A Cry in the Wilderness

I have always been fascinated by Biblical stories and how it can correlate with what we know about human history. This short story "A Cry in the Wilderness" is the very first screenplay I ever wrote at film school while working towards my MFA. At the time I was told that it would be impossible to shoot given the religious context. I ended up tucking this story away but it never left my mind. For years I continued to study (as a hobby) religious texts and historical documents. Finally, it was the COVID lockdown in Los Angeles where I finally had time to revisit the screenplay and develop a production plan. It was also during that time where several racist events occurred. I was deeply affected by those events, especially being a person of color myself. I started thinking about racial injustice and sparked an idea about how we view our gods/deities/heroes. Why were they all white? Then another thought crossed my mind, Jesus had never been white to me. I had always seen Jesus as a reflection of myself. But then I discovered the world has never seen a serious take of "black Jesus" in film. Why not a black Jesus? Surely Jesus is more black than white? In my research I discovered that he indeed was. With these thoughts in mind, a fire lit my soul. I decided to make this film to challenge those embedded systematic racial issues that caused violence and hurt our communities. My thoughts and the message of this film are of progression. We must progress past racism by accepting it exists. We must acknowledge it and not let it control us. We must defeat it by standing united and resisting any attempt of temptation from those who stand to profit or to gain political power from racial injustice. Finally we must create narratives written and visual where our heroes, gods, and deities are a reflection of different ethnicities and skin colors. It is also my hope that all ages and ethnic backgrounds can enjoy this short epic interpretation of a Biblical event.