Layers
Austin, Texas | Film Short
LGBTQ, Drama
LAYERS is a film about a nonbinary person uncovering a hidden connection between their father and an older trans woman, forcing a confrontation with faith, identity, and inherited silence. We're excited to take part in the Beyond the Screen Rally to bring this story to life with care and intention.
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$3,407
Goal: $20,000 for production
LAYERS is a film about a nonbinary person uncovering a hidden connection between their father and an older trans woman, forcing a confrontation with faith, identity, and inherited silence. We're excited to take part in the Beyond the Screen Rally to bring this story to life with care and intention.
Participating In
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Navin is a nonbinary person living under the quiet pressure of a deeply religious household, shaped by their father’s rigid beliefs. After an intimate encounter with an older trans woman, they uncover a hidden connection between her and their father tied to a shared past at a conversion camp.
What begins as a discovery quickly becomes a confrontation with everything Navin has been taught to believe about themselves, their family, and their faith. As buried histories come to light, each character is forced to reckon with the identities they have suppressed and the truths they have avoided.
Why This Film
This story is deeply personal to me. Growing up around faith, I have seen how belief systems can shape identity in ways that are both protective and harmful. Within Black communities especially, conversations around gender, masculinity, and religion are often left unspoken, creating a kind of silence that gets passed down across generations.
LAYERS comes from a desire to explore those contradictions honestly. It is not just about identity, but about inheritance, what we are taught to believe, what we carry, and what it takes to confront those things for ourselves.
Why Now
At a time when trans lives are increasingly politicized and misunderstood, especially within religious spaces, this story feels urgent. There is a lack of nuanced, intimate portrayals of queer and trans experiences that exist within faith-based environments, particularly in Black communities.
LAYERS is about creating space for those conversations to exist, not just through the film, but through the community and dialogue being built around it.
Where We Are & How Funds Will Be Used
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We are currently in development and actively building toward production. Funds raised through this campaign will go toward casting, securing locations, hiring crew, equipment, production design, and post-production.
Our goal is to create a film that feels intentional, grounded, and reflective of the communities it represents, both in front of and behind the camera.
What Happens After
After production, we plan to submit LAYERS to film festivals and continue building out the project through conversations with scholars, creatives, and community members.
This film is the foundation for a larger body of work that extends beyond the screen and into dialogue. By supporting LAYERS, you are not just helping fund a film, you are helping bring visibility to stories that are often overlooked.
We are thrilled to take part in the Beyond the Screen Rally alongside other filmmakers that are apart from the status quo.
Every contribution helps us move closer to creating something that feels honest, necessary, and rooted in community. Please check out our incentives for what you'll get in return for donating and help us bring LAYERS to light!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Talent
Costs $5,000
We want to hire a quality casting director and work with SAG the right way.
Crew
Costs $6,000
LAYERS is going to be a multi-day shoot. We want to find top-notch crew members and pay them what they're worth.
Travel
Costs $5,000
Our team is assembled from all over the US. We need to fly them to set and house them to make LAYERS as great as it can possibly be.
Production Costs
Costs $4,000
Besides lights and a camera, catering, snacks, and even printer ink are mundane on-set essentials but no less important.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Armani Cobbs
Writer, Director, Producer
Armani is a filmmaker committed to telling honest stories drawn from lived experience. LAYERS, their debut film, centers the quiet forms of harm that reshape identity and marks the beginning of a broader storytelling journey.
Ori Tom Ravid
Producer
Ori is a writer, director, and producer from Agoura Hills, CA and a graduate of NYU's film school. Their short "MATT" was an Official Selection at Outfest 2019 and has 2 million official YouTube views. They were an associate producer and led the Seed & Spark campaign for Human Shield, a feature doc about abortion clinic exports in a post Roe v. Wade US, and a co-producer for "AutoErotica: We Buy Gay Stuff," about the man behind San Francisco's oldest vintage erotica shop.
