Experiencing Interruptions?

Appetizer

A young woman struggling with heartbreak following a recent breakup finds the courage to go on her first date in months, only to learn that her newfound love interest has been holding on to a date-shattering secret.

  • Ayanda Chisholm
    Director
    Black Beauty in the White Gaze, The Young, Black, and Gifted
  • Tamara S. Hall
    Writer
    A Night at the Table, Yes, Mr. JayV, Juju
  • Tamara S. Hall
    Producer
    A Night at the Table, Yes, Mr. JayV, Juju
  • Tamara S. Hall
    Key Cast
    "Charley"
    A Night at the Table, Yes, Mr. JayV, Juju
  • Malcolm A. Chavis
    Key Cast
    "Elijah"
    Blue Bloods
  • Maurita Salkey
    Key Cast
    "Nicole"
  • Monica Henry
    Key Cast
    "Waitress"
  • Latresa Baker
    Key Cast
    "Curator"
    Sanctuary, It's Normal, Arm Bar
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Genres:
    Romantic Comedy
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 18 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 1, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    3,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Hollywood South Urban Film Festival
    Atlanta, Georgia
    United States
    August 17, 2019
    Atlanta Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival
    Cleveland, Ohio
    United States
    September 15, 2019
    Ohio Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Las Vegas International Film and Screenwriting Competition
    Las Vegas, Nevada
    United States
    N/A
    Official Selection
  • Independent Shorts Awards (ISA)

    United States
    N/A
    Bronze Award: Best Romantic Short
Director Biography - Ayanda Chisholm

Ayanda Chisholm is an independent filmmaker with roots in Toronto, Ontario. While growing up in Seattle, Washington, she experimented in the arts and fell in love with social justice work, often marrying the two passions for political protest and expression. She and her fellow Black Student Union members were each awarded the Rising Human Rights Activist award by the Seattle Human Rights Commission in 2014 for their resistance work against state-sanctioned violence.

Ayanda made her directorial debut at 16 with "Black Beauty in the White Gaze," which earned her the Adobe Youth Voices Scholarship and was screened at The Future Is Feminist Film Festival as well as the Princeton Independent Film Festival among others.

At the Digital Film Academy, Ayanda studied the technical skills of filmmaking from pre to post production. During her enrollment, she produced her web series, "The Young, Black, and Gifted."

Currently, Ayanda is a teaching artist for Reel Grrls and in the process of building "Blvck to the Future," a film program for Black South African female identifying and gender nonconforming youth. As she progresses, Ayanda looks forward to a lifetime of both community and culture work.

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Director Statement

"Working on 'Appetizer' was a breath of fresh air for me. I live to illustrate stories that humanize and individualize young Black women on screen, where they are breathing and bursting forth, mounting the stumbling blocks of existence we face outside the context of trauma porn. In narratives like these, we often see the nuances of romance and the quiet, but thunderous, transformative nature of love in action."