Filmmaker, Christopher Everett via his production company Speller Street Films L.L.C., has acquired the film adaptation rights to Dennis Leroy Kangalee’s “Octavia: Elegy for a Vampire,” a story of a vampire struggling with the enduring legacy of colonization, sexism and racism.
“Octavia: Elegy for a Vampire” is about a 150 year-old black vampire whose suicidal urges, a result of the apathy in the world, have prompted her to find someone who will help her die. Part poem, rock opera, a Brechtian play — this is not a traditional horror/vampire genre film, as there is no exploitative nudity or violence. The horror is symbolic and representative of the world’s spiritual paralysis. This is a cubistic portrait of a woman trying to come to terms with the perennial problems of racism, misogyny, apathy, and the startling lack of consciousness in the world. Throughout her spiritual journey, we see various chapters and aspects of her life as an activist, punk rocker, and cleaning woman. This project will be a meditation on colonization and lost love, among the malaise of our times and will be highly experimental, formally, more akin to the work of Bill Gunn and Nicolas Roeg, and will require extremely disciplined and intellectually adventurous participants.
“Octavia: Elegy for a Vampire” is currently in early stages of development. More details will be announced soon!
Director Christopher Everett’s award-winning documentary “Wilmington on Fire” is now available on Vimeo on Demand, so you’re just a few clicks away from streaming it.
“Wilmington on Fire” chronicles the bloody attack on the African-American community by a heavily armed white mob on November 10, 1898 in the port city of Wilmington, North Carolina. It is considered one of the only successful examples of a coup d’état in the United States that left countless numbers of African-American citizens dead and exiled from the city. This violent overthrow was the springboard for the white supremacy movement and Jim Crow segregation throughout the state of North Carolina and the American South.
The documentary features activists, scholars, researchers, historians and direct descendants of the victims of the 1898 massacre including Dr. Umar Johnson, Professor William Darity Jr., Queen Quet, Larry Reni Thomas, Dr. Lewin Manly, Faye Chaplin, Kent Chatfield, LeRae Umfleet, Sonya Patrick and Daawud Muhammad.
The films is also available on DVD at www.spellerstreetfilms.bigcartel.com for those who’d rather own a physical copy.
Watch the trailer for “Wilmington on Fire” below, and follow the link within the player to head to Vimeo’s on demand page to watch the film.