Khalil Gamble
Producer, Social Media
Khalil Gamble is Greenville-born filmmaker, playwright, actor, and director. He received his BA in theatre from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and is in the midst of getting his MFA in filmmaking from Howard University in Washington DC. He has worked on a whole range of projects including: music videos, photoshoots and live events. He has also written, directed, and acted in multiple narrative films.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
Navin is a nonbinary person living under the quiet pressure of a deeply religious household, shaped by their father’s rigid beliefs. After an intimate encounter with an older trans woman, they uncover a hidden connection between her and their father tied to a shared past at a conversion camp.
What begins as a discovery quickly becomes a confrontation with everything Navin has been taught to believe about themselves, their family, and their faith. As buried histories come to light, each character is forced to reckon with the identities they have suppressed and the truths they have avoided.
Why This Film
This story is deeply personal to me. Growing up around faith, I have seen how belief systems can shape identity in ways that are both protective and harmful. Within Black communities especially, conversations around gender, masculinity, and religion are often left unspoken, creating a kind of silence that gets passed down across generations.
LAYERS comes from a desire to explore those contradictions honestly. It is not just about identity, but about inheritance, what we are taught to believe, what we carry, and what it takes to confront those things for ourselves.
Why Now
At a time when trans lives are increasingly politicized and misunderstood, especially within religious spaces, this story feels urgent. There is a lack of nuanced, intimate portrayals of queer and trans experiences that exist within faith-based environments, particularly in Black communities.
LAYERS is about creating space for those conversations to exist, not just through the film, but through the community and dialogue being built around it.
Where We Are & How Funds Will Be Used
We are currently in development and actively building toward production. Funds raised through this campaign will go toward casting, securing locations, hiring crew, equipment, production design, and post-production.
Our goal is to create a film that feels intentional, grounded, and reflective of the communities it represents, both in front of and behind the camera.
What Happens After
After production, we plan to submit LAYERS to film festivals and continue building out the project through conversations with scholars, creatives, and community members.
This film is the foundation for a larger body of work that extends beyond the screen and into dialogue. By supporting LAYERS, you are not just helping fund a film, you are helping bring visibility to stories that are often overlooked.
We are thrilled to take part in the Beyond the Screen Rally alongside other filmmakers that are apart from the status quo.
Every contribution helps us move closer to creating something that feels honest, necessary, and rooted in community. Please check out our incentives for what you'll get in return for donating and help us bring LAYERS to light!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Talent
Costs $5,000
We want to hire a quality casting director and work with SAG the right way.
Crew
Costs $6,000
LAYERS is going to be a multi-day shoot. We want to find top-notch crew members and pay them what they're worth.
Travel
Costs $5,000
Our team is assembled from all over the US. We need to fly them to set and house them to make LAYERS as great as it can possibly be.
Production Costs
Costs $4,000
Besides lights and a camera, catering, snacks, and even printer ink are mundane on-set essentials but no less important.
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Armani Cobbs
Writer, Director, Producer
Armani is a filmmaker committed to telling honest stories drawn from lived experience. LAYERS, their debut film, centers the quiet forms of harm that reshape identity and marks the beginning of a broader storytelling journey.
Ori Tom Ravid
Producer
Ori is a writer, director, and producer from Agoura Hills, CA and a graduate of NYU's film school. Their short "MATT" was an Official Selection at Outfest 2019 and has 2 million official YouTube views. They were an associate producer and led the Seed & Spark campaign for Human Shield, a feature doc about abortion clinic exports in a post Roe v. Wade US, and a co-producer for "AutoErotica: We Buy Gay Stuff," about the man behind San Francisco's oldest vintage erotica shop.
Khalil Gamble
Producer, Social Media
Khalil Gamble is Greenville-born filmmaker, playwright, actor, and director. He received his BA in theatre from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina and is in the midst of getting his MFA in filmmaking from Howard University in Washington DC. He has worked on a whole range of projects including: music videos, photoshoots and live events. He has also written, directed, and acted in multiple narrative films.