"fried chicken or mayonnaise?" - a short film
Donation protected
Hey potential funder!!
My name is Bogui and I am the writer and director of the boundary-pushing, soon-to-enter-production, dark comedy short film, “Fried Chicken or Mayonnaise?”
The film is about Michael, a mixed-race boy, who must explore his vague racial identity while trying to make friends at a new middle school. After a series of frustrating attempts, the absurd relationship between personal identity and the expectations of others drives him insane.
As the son of an African man from the Ivory Coast and a White American woman from Washington State, my identity has always felt unstable. My experience trying to conform to stereotypes of Black American culture only complicated the matter. I wrote this short film in an attempt to depict the peer, familial and social pressures I felt growing up as a mixed-race person. My goal is to tell a story from the perspective of someone growing up sandwiched between two cultures, each with their unique expectations of behavior and mindset. For someone caught in the middle, conforming to either one can seem impossible.
In order to realize my vision, I will need approximately $15,000, but from you I ask only for whatever you can afford should you decide to contribute to this project, whether that’s the whole $15k, $2, or anything in between. Once completed, the film will run between 10 and 15 minutes in length. The money will go toward paying for locations, cast, crew and equipment for 3 days of shooting in the first half of July.
Even though the story is told from the perspective of a mixed-race boy, I believe people from every ethnic background, mixed or otherwise, will identify with its message about individual identity and its rejection of the “boxes” in which so many of us are put. One of the most significant things we have in common with each other is that we are all products of environments and experiences that we have no control over, which nonetheless shape us as fundamentally individual. The story I hope to tell in “Fried Chicken or Mayonnaise?” will explore and attempt to explain this universal truth.
I hope you consider contributing a donation so we can make this important story heard!
---
Now that we've reached over $1,000 in donations, this is starting to feel real!
Like REALLY real.
There's still a lot of work to be done but as of right now I'm aiming to shoot for 2 or 3 days over the weekend of July 8. Casting is well underway, locations are being scouted, crew is coming together, and I hope you're all as excited to see this thing come to fruition as I am.
And if you're as impatient as I am, feel free to revisit some of my older work in the meantime!!
Racist Popcorn (OG)
Sincerely,
Bogui
Organizer
Bogui Adjorlolo
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA