Private Project

WHAT CAME AFTER

At the sunrise of her emerging Queer identity a young girl must contend with her mother's rape and her grandmother's religious righteousness. She wonders who does Jesus save?

  • Tonya Pinkins
    Director
    Lighthouse Lilly
  • Tonya Pinkins
    Writer
  • Christopher Oscar Pena
    Writer
    Jane The Virgin
  • Tonya Pinkins
    Producer
  • Carmen Lobue
    Key Cast
  • Treshelle Edmond
    Key Cast
  • Socorro Santiago
    Key Cast
  • Veracity Butcher
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    drama, lgbtq, black, latino, muslim, deaf
  • Runtime:
    17 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    October 8, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Shooting Format:
    dslr
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Tonya Pinkins

TONYA PINKINS is a Chicago native artist based in Manhattan, She recently shadowed Melanie Mayron directing FAMOUS IN LOVE on the Warner Bros lot and Nick Copus on GOTHAM. Her Short Film, WHAT CAME AFTER premiered at The New York Short Festival in 2016 and was an official selection in 2017 Sociopolitical Short Festival, Artemis Women in Action Film Festival, National Black Film Festival Houston, Equality Film Festival, Blow-Up International Arthouse Festival Chicago, Women in Media Newark, Women’s Only Entertainment Film Festival, Queens World Film festival, New Filmmakers New York Festival and WIM-Ns Women’s Film Festival. She adapted the film from the play she directed at Artistic New Directions Eclectic Festival in 2016. She recently directed a staged reading of WE’LL MEET AGAIN by Glory Kadigan for The LaMama Umbria Festival and worked on the development of TO LOVE SOMEBODY by Jonell Lennon at Manhattan Repertory Theater. She directed RESISTANCE by Regina Taylor for Planet Connections. Tonya has been working with writer Blaine Teamer to direct and develop his #BOXSEATS: A LosAngeles Story directing readings at THE LA LGBTQAI Center in Los Angeles, New York Theater Workshop and The National Black Theater in Harlem. She directed EXIT AN ILLUSION by Marita Bonner at The America Bard Theater 2017. She directed A VISIT HOME by Jeffrey Sweet in The Eclectic Festival 2013. Tonya Larry Powell’s EASY TO LOVE in the Fire This Time Festival 2015. FOR COLORED BOYS by Jesse Alick in 48 Hours in Harlem. She directed the staged reading of THE GREEN BOOK WINE TRAIN AND TRAVEL TOUR by Michelle T Johnson at the National Black theater. She directed: “Miss Roj” from THE COLORED MUSEUM for Project One Voice at The Kumble Theater, COMMITTED The MUSICAL by Jerome Brooks Jr a winner of The Emerging Artist’s Theater Festival, a staged reading of THE FIRST TIME by Tracey Conyer Lee at Urban Stages, V-Day the VAGINA MONOLOGUES at The World Health Ministry Conference in San Miguel De Allende Mexico. THE KLUCKING OF HENS by Carol Lockwood  at New Professional Theater, Camille Darby's LORD’S RESISTANCE at. Sanctuary NYC  and at The National Black Theater Festival in Winston Salem, DEAD PEOPLE’S THINGS by Patricia Ione Lloyd at Red Circle Rising and the short films LIGHTHOUSE LILI for Ripfest and TONYA PINKINS RAP ROAST DISS on YOUTUBE. Next up, Tonya will devise and direct THE 6:01PM PROJECT with Project One Voice in commemoration of the death of Martin Luther King on April 4, 2018. The piece will include multiple disciplines at the center of which are a series of scenes written by Tonya and other writers on Truth and Reconciliation Between Womyn. After that Tonya is directing BRING IT ON The Musical for Black Spectrum Theater, the oldest continuously running Black theater in New York. Tonya will direct a development workshop of THE RIVER IS ME : an Emmet Till Musical by Sukari Jones and Troy Burton at The Musical Theater Factory. She will then shadow Charlotte Brandstrom on MADAM SECRETARY in March 2018 and then on QUEEN SUGAR in July 2018. During her two year Film Certificate program at Los Angeles Community College Tonya wrote and directed the short NAKED LUNCH starring Wendell Pierce and THE BICYCLE starring Loretta Devine and Jim Pickens. The Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle and Lucile Lortel Award awards are a sample of Tonya’s many accolades as an actor. She teaches privately and at The Atlantic Theater School’s NYU program. She has conducted master classes at Yale, ACT, Rutgers, University of Texas at Austin, University of Kentucky at Louisville, Pace University, ACT, University of San Diego, TVI Los Angeles,The New School , Rutgers at The Old Globe in London and The American School in Beirut. Tonya is a former LAUSD middle school instructor in art history, drawing and [painting. She is the author of GET OVER YOURSELF: How to Drop The Drama and Claim The Life You Deserve (Hyperion Books). She has essays in FORTY THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU TURN FORTY and FIRED: TALES of the CANNED, CANCELLED DOWNSIZED and DISMISSED. Tonya has written many plays and screen plays. She spent two years in the ABC Writer Development program. She has given lectures and Concerts all over the world , from The 1995 World Women’s Conference in Beijing to Carnegie Hall with Earth Kitt for the JVC Jazz Festival. Tonya also had the privilege of singing at The White House for the Obamas. Tonya spent two years facilitating at The Breaking The Silence Summer Camp with The African American Policy Forum at Vassar, She actively supports #SayHerName ,The Movement For Black Lives and TimesUp,

