It should not come as a surprise that we get inundated
with filmmaker requests to post fundraising campaigns for film projects they’re developing.

After a while they all seem to start to look and sound alike, unless there’s
a name attached to it that gets our attention, like Spike Lee
(and let’s face it, it was because of his fame that his recent Kickstarter campaign was so successful), or, what’s even better, if
the project itself is an interesting and intriguing one.

And fortunately, that’s very much the case here, with the feature film The Repass, by writer, producer and director Rae Shaw, starring Marie-Françoise Theodore
and Donzaleigh Abernathy.

A former student at the University of Chicago, who did her graduate work at U Miami, Ms. Shaw worked in the film industry as an assistant
on the executive side, before moving to
strike out on her own, forming a production company called Wicked Lovely Films in
2008, and made her first short film Soap and Roses.

She describes Repass as “a surreal fairy tale of a young Creole girl who
loses her brother in Hurricane Katrina, and she uses Haitian spirits &
dance to find him.“

But she says by using the term “fairy tale” it doesn’t mean
some simplistic fantasy aimed at children.

As she says: “Fairy tales don’t all have happy endings,
despite the stories Disney tells us; they have complicated endings that teach
us something real about living. What I love about the Grimm tales is that they
drive home with frightening urgency the importance of living a true and good
life. As a child who has lived through her own dark fairy tale, I wrote Repass
to tell a story of hope and healing for the international community.“

As for Ms. Theodore, who is of Haitian descent, Repass is
more personal. As she notes: “As an actress my goal as well as fellow
African American woman filmmakers, is to tell stories from a perspective that
Is not normally seen in our industry. When Rae gave me the script of The Repass
to read initially  I was skeptical. I
have seen one too many movies that explored Haitian culture in general, and the
Voodoo religion in particular, in a less than favorable (or downright
despicable) light.”

However she
changed her mind once she read the script, adding: “I
was more than pleasantly surprised and delighted to find nuanced and complex characters
in a haunting story that defies traditional approaches to movies about modern
day Haiti and Haitians…That resonates with me as personally. I Had to hide
Haitian while I was growing up in Chicago in order to survive and did not fully
come to terms with my identity until I was up to an adult. In fact, my
‘identity’ is still a work in progress! Being a dancer as well as actor, my
path has-been to explore and train in Haitian ritual dance all which is a big
portion of the film. Now when someone Asks me “What are you?” (which
happens all the time), instead of being offended or fearful of attack, I
answer: “I’m Haitian, African American raised”. It’s always exciting for an actor
to get to play someone who is raw, vulnerable and emotionally naked. For me,
it’s a sacred act of serving in the community. As a Haitian African American
actor roles that fit the bill can be few and far between.”

Sounds like a worthwhile film doesn’t it?

A fundraising campaign to raise $10,000 to help bring Repass to life has been launched through crowdfunding site Razoo (which is
new to me, I admit). With 6 days left in the campaign, and just over $2100 raised, your contributions have obviously become even more crucial. So to contribute, go HERE. 

And for the The Repass website, where you can learn more about the project, go HERE.

Below is a short video with Ms. Theodore talking more
about the project and herself: