PROJECTS
River Mamma - help US tell the story of many...
+++++BREAKING NEWS++++ (AUGUST 17, 2022) RIVER MAMMA ADVANCED TO THE SCREENCRAFT SEMI-FINALIST ROUND Welcome... this project is organized by Filmmakers, Arun Vir and Stefhen Bryan. In response to the unprecedented uptick in violence against Trans-women during the early stages of the pandemic, Arun Vir (writer-director-producer) and Stefhen Bryan (writer-producer) began development on a short film RIVER MAMMA to bring awareness to this issue. River Mamma, our LGBTQ+ asylum story, will generate greater awareness of the plight of the Trans community in Jamaica and other developing countries. River Mamma is a story of hope, forgiveness and change. To that end, we're inviting you to help us shift attitudes and make the Change we desperately need in our world. River Mamma will be a vital marketing tool to bring attention to trans communities currently seeking asylum or living in asylum worldwide. Through financial advocacy, we're seeking partnerships with like-minded individuals who will support this critical story set around JACQUELINE, a trans mother living in Kingston, Jamaica, who's forced to escape brutality and prejudice against her. River Mamma will be primarily shot in Los Angeles because 80% of our script locations are interiors. We will shoot B roll on location in Kingston with the help of a local team. The budget for River Mamma is currently set at $50k. Our campaign aims to raise a combination of funds with additional resources. Already confirmed is camera, lighting, and sound to produce River Mamma. Please look out for announcements regarding fundraisers/events in the next few weeks. Your donations enable us to pay for hard production costs to shoot River Mamma. LOGLINE After JACQUELINE COLLINS is outed by her brutish father, she is forced into Kingston gullies, where many LGBTQ survive. Against all odds, Jacqueline flees Jamaica to seek asylum in the UK. While fighting for her identity, Jacqueline faces her greatest challenge: winning back her son's love. CHECK OUT OUR PITCH VIDEO https://www.dropbox.com/s/txfktkrffe4lsc4/River%20 Ma m ma%20Crowdf u riding .%20 FIN AL.mp4?d1=0 TEAM RIVER MAMMA Arun Vir - writer, director, producer Crisscrossing London, New York, and Los Angeles, award-winning filmmaker Vir began her journey as Reader for Nickelodeon and Nuyorican Poets Cafe in NYC. Her screenplay, The Last Weekend, earned her Recipient of the Directing for Women program in Los Angeles, where she transitioned and made her directorial debut. The Last Weekend starring Suzanne Douglas, took "Best Short" at the Pan African Film Festival and was "Nominated" by the African Movie Academy Awards. During this period, a single mother, Arun worked multiple jobs, forging a career as a narrative and digital content producer while writing her stories. In 2016, her screenplay Suburban Turban was voted Nichol' Finalist by the Academy Nicholl. She has written and directed several shorts, including RESET - a story exploring recovery and addiction through the eyes of a mixed-race teen. Arun is a Humanitas New Voices Finalist and Universal Writers on the Verge Semi-Finalist. Stefhen Bryan - writer, playwright, producer Stefhen is the author of the critically acclaimed 'Black Passenger Yellow Cabs: A Memoir of Exile and Excess in Japan' (link), the novel 'Only Begotten' (link), and most recently, the solo play `Doodu Boy' (link), in which he also stars. Doodu Boy has been translated to Japanese for performances in Japan. In his novel 'Only Begotten,' Bryan's tumultuous childhood in Kingston, Jamaica, laid the foundation for his screenplay. `Birdsucker Lane' explores Stefhen's experiences (at age four) of being exposed to Christian cult fundamentalism at a commune led by Bishop Ira Brown. During this period, Stefhen witnessed the beating to death of gay men on two separate occasions. The experience shook him and his memory of those events became the seed for Birdsucker Lane. Gabre Nelson - Consulting Co-Executive Producer A former asylum seeker with roots in Jamaica, where he was born and raised, Gabre forged a new life in the US after his life was threatened by members of his own family. He is a business owner, father, husband and activist living in Florida. Dean Dawkins - Associate Producer Dean is creative by nature. He's made a home for himself on the stage, having been in concert band and choir before settling into theatre. In his six-year educational career, Dean wore many different hats. From light designing, soundboard operation, and stage crew, to production research, writing and directing. https://www.gofundme.com/f/river-mamma-help-us-tell-the-story-of-many?qid=a0516f2d83a2717742c20280a083f813
Black Passenger Yellow Cabs: Of Exile And Excess In Japan
Paperback – August 29, 2008 by Stefhen F. D. Bryan (Author) Black Passenger, Yellow Cabs: A Memoir Of Exile And Excess In Japan provides a gritty, explicit rendering of a life ravaged by sexual addiction in a land little known for such wanton exploits. Born in the Caribbean, Stefhen F.D. Bryan describes in frank detail an abusive childhood from which he emerged with an obsessive lust that would plague him for nearly 40 years. Bryan immigrated to Japan solely to indulge his extreme fixation on East and Southeast Asian women. But rather than merely penning a series of sexual conquests, he interweaves his story with extensive research on the sociology and psychology of women in modern-day Japan, exploring the societal norms that made them easy prey to the sexual deviance he could not control. The memoir describes Bryan's carnal adventures through a cultural lens that touches on interracial relationships, promiscuity, patriarchy and abortion. Included is sex research that one reviewer asserts "would make Kinsey proud." From the dirty streets of a Jamaica that tourists never see to a pastoral Japan, Bryan takes the reader on an eye-opening journey of discovery.
