When we wrote the script in early 2014, we had no idea the events that would take place.
We wrote the original script with the intention of telling a story about acceptance. The acceptance of death as a part of life. When one is faced with the most difficult of situations, one should accept their own mortality and make the most positive choices with the moments they have alive. To not make important choices out of fear.
We completed original production on August 8th, 2014 and the next day Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri.
You cannot anticipate, nor ignore events like this. The coincidences were abundant, the original story of the film was way too close to the current affairs, and yet it didn’t really add to the healing process.
The mission for my work is to inspire and empower people through thought-provoking and emotionally powerful filmmaking.
I saw an opportunity, along with my writing partner, to create a film that would both reference the current affairs and at the same time paint a new perspective.
We cut one scene in the middle, wrote two new scenes to take it’s place and wrote a new opening voice over.
We created a new film. A much more powerful film. One to augment the perspective of the viewer. A film to break the traditional media narrative that has been painted around this issue.
So now, with knowing all of this, why did I create this film this final form?
To ask many questions.
To empower the viewer.
To inspire important conversations.
– Michael Marantz