About the Film: In the middle of the pandemic, Tyrese Allyene-Davis a disabled Black youth, celebrated his 21st birthday isolated in his NYU dorm room. Bound by his wheelchair and a brick wall facing window, his thoughts began sinking into spaces of despair following the murder of George Floyd. A few months later he watches the documentary film “I Am Not Your Negro” by Raoul Peck and is moved beyond tears by the power of James Baldwin's words. With no one to talk with, Tyrese pours his visceral feelings into an audio-only Facebook post, leaving his followers to question his state of mind, and the images behind his words. Having always been presented as the poster boy for disability excellence, it was the first time acknowledging himself as a Black disabled man took on a different life.

About the Filmmaker: Adetoro Makinde is an award-winning, first-generation Nigerian-American filmmaker. A graduate of Georgetown University and Duke Ellington School of the Arts, she launched her company Backdoor Films and its social impact subsidiary, Hyphenate Africa, having produced and/or directed multiple film premieres at the Sundance Film Festival. Her portfolio of diverse projects spans from Golden Globe-nominated The Tale to social impact-focused narratives The Boy who Harnessed the Windand documentaries (Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski) with HBO, Participant Media, Netflix, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way, respectively. She’s in pre-production on a Hurricane Katrina biopic, The American Can, previously optioned by Sony Entertainment to star Will Smith, and was recently named as a “Producer To Watch” by IMDbPro.

www.BackdoorFilms.com