Blavity TV loves the finer things in life, like truffle sauce!

Shannan E. Johnson’s short film Truffle Sauce has hit the Blavity TV airwaves. Johnson and director Isaac Yowman talked about about what it’s like to bring the story, starring Simone Haines as a struggling tattoo artist who decides to sell the eponymous sauce to make a buck, to life.

Johnson said that she’s motivated to write about the emotional worlds of people of color, particularly Black women.

“I like to write about people of color and the trauma that they have and how it presents itself when that trauma is unhealed,’ she said. “Because of that, Black women in particular get a bad rap [for being]…an angry Black woman when really what you’re seeing is anger, but what’s really happening inside is fear, or lack of safety or even depression.”

Johnson, who also runs The Professional Pen, the first black-owned script consultant agency helping writers take make their ideas ready for the screen, said that she’s hoping that her creative work gives viewers a chance to see the inner workings of women’s lives.

“Even though women may coming from different places, different backgrounds, we all have this one place where we can align and hopefully you can see that with Tweet’s journey and how she interacts with the store clerk [played by Julie Fontenot].”

Isaac Yowman, the director of Truffle Sauce, said he’s “excited” to have the film “out into the world” for viewers to see.

“It is an amazing story, but not just the story on camera, it’s the stories behind the camera,” he said, “The women who helped put this film production together…Black women [are] melanated magic.”

Yowman described how Black women are a “double-minority” in the entertainment industry. He said he’s happy to be a part of a project that helps uplift Black women’s stories.

For me, as a young Black man, [to] help uplift their stories, elevate their visions and help bring their stories to life in such a beautiful way, make them glow on camera but also tap into some of their deepest darkest traumas and to articulate that on camera, it’s an honor for me,” he said. “I’m privileged to be a part of this project. I hope people leave watching this piece more compelled and more aware than before they sat down and watched it.”

Haines stars as Tweet, a tattoo artist who has lingering debt. While she wants to get her life on the road, she has to take care of her tuition costs, which leads to seeing truffle sauce. According to the official description:

Tweet, a tattoo artist, keeps letting life get in the way. If she’s supposed to turn right, she turns left like a fiend with an addiction to making bad decisions. Her grandparents have struck a deal with her. Graduate from community college = Get a tattoo shop and start a new life. But, she needs to pay one more tuition bill in order to walk across the stage. So, she’s selling truffle sauce-of all things-as her first step in the right direction. That is until a customer arrives leaving her fighting for her independence from her traumatic past in order to choose her own future.

Stream Truffle Sauce on Blavity TV now.

Shannan E. Johnson

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