral sensation with 3.5 million views on its first season, multiple awards, and global media coverage.
Now, we need your help to make Season 2, and to continue providing visibility for diverse queer and trans narratives!
We are a group of LGBTQ+ writers, filmmakers, and actors that came together in early 2020 with a simple mission: to center queer and trans stories on screen and create work for our community. We were frustrated with the limited opportunities available to queer and trans artists in TV and film, as well as reductive depictions of LGBTQ identities on screen. And time and time again, we saw the top queer roles cast with straight, cis actors.
We never could have anticipated what came next. Season One went viral with 3.5+ million views on Tiktok, as the first narrative series on the platform. We were covered in trade publications, blogs, and radio, and won the coveted audience award at Outfest, the world's premiere LGBTQ+ film festival.
As the series took off, we received comments and messages from around the world, both from queer audiences that told us they felt seen, and from non-LGBTQ folks that felt they gained a deeper understanding of our lives and issues. Audiences implored us to keep going, and to push the envelope even further.
Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ rights were slipping at home and abroad, and the pandemic pushed many LGBTQ+ youth and college students out of safe spaces and back into unstable home environments. In-person interaction ground to a halt, and social media became a critical lifeline. Many viewers told us that our series was a saving grace.
So it's crucial that we move the story forward. Season 2 builds on the storylines of Season 1, and delves deeper into LGBTQ+ issues with mental health, relationships, family, childcare, and trans representation in sports. We are eager to bring these stories to life and to continue providing visiblity for our community at this critical time.
Your contribution will mean that the new season of Hidden Canyons gets made, and is guaranteed to be seen by hundreds of thousands to millions of people on social media! You will help provide visibility, entertainment, and employment for LGBTQ+ professionals. Funds will be used for camera, lens, and lighting equipment rental; location fees; crew and cast fees; set meals, and COVID safety measures. After our goal is reached, any additional funds will help support a Season 3!!
We started this series to tell stories in a new way, and to reach audiences that may have limited exposure to quality LGBTQ+ content. We have been astounded by the response to-date, and hope you'll help us continue to use social platforms to affect positive change for our community.
Thank you for taking a few moments to read our story. Everyone who contributes to this project in any way is part of our family, and we're eternally grateful for your support!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cast & Crew Payments
Costs $7,000
Although we are low budget, we ensure all cast & crew are compensated & valued for their hard work.
Camera, Lighting and Sound Equipment
Costs $10,000
All camera, lighting and sound equipment to make sure the production quality is at its best.
Post Production Costs
Costs $10,000
Providing our post-production all the resources and facilities needed for editing, sound and color.
Share this update!
About This Team
Brant Rotnem - Creator/Director/Writer/"Troy Maddox"
Brant created the micro-series Hidden Canyons, winner of the 2020 Episodic Audience Award at Outfest and official selection at NewFest. His work is focused on changing the face of Hollywood through socially-relevant content, and bolstering representation and inclusion. His current projects aim to provide visibility for all corners of the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and distill the impacts of climate change to the personal level through narrative work.
Jeremy Glazer - Producer/"Harrison Ross"
Jeremy recently wrote, produced and starred in the award-winning film "On the Ride", which has currently played in over 25+ film festivals worldwide. Additionally, he co-produced the LGBTQ Sundance feature "Save Me" and the Sundance film "Good Dick."
As an actor, Jeremy began with one of his first films being the Oscar and Golden Globe winning Letters From Iwo Jima, directed by Clint Eastwood and most recently Rust Creek (Top 10 on Netflix, Forbes Top 20 Films of 2019), He continues to appear in numerous guest and recurring roles on television which include Animal Kingdom, 9-1-1, Special, The Good Fight, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, The Fosters, Bones, The Mentalist, How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives, CSI, Veronica Mars and many more. He won an LA Weekly Best Comedy Actor Award for his role in the theater production Block 9 and also recieved a Best Actor ISA Award nomination for These People, which he also co-produced.
Cherie Corinne Rice - Producer
Cherie is an actor/director/educator, and graduate of Brown University’s MFA acting program. She serves as Head of Voice & Speech at the Professional Performing Arts School (NYC), faculty member at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (NJ) and guest lecturer at The Juilliard School, Northeastern University and Tisch School of the Arts (NYU). On the forefront of the movement to decolonize American theater training, Cherie has developed ‘The Art of Awareness’: a technique facilitating mindfulness, compassion and energetic alignment for public speaking.
A series regular on the Hulu/Pop comedy "Nightcap" starring Ali Wentworth, other performance credits include numerous Shakespearean productions, and the Off-Broadway, New York Times 'Critics Pick', "The White Devil" directed by Louisa Proske. In 2021, Cherie was awarded a Shubert Festival Selection for her direction of "Romeo and Juliet", an LGBTQ retelling of Shakespeare's classic romance tale.
Fawzia Mirza - Director/Writer
Fawzia is a queer, South Asian Muslim woman whose identity is also her favorite storytelling genre. Her first feature film, Signiature Move, which she co-wrote, produced and stars in, world premiered at SXSW, screened 150+ film festivals globally, won 14 awards (Outfest Grand Jury Prize, Best US Narrative), is distributed by Music Box Films (North America) and Bohemia (UK). She wrote on the CBS drama series The Red Line, executive produced by Greg Berlanti and Ava Duvernay. She is an SFFILM Rainin Grantee, a White House Champion of Change in Asian American Art and Storytelling, a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs ‘Esteemed Artist’, a 3Arts Acting Grantee, a Djerassi Writing Resident, a Tribeca Film Institute All Access alum, a Canada Council for the Arts Recipient, a ‘Yes, And Laughter Lab’ Winner, an Islamic Scholarship Fund Winner, a 2020 TIFF Writers’ Studio and TIFF Filmmaker Lab participant and a TIFF ‘Share Her Journey’ Fellow.
Nava Mau - Director
Nava Mau is a filmmaker, actress, and cultural worker. She is a mixed-race trans Latina who has lived in Mexico City, San Antonio, and Oakland, CA. Nava wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Waking Hour, a short film that screened in festivals around the world. She was selected as a Production Fellow for the Netflix documentary Disclosure, and she also produced the short films Sam’s Town and Lovebites, now streaming on the Issa Rae Presents channel. For 8 years, Nava worked in the fields of healing justice and culture change with community-based service providers, student organizations, and survivors of violence. Nava now appears as a series regular in the HBO Max series Generation.
Stephen Tringali - Director of Photography
Stephen Tringali is a Los Angeles-based cinematographer. His credits include the Vanishing Angle-produced film "Anywhere With You" (Cannes, Raindance, LA Film Festival), the PBS feature documentary "Corridor Four" (Hawaii International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival), and the XYZ Films and Shout! Studios release "How To Deter A Robber" (Fantastic Festival).
Sufe Bradshaw - "Denise Collins"
Bradshaw is most notably known for her role alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Veep on HBO, playing presidential assistant "Sue Wilson." She also appeared in the 2021 Sundance romantic comedy Together Together starring Ed Helms, Patty Harrison and directed by Nikole Beckwith. Bradshaw can also be seen in Netflix's action adventure film Murder Mystery, alongside Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler. Additional credits include Lovecraft County for HBO Max playing Nawi the warrior, and The Guest Book for TBS.
Tonatiuh - "Colby Cardenas"
Tonatiuh is most recognizable for his role of "Marcos Zamora", on all three seasons of the GLAAD Media Award-winning Starz drama series VIDA. He is currently filming a major recurring role in the forthcoming Peacock limited series "Angelyne" with Emmy Rossum and Martin Freeman. He also stars in the uindie feature film "Drunk Bus", an official selection at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. An impassioned advocate of storytelling for social change, Tonatiuh believes that it is the artist's responsibility to foster a more inclusive and tolerant society through storytelling. While media is often weaponized to separate and isolate, it must be used by courageous and empathetic artists to inspire, to unite, and to heal.
Sean Samuels - "Trent Collins”
Samuels is known for his starring role as Ade in "Giants", the Daytime Emmy-award winning Youtube Series co-produced by Issa Rae and Jussie Smollett. He has performed on broadway in Tarzan the musical, Curtains, and Spiderman-Turn Off the Dark.
Quei Tann - "Cheyenne"
Tann is known for her recurring roles on ABC's "How to Get Away With Murder" and Netlflix's "Dear White People" playing Genifer, a bold trans woman at the Winchester campus. Quei is currently recurring on Tyler Perry's Bruh, airing on BET+.
Zaya Perysian - "Asha"
Zaya Perysian is an American social media star famous for posting comedic content on TikTok. Perysian started her internet journey on YouTube, where she boasts a following of 162K subscribers. Perysian became a sensation on TikTok, where she entertains her 3.1 million followers with regular content.
She struggled with gender dysphoria from a young age, as her gender identity didn’t match with the sex assigned by doctors at birth. Zaya first came out as trans to her family causing it to sever ties with her father, but she can’t thank the rest of her family enough for their support. Zaya expects to have fully transitioned by the end of 2021 or early 2022.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Hidden Canyons is the world's first fully-produced narrative series designed for social media. With hard-hitting LGBTQ+ narratives explored in the space of minute-long posts, the series is already a viral sensation with 3.5 million views on its first season, multiple awards, and global media coverage.