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Director Statement

My earliest memory is of my mother reading a book to me about where babies came from. I began to read to myself by age four and read To Kill a Mockingbird at age six. This inspired me to write on my grandmother’s typewriter, a novel about a reunion with my small class of elementary school friends thirty years into the future. My fourth grade teacher Mrs. Ford caught my class mates reading excerpts and took the only copy and stood before the class, ripped it to pieces, and threw it into the large gray trash bin. That ended my writing ambitions and set me on the path as an actress.
My first professional acting teachers were Steven Schachter and Bill Macy at the St Nicholas Theater company. In Chicago at that time I was privileged to witness the Steppenwolf Theater company, The Organic and Victory Gardens. My professional career as a theater artist began at The Goodman Theater in the world premiere of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman directed by Gregory Mosher.
For the next forty years I have had the opportunity to develop new plays with the finest writers and directors of my time, some of whom include Michael Mayer, Tony Kushner, Steven Sondheim, George Furth, Arthur Miller, Harold Prince, George C, Wolfe, Joe Mantello, James Lecesne, Eve Ensler, Arthur Laurents, James Lapine, Daniel Sullivan, David Esbjornson, Rebecca Taichman, Kirsten Greenidge, Katori Hall, Rupert Holmes, Sheldon Epps, Cheryl West, Jim Lewis, Martin Charnin, Richard Maltby, Patricia McGregor, Colman Domingo, Michael John LaChuisa, Graciela Daniel, David Galligan, Diane Rodriguez, Larry Kramer, August Wilson, Lloyd Richards, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, John Patrick Shanley, Kenny Leon, Tony Goldwyn and Richard LaGravenese.
I have always been fascinated with story. Story will trump fact every time. I have absorbed a plethora from the many brilliant individuals I had the privilege to collaborate with. I know story. I know acting. I love helping writers see the fullest potential of their story through dramaturgy, design and performance.
After forty years in the industry, the vessel that is actor is not large enough to contain the wisdom and experience I have accumulated over my lifetime.
I long to see stories about the 300,000 years of history before the Judeo, Christian, Islamic mores. I long to see stories that rebuild womyn’s injured instinct and which explore the intersection of instinct, intuition and knowing. I happen to love horror and thrillers. My own writing intersects the thrill of fear that horror excites with strong female characters and social and environmental justice.
Directing in television presents the opportunity to continue to learn and grow in areas beyond my current experience. My experience has given me the vision and leadership skills to handle actors on a set. I want this fellowship to give me the opportunity to test what I think I know and to learn what I don’t know that I don’t know.