Hello! For those of you who don’t know, my name is Amira Hasib and I am a senior Film/Video major at Pratt Institute. I am current looking to film my senior thesis project, but I need your help! In order to bring this project, this idea I’ve had since high school, to life, I need to raise $3,150! This money will go to set design, costume design, art direction, securing locations, transportation, and feeding the cast! Everyone is working for free and donating their time so it is only right for this project to come to life the way I see it in my head.
Young, black and supernaturally gifted, Nightwatcher is the story of Leila, who at the age of 7, accidentally discovers she has the super natural ability to teleport when she is being bullied by classmates. Leila then realizes that this power only emerges when she feels she is in extreme danger and/or under extreme stress.
It isn’t until 14 years later, that Leila’s power reemerges when her best friend, Lance, falls victim to a racially motivated assault. After this event, Leila then has to choose whether or not she accepts this power and who she is along with it.
I wanted to write and direct a story about someone who defies the standard conventions of what is acceptable. I wanted a hero that had every right to be a hero–someone who has always been persecuted, outcasted, and scorned simply for existing. I wanted a black girl to be my superhero because as black women, we are everything society rejects –female, and black– versus being white, and male.
Black women have always been the pioneers of social revolution and its about time we start being depicted as the super heroes that we are. That is my goal with this film as well as all media I produce–black women deserve to be nuanced, we deserve to be depicted in ways that are true and authentic versus stereotypical and one dimensional.
A glimpse of what’s in store…
Below (which is also on the Kickstarter page) is a test shoot I did of Nightwatcher two years ago. I’ve always wnated the main character to be a woman, this is just a take on the cinematographic style and narrative I wanted to test out.
So, all in all, we have 30 days to raise $3,150! I hope you all can help me get this film made! All prizes and further details are on the Kickstarter page!
If you can’t donate, please reblog!
