Private Project

Conspiracy Theorist Prologue

Renee Hawthorne is a psychology doctoral candidate when her life is derailed by a psychotic breakdown that leaves her hearing personifications of her compartmentalized identity.

Conspiracy Theorist is a sobering take on black girl magic—cosmic surrealism breaks from a [cold] clinical frame of psychotic delusion. The story honors Chicago’s post­modern-queer underground by engaging phenomenological sources from ethnographic lived experience. Teetering a thin line between reality and fiction, Conspiracy Theorist blurs the fabric of a clouded positive reality via the pseudo-documentary of Renee Hawthorne.

  • Kelechi Agwuncha
    Director
    Super Predator (TIFF select)
  • Rebba Amaris
    Director
  • Rebba Amaris
    Writer
  • Rebba Amaris
    Producer
  • KB Woodson
    Producer
    Damaged Goods (Vam Studios, Writer)
  • Kelechi Agwuncha
    Producer
  • Rebba Amaris
    Key Cast
    "Renee"
  • Terri Hudson
    Key Cast
    "Jaqueline (Therapist)"
    Demented Features
  • Alex Ireys
    Key Cast
    "Doctoral Candidate"
    An Ideal Husband
  • Ama Chi
    Key Cast
    "Tiara "
  • Zakkiyyah Najeebah
    Key Cast
    "Layla"
  • Marcus Aubin
    Editors
    Brujos
  • Rebba A. Moore (2nd Editor)
    Editors
  • RP Boo
    Music by
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Web / New Media
  • Genres:
    Drama, Dark Comedy
  • Runtime:
    17 minutes 43 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 27, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    10,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • DCASE Individual Artist Program
    Chicago, IL
    United States
    DCASE IAP (production grant)
  • Comfort Station Film
    Chicago, IL
    United States
    June 10, 2019
    Pre-Screening & Public Workshop
  • OTV Cycle 4 Premiere @ Reunion Chicago
    Chicago, IL
    United States
    June 13, 2019
    OTV Premiere
  • The Silver Room Block Party Film Fest (Cinema 53 & Gray Center for Arts & Inquiry)
    Chicago, IL
    United States
    July 20, 2019
    The Bigger Picture: Chicago Black Media Showcase @ Harper Theater
  • Avant Edge Film Festival
    Chicago
    United States
    November 2, 2019
    Best Local Film
Distribution Information
  • Open Television (non-exclusive)
    Distributor
    Country: United States
    Rights: Internet, Free TV
Director Biography - Kelechi Agwuncha, Rebba Amaris

Kelechi is a Chicago-born filmmaker passionate to illustrate stories and document narratives that the expose the fundamental differences of marginalized individuals through an enchanting point of view. Her films have voyaged through PBS, TIFF, and Black International Cinema Berlin. She is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Visual Arts at UC San Diego.

Rebba Amaris is an aspiring writer and educator living in Chicago’s historic Hyde Park. She graduated from the University of Chicago (MA ’15) and Rice University (BA, ’12), and is just completed her first short, a conceptual Prologue for an Open Television original, Conspiracy Theorist. Rebba participated in OTV's Spring 2017 writing workshop. Holding space at OTV has allowed her to develop a defiant voice and quiet romanticism thru curative praxis, a restorative scalpel and salve that rekindles what passivity pushed from purview.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

KA: Since exploring film Kelechi has grown passionate for telling stories that focus on marginalized individuals with an enchanting point of view. Kelechi looks forward to further encapsulate this experience within Conspiracy Theorist to expose the fundamental differences of the human experience in regards to mental health.

RA: In her independent praxis as an emerging-queer filmmaker seeking imaginative self-determination—Rebba writes from a dissenting space that questions harmonious narratives of a colorblind present. She believes the black radical imagination is expansive and varied. Conspiracy Theorist seeks to illuminate one story within a contemporary black blur. Her work directly interrogates the intersections of collective & individual healing, as she navigates her position within post-modernity as an experimental artist in play & writer by medium.