Now, we need your help to make Season 2, and to continue providing visibility for diverse queer and trans narratives!
We are a group of LGBTQ+ writers, filmmakers, and actors that came together in early 2020 with a simple mission: to center queer and trans stories on screen and create work for our community. We were frustrated with the limited opportunities available to queer and trans artists in TV and film, as well as reductive depictions of LGBTQ identities on screen. And time and time again, we saw the top queer roles cast with straight, cis actors.
We never could have anticipated what came next. Season One went viral with 3.5+ million views on Tiktok, as the first narrative series on the platform. We were covered in trade publications, blogs, and radio, and won the coveted audience award at Outfest, the world's premiere LGBTQ+ film festival.
As the series took off, we received comments and messages from around the world, both from queer audiences that told us they felt seen, and from non-LGBTQ folks that felt they gained a deeper understanding of our lives and issues. Audiences implored us to keep going, and to push the envelope even further.
Meanwhile, LGBTQ+ rights were slipping at home and abroad, and the pandemic pushed many LGBTQ+ youth and college students out of safe spaces and back into unstable home environments. In-person interaction ground to a halt, and social media became a critical lifeline. Many viewers told us that our series was a saving grace.
So it's crucial that we move the story forward. Season 2 builds on the storylines of Season 1, and delves deeper into LGBTQ+ issues with mental health, relationships, family, childcare, and trans representation in sports. We are eager to bring these stories to life and to continue providing visiblity for our community at this critical time.
Your contribution will mean that the new season of Hidden Canyons gets made, and is guaranteed to be seen by hundreds of thousands to millions of people on social media! You will help provide visibility, entertainment, and employment for LGBTQ+ professionals. Funds will be used for camera, lens, and lighting equipment rental; location fees; crew and cast fees; set meals, and COVID safety measures. After our goal is reached, any additional funds will help support a Season 3!!
We started this series to tell stories in a new way, and to reach audiences that may have limited exposure to quality LGBTQ+ content. We have been astounded by the response to-date, and hope you'll help us continue to use social platforms to affect positive change for our community.
Thank you for taking a few moments to read our story. Everyone who contributes to this project in any way is part of our family, and we're eternally grateful for your support!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Cast & Crew Payments
Costs $7,000
Although we are low budget, we ensure all cast & crew are compensated & valued for their hard work.
Camera, Lighting and Sound Equipment
Costs $10,000
All camera, lighting and sound equipment to make sure the production quality is at its best.
Post Production Costs
Costs $10,000
Providing our post-production all the resources and facilities needed for editing, sound and color.
Share this update!
About This Team
Brant Rotnem - Creator/Director/Writer/"Troy Maddox"
Brant created the micro-series Hidden Canyons, winner of the 2020 Episodic Audience Award at Outfest and official selection at NewFest. His work is focused on changing the face of Hollywood through socially-relevant content, and bolstering representation and inclusion. His current projects aim to provide visibility for all corners of the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and distill the impacts of climate change to the personal level through narrative work.
Jeremy Glazer - Producer/"Harrison Ross"
Jeremy recently wrote, produced and starred in the award-winning film "On the Ride", which has currently played in over 25+ film festivals worldwide. Additionally, he co-produced the LGBTQ Sundance feature "Save Me" and the Sundance film "Good Dick."
As an actor, Jeremy began with one of his first films being the Oscar and Golden Globe winning Letters From Iwo Jima, directed by Clint Eastwood and most recently Rust Creek (Top 10 on Netflix, Forbes Top 20 Films of 2019), He continues to appear in numerous guest and recurring roles on television which include Animal Kingdom, 9-1-1, Special, The Good Fight, Grey’s Anatomy, Modern Family, The Fosters, Bones, The Mentalist, How I Met Your Mother, Desperate Housewives, CSI, Veronica Mars and many more. He won an LA Weekly Best Comedy Actor Award for his role in the theater production Block 9 and also recieved a Best Actor ISA Award nomination for These People, which he also co-produced.
Cherie Corinne Rice - Producer
Cherie is an actor/director/educator, and graduate of Brown University’s MFA acting program. She serves as Head of Voice & Speech at the Professional Performing Arts School (NYC), faculty member at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University (NJ) and guest lecturer at The Juilliard School, Northeastern University and Tisch School of the Arts (NYU). On the forefront of the movement to decolonize American theater training, Cherie has developed ‘The Art of Awareness’: a technique facilitating mindfulness, compassion and energetic alignment for public speaking.
