Boxed

The idea for Boxed came about via chance encounter I had with Karyn Parsons (Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Major Payne) at the 2018 Hollywood Creative Forum. Karyn runs a company Sweet Blackberry that teaches children Black History via animation. The first story they did was Henry Brown's.
I latched onto the idea of telling Henry's story, but as a psychological thriller with the audience in the box with him for the duration of his trip. I thought inside the box.

Sometimes you find the story and sometimes the story finds you. As a director I always want to make a film that is not only very stylized but that sparks conversation, as a person I want my stories to say something about Humanity. While Boxed was sparked by a conversation with Karyn Parsons about Black History, it also very relevant to present day where migrants are being sold as slaves in Libya and the present environment and hostility in the country. The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing.

Very often society forgets that them can very easily become us. I chose to make Boxed the way I did to to remind the audience as they watched and experienced what Henry Box Brown went through, that we are accountable when we stand aside. Whether in the past or the present, if we stand aside we are part of the problem. Boxes and chains can be both physical and mental.

The production of this film was very innovative as the film was shot as a psychological drama with a very diverse cast and crew., MOS (No sound recorded on set), with all voices, ADR and sound recorded and designed in post-production to enable us capture the authenticity of the time period. Our sound design and mix was done by John Cantu who was the trailer editor behind Get Out And Us as well as one of 2 people who came up with the Remix Tethered Version of the song I've got 5 on it, which featured both in the Us trailer and film.