Only Begotten Kindle Edition
by Stefhen Bryan (Author), Carol (Brown Sugar) Taylor (Editor) 'Only Begotten' is a tragic tale of rejection and intolerance in the face of unconditional love. It is the story of a young, ambitious, successful, Jamaican architect in search of his father, who had been excommunicated by his father’s bible toting father. After immigrating with his grandfather to New York, womanizing Nigel Collins embarks on a journey to find his father whom he thought had abandoned him for the US when he was seven. At 27, upon finding his dad, Nigel discovers that not only is he now a woman, but a woman with whom he had had intimate relations some 3 years prior. This devastates him, bringing his successful architecture firm to near collapse and forces him to face his own prejudice and intolerance, the same characteristics he had found repulsive in others, especially his holier than thou, Pastoral grandfather. Throughout the story, Pastor Collins suffers kidney troubles, eventually leading to renal failure, prompting his son (now daughter) Barbara to donate her kidney, at her aunt Portia’s prodding. As a gesture of unconditional love for her father, she agrees to the donation. Post op, Portia, Pastor Collins’ sister, unbeknownst to him arranges a family gathering in his home, in appreciation for Barbara’s donation to her father. Portia opts to keep this gathering a secret from Alvin, as she knows he would object. Seeing his transsexual daughter in his house, Pastor Collins is livid and becomes even venomous after learning that the anonymous donor was his despised transsexual offspring. Pastor Collins is convinced that Nigel was instrumental in arranging the organ transplant from the ‘antichrist.’ Meanwhile Nigel and his mother (father), through therapy and other means, with great effort had been forging a healthy relationship as best they could. In attendance at the gathering is Nicole, Nigel’s fiancée, who is 3 months pregnant. Pastor Collins, still livid by the presence of “the devil” enters his room and slams the door. As Portia and the rest of the family try to console Barbara, Pastor Collins emerges from his room, with alcohol on his breath. Shots ring out in the room and Barbara is fatally hit. A struggle ensues between Nigel and his grandfather. Nicole, Nigel’s pregnant wife to be is hit but not fatally. Police and paramedics rush to the scene, removing Nicole and Pastor Collins - who is reciting the 99th psalm – respectively. The story ends with Nigel visiting his grandfather in jail, where Pastor Collins is convinced the events were the work of the lord, in order to place him behind bars where he can “deliver god’s word where it’s most needed. "The lord works in mysterious ways.” The story opens with Nigel’s recurring nightmare of the brutal, barbaric and fatal burning of a gay man in Jamaica. Nigel then 7 years old, takes in this horrific scene with his grandfather. We later learn that, given Jamaica’s immense homophobia and familial disapproval of Robert Collins’ "tendencies," he married heterosexually, a union which produced Nigel Collins. However, whilst being married he was engaging in an affair with another man, whose fiery grave was orchestrated by Pastor Collins, after accidentally observing his son’s homosexual behavior with his partner. After the torching, Pastor Alvin Collins, a prominent figure in the community, arranges for his only begotten to be whisked off the island by ganja plane to Grand Cayman. Barbara, then Robert, gained political asylum after making her way to the United States. ‘Only Begotten’ is a painful illustrator of the tragedy which can result from all manner of fundamentalism