A series regular on the Hulu/Pop comedy "Nightcap" starring Ali Wentworth, other performance credits include numerous Shakespearean productions, and the Off-Broadway, New York Times 'Critics Pick', "The White Devil" directed by Louisa Proske. In 2021, Cherie was awarded a Shubert Festival Selection for her direction of "Romeo and Juliet", an LGBTQ retelling of Shakespeare's classic romance tale.
Fawzia Mirza - Director/Writer
Fawzia is a queer, South Asian Muslim woman whose identity is also her favorite storytelling genre. Her first feature film, Signiature Move, which she co-wrote, produced and stars in, world premiered at SXSW, screened 150+ film festivals globally, won 14 awards (Outfest Grand Jury Prize, Best US Narrative), is distributed by Music Box Films (North America) and Bohemia (UK). She wrote on the CBS drama series The Red Line, executive produced by Greg Berlanti and Ava Duvernay. She is an SFFILM Rainin Grantee, a White House Champion of Change in Asian American Art and Storytelling, a Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs ‘Esteemed Artist’, a 3Arts Acting Grantee, a Djerassi Writing Resident, a Tribeca Film Institute All Access alum, a Canada Council for the Arts Recipient, a ‘Yes, And Laughter Lab’ Winner, an Islamic Scholarship Fund Winner, a 2020 TIFF Writers’ Studio and TIFF Filmmaker Lab participant and a TIFF ‘Share Her Journey’ Fellow.
Nava Mau - Director
Nava Mau is a filmmaker, actress, and cultural worker. She is a mixed-race trans Latina who has lived in Mexico City, San Antonio, and Oakland, CA. Nava wrote, produced, directed, and starred in Waking Hour, a short film that screened in festivals around the world. She was selected as a Production Fellow for the Netflix documentary Disclosure, and she also produced the short films Sam’s Town and Lovebites, now streaming on the Issa Rae Presents channel. For 8 years, Nava worked in the fields of healing justice and culture change with community-based service providers, student organizations, and survivors of violence. Nava now appears as a series regular in the HBO Max series Generation.
Stephen Tringali - Director of Photography
Stephen Tringali is a Los Angeles-based cinematographer. His credits include the Vanishing Angle-produced film "Anywhere With You" (Cannes, Raindance, LA Film Festival), the PBS feature documentary "Corridor Four" (Hawaii International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival), and the XYZ Films and Shout! Studios release "How To Deter A Robber" (Fantastic Festival).
Sufe Bradshaw - "Denise Collins"
Bradshaw is most notably known for her role alongside Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Veep on HBO, playing presidential assistant "Sue Wilson." She also appeared in the 2021 Sundance romantic comedy Together Together starring Ed Helms, Patty Harrison and directed by Nikole Beckwith. Bradshaw can also be seen in Netflix's action adventure film Murder Mystery, alongside Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler. Additional credits include Lovecraft County for HBO Max playing Nawi the warrior, and The Guest Book for TBS.
Tonatiuh - "Colby Cardenas"
Tonatiuh is most recognizable for his role of "Marcos Zamora", on all three seasons of the GLAAD Media Award-winning Starz drama series VIDA. He is currently filming a major recurring role in the forthcoming Peacock limited series "Angelyne" with Emmy Rossum and Martin Freeman. He also stars in the uindie feature film "Drunk Bus", an official selection at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. An impassioned advocate of storytelling for social change, Tonatiuh believes that it is the artist's responsibility to foster a more inclusive and tolerant society through storytelling. While media is often weaponized to separate and isolate, it must be used by courageous and empathetic artists to inspire, to unite, and to heal.
Sean Samuels - "Trent Collins”
Samuels is known for his starring role as Ade in "Giants", the Daytime Emmy-award winning Youtube Series co-produced by Issa Rae and Jussie Smollett. He has performed on broadway in Tarzan the musical, Curtains, and Spiderman-Turn Off the Dark.
Quei Tann - "Cheyenne"
Tann is known for her recurring roles on ABC's "How to Get Away With Murder" and Netlflix's "Dear White People" playing Genifer, a bold trans woman at the Winchester campus. Quei is currently recurring on Tyler Perry's Bruh, airing on BET+.
Zaya Perysian - "Asha"
Zaya Perysian is an American social media star famous for posting comedic content on TikTok. Perysian started her internet journey on YouTube, where she boasts a following of 162K subscribers. Perysian became a sensation on TikTok, where she entertains her 3.1 million followers with regular content.
She struggled with gender dysphoria from a young age, as her gender identity didn’t match with the sex assigned by doctors at birth. Zaya first came out as trans to her family causing it to sever ties with her father, but she can’t thank the rest of her family enough for their support. Zaya expects to have fully transitioned by the end of 2021 or early 